Internet is Beautiful

Hello.

I am now mad at you. /s

This is fair, though the reason we do it is to make sure the other person is okay enough to answer the question or talk about the thing first and if not we would want to help them out or take that into consideration.

Just asking the question feels rude or dismissive if they aren't doing well.

Well by including the hi they have to provide a response rather than put it on hold for a few hours.

Isn’t this very context dependent?

For a small question it makes the most sense to just ask but often in work question can be much more complex. And the pre question or hello is pretty much: “Do you have a few minutes of time to read about and discuss this issue”

I have a colleague who just drops a wall of text on me. With varying levels of work-related/importancy and i find it very annoying depending on what i am doing.

Also if i contact someone who i know is very busy id like to know if they have time available to chat or call about x.

I am neurodivergent though, i am used to bigger chats because i hate calling and phone calls without heads up really bother me. It seems so pretentious to just on a whim go “STOP WHAT YOUR DOING AND HEAR ME”