Did You Check My IM Status ?

For those who may not be familiar with the terminology, when I say "IM" in this blog post title, I am referring to "Instant Messenger" technology.  At work this is provided through Microsoft Lync and is connected to our Outlook mail system.

Now with that background, allow me to explain my use of this title question countless times throughout the day.

About half of my team works from home pretty much 100% of their time.  These individuals are not seen in the office except for a few times each year, as needed for training or other on-site only events.  Out of consideration for these individuals, I have adopted the habit of providing updates on my status in the office through my IM or Lync system.

What started as a method to keep them informed, has turned into an effective system whereby I can keep anyone informed of my "availability" to meet with them.  For most people this has proven to be a very useful tool.  Colleagues, my boss, and others in general can just scroll over my name in Lync and see if my status is "Busy" or if I am "Away" or actually (rarely) "Available" at that moment.  I also include a short description of the situation, so people can gauge how long I might be "Busy" for.

That said ... there is a contingency of people who always seem surprised when I do not immediately reply to their IM chats or perhaps do not pick up the phone when they call.  And when we finally do chat, I always start with the blog post title question.

Now I do NOT expect people to check my status every moment of the day, but I DO think you should check it before you get bothered or frustrated with ME for not replying to you quickly enough.

Am I being unreasonable here?

Song Of the Day:
'Oh you never know what you'll find when you open up your "Letterbox" tomorrow.'  This is the opening line in this song by They Might Be Giants and it makes me think about how you have to actually use the letterbox and actually READ the letters you receive, or you'll never get the messages being sent to you.  Just like people need to check my status before just expecting me to be available at that moment.

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