Comment by codingdave 2 days ago
> It’s a boomer tendency.
wat. No, it isn't. I see it almost 100% from young people who live in India. And that probably isn't the right criteria either - it is probably different people within each organization. This is a cultural thing, not generational.
It definitely is cultural, but I've never viewed it from the perspective of getting straight to business being rude. A bit like in the UK, "weather chat" is a very standard point of conversation at the start of a meeting with people you aren't too familiar with, as a reflexive ice breaker.
For me personally, whilst I understand all the reasoning and logic behind it, it does ultimately come across as fake and unnecessary - everyone knows it's fake and unnecessary, but we ritualistically do it anyway, because the alternative is too jarring "we're here for work, lets do the work, and we're done"
Exactly. I just reply back when I'm ready. Forcing them into our cultural habits shows a complete misunderstanding and lack of respect of other people. Even better, I like to get my teams to talk about communication early on in projects, so everyone understands how people want to communicate over messaging, expectations on response times, etc. A 15 minute meeting can resolve so many annoyances.
Not just Indian teens, but Indians in general. Whenever my India based colleague reaches out they always starts the conversation with “hello <first name>”, and then nothing else. If I leave them on read and their patience times out, they’ll then call, irregardless of your status.
Boomers never talk like that.
I am in no way qualified on this, but my assumption was that this comes from cultures that consider getting straight to business rude.
So while I do find it annoying, I also try to be polite back and I certainly won't be putting some "No Hello" link.
If it is a cultural thing and coming from a place of politeness, then I'll engage in a quick round of pleasantries. Once people are familiar, I've noticed this stops.