4 ms·
Yes, in the same way that we have lost the ability to imagine a workplace without email or phones. Once you give people an efficient means of communication, it
by dpark 9y ago
Yes, in the same way that we have lost the ability to imagine a workplace without email or phones. Once you give people an efficient means of communication, it doesn't really go away. Skype for Business and its predecessors have been around for 10 years. I know Yahoo used IM internally for much longer than that and I'm sure many other companies did as well.
I actually don't think that IM is a net positive for me. The channel support in Slack/Teams/Stride is.
- pmlnr 9y ago> I actually don't think that IM is a net positive for me. The channel support in Slack/Teams/Stride is. Yep. No problems with dedicated phone number, dedicated im address, dedicated email, etc. Group chats, group discussions, mailing lists, git commit messages, wiki edits, etc - those are the ones that can be very hard to follow, especially if you're involved in many.
- ams6110 9y agoAt my workplace I have no phone and no IM. I can be contacted in person or by email (which I check about 3x/day). Works pretty well.
- emodendroket 9y agoIM has to be proactively set up by the organization so it would indeed "go away" if you just didn't have it. And it's less than clear to me that the ease of interrupting someone to send them a message should have such a high priority.
- dpark 9y agoEverything has to be proactively set up. Phones and email don't set themselves up either. If employees want it and the company doesn't provide it, they'll do it themselves, which is part of Slack's core business model.
- emodendroket 9y agoThey are also different in the sense that they are also useful for outside communication in a way IM isn't really.
- dpark 9y agoSure, but most employees who have a phone and email never use them to communicate outside the company (at least not in any business capacity).