“Brother Lekan, I notice you never greet me anymore lately when you send me messages even if we haven’t spoken for some time.”
The above response to a reply to a request from a colleague came to me as a shock.
She had asked for a number on a document I had sent to her some time ago which she couldn’t find.
I immediately sent her the document while ending an online meeting and typed out the number separately.
She thanked me for sending the details but added the message about my not greeting her as I used to do.
I had to check the message I sent to her and two previous ones to confirm her complaint. She was right and I had to apologize.
“Apologies. I was at a meeting and trying to respond immediately. It’s not deliberate. I hardly respond to messages without greetings. I promise not to do so again.”
I was not conscious of her complaint until she drew my attention to it. There are things we do unconsciously online without knowing we are hurting others which we need to watch out for.
Online engagements should not make us not to acknowledge or greet people in the way we should. We must retain the human touch in our communication which is a combination of what we do and don’t do.
Meanings can be read to not responding to the message as early as we should even if we didn’t see it or forgot to respond.
People who engage with our messages and posts would not understand why we don’t engage with theirs even if we have reasons to be offline when they shared theirs.
It’s better to consciously look out for messages or posts of people who are our cheerleaders to reciprocate their good gestures.
Remember that people expect we will engage with their posts the way we do with those of others. When we write long messages and prayers on the birthday of some and simply say “happy birthday” to others, there is a feeling of not being appreciated by those who feel under-appreciated.
I once casually greeted someone with “Morning” and she asked “What about the morning” I quickly realized I should have written “Good morning.”
Beware of hurting people you don’t intend to hurt with your online “manners”.
