Chris Fenning shows how to start a work conversation by asking if someone has time to talk. He explains why checking first is polite, suggests how to phrase the question, and recommends specifying how long you need.
How to start a work conversation, tip number 7: ask if the other person has time. When we start talking, we tend to assume that we've stopped someone in the corridor, or we've gone to meet them at their desk, we might assume that they have time to talk, simply because they've acknowledged that we're there and have started a conversation. Whereas in fact, they might have something else to do. They might only have a minute available. And if your conversation is going to take 5 or 10 minutes, You need to ask them if they have time to talk to you, and you need to say how much time that conversation is going to take. If you don't do this, you might trap somebody in a conversation when they need to be somewhere else and they feel like it's rude to leave. Your conversation might be cut off partway through. You might also just start talking and irritate the other person, and that's not great for your reputation. So how do you do this? How do you ask for time to check that they've got the time when you start your conversation? Well, in the first few lines of your message, say something like, hi, do you have 5 minutes to talk about this topic? Or, hi, I'd like to talk to you about topic 1, 2, 3. Do you have 3 or 4 minutes to do that now? Asking a question to see if they have the time is polite, and it also helps you get their full attention, because if they say yes, it means they've thought about the time that they're willing to put into your conversation. And, if they focus better, you'll have a better conversation. So, if you want to have a better work conversation, ask people if they have the time to talk.
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