4 ms·

I'ld much rather be IM'ed or emailed than called or paged. If I am called, the phone rings or the pager beeps, and I have little choice but to interrupt my work

I'ld much rather be IM'ed or emailed than called or paged. If I am called, the phone rings or the pager beeps, and I have little choice but to interrupt my work. My slack client, on the other hand sits in the system tray, silently displaying a little blue or red dot. I can open chat when I feel like it, or ignore it until such a time when I am not concentrating on something else. Asynchronous communication is empowering: You can choose when you communicate and when you want to concentrate. Synchronous communication does not afford you that luxury.

TeMPOraL 9y ago
The problem is, chats are being interpreted as synchronous - you are expected to be available and to reply in real-time.
- rowyourboat 9y ago
  I found that to be a problem of organizational culture, not of chat itself. In my experience, if it was culturally fine to interrupt other people's work, quick answers were expected via chat, too. If it was the organization's culture to let people work without unscheduled interruptions, that extended to the expectations around chat, too.
  - TeMPOraL 9y ago
    Indeed. However, chat facilitates this particular kind of organizational dysfunction much more than e-mail; that's probably why people pin the problem on chats.
geofft 9y ago
Why is using Slack in this workflow superior to using email? I also know if I have unread emails via the tray icon or mobile app badge, same as with Slack. Is it just that short frequent messages in email feel weird?
- rowyourboat 9y ago
  That, the superior handling of short-message group conversations and the fact that the number of people who could email me is vastly greater than my team members on slack. As such, I tend to check slack relatively frequently, while I check my emails only twice a day - I do not have push notifications enabled for email. Basically, slack means a usually-within-2-hours response time, while email means same-or-next-workday response time.

TeMPOraL 9y ago

The problem is, chats are being interpreted as synchronous - you are expected to be available and to reply in real-time.

rowyourboat 9y ago
I found that to be a problem of organizational culture, not of chat itself. In my experience, if it was culturally fine to interrupt other people's work, quick answers were expected via chat, too. If it was the organization's culture to let people work without unscheduled interruptions, that extended to the expectations around chat, too.
- TeMPOraL 9y ago
  Indeed. However, chat facilitates this particular kind of organizational dysfunction much more than e-mail; that's probably why people pin the problem on chats.

geofft 9y ago

Why is using Slack in this workflow superior to using email? I also know if I have unread emails via the tray icon or mobile app badge, same as with Slack. Is it just that short frequent messages in email feel weird?

rowyourboat 9y ago
That, the superior handling of short-message group conversations and the fact that the number of people who could email me is vastly greater than my team members on slack. As such, I tend to check slack relatively frequently, while I check my emails only twice a day - I do not have push notifications enabled for email. Basically, slack means a usually-within-2-hours response time, while email means same-or-next-workday response time.