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This article is great because it puts into words the relationship I've had with Slack since the beginning of my career. I've been working professionally for 4 y

This article is great because it puts into words the relationship I've had with Slack since the beginning of my career. I've been working professionally for 4 years and I cannot remember a single time where I thought "I'm so glad we have Slack". Don't get me wrong, I think the platform itself is a great interpretation of IM, but IM is the absolute last thing I want to use in a work environment. One of the reasons I didn't work out on my first remote job is because I refused to treat Slacks red icon as my #1 priority in the world. Coworker needs my attention immediately? Call me. Is calling too much of a hassle? Then it's probably not as urgent as you think. I understand it's very arrogant of me but I cannot bear the thought of losing all of my focus to answer a question that was really not that immediate. It sure doesn't help that people think they need to greet me and wait for a response before they actually say what they want to say. I'm working at a new place now and we've gotten so good at asynchronous collaboration that I haven't exchanged a single message on Slack with one of my coworkers since they joined the team. All of our talks are done through Github and our weekly meeting on Friday where we plan the next week and spend an hour or two chatting. This is nice because it gives me time to reason about discussions, and even makes me look forward to the next meeting to have some fun with them, while previously I got so sick of my coworkers that I had literal nightmare-induced panic attacks over constant meetings. I'm really glad I managed to find a team that enjoys working on the same way I do.

Aeolun 6y ago
> It sure doesn't help that people think they need to greet me and wait for a response before they actually say what they want to say. This is indeed intensely frustrating. It is so ridiculous that when you just don’t respond, you’ll end up with a person just saying only ‘hello’ to you three days in a row...
- somurzakov 6y ago
  in cases like this, i just reply "sup" and switch back to my main window, until sender formulates his/her question
- vishnugupta 6y ago
  This is a wide enough pain that someone has created a webpage: https://www.nohello.com/?m=0 https://www.nohello.com/?m=0
  - mkl 6y ago
    Strangely, their own recommended way of linking to the page ("Short link to this page: http://nohello.com/." http://nohello.com/.") leads to a 404 error.
briandear 6y ago
> Coworker needs my attention immediately? Call me. I despise unsolicited phone calls. It’s figuratively kicking in your door. I can delay a Slack response for a few minutes. I can’t delay some jackass barging into my “office.”
- Kaze404 6y ago
  I agree, I also hate talking on the phone. I believe that's true for most people though, which makes them question themselves if they really need to go through that awful process. At least that's how I reason about a problem before bothering someone with what's essentially not their concern.
- abalashov 6y ago
  Second that. Phone calls - and they're all unsolicited as far as I'm concerned - aggravate me far more than a barrage of IMs, though both are undeniably aggravating. There's a small irony to this since I've been in the VoIP industry for about 15 years. :-)
- somurzakov 6y ago
  +1. if somebody needs my attention - look at my calendar and send me a calendar invite with zoom link attached and if I accept it - you can get some attention. your urgent is not my urgent, it is your poor planning. unless it is live production support, for which I get incident notification from ServiceNow anyways
rubidium 6y ago
“ the relationship I've had with Slack since the beginning of my career.“ As someone a bit older, I’m just thinking that maybe it would be helpful to have an on-ramp of business communications course in college or when starting a first job. Start with important things about in person communication. Then with writing a good memo. Learn to make a good phone call. Then write a good email. Then write a good IM/slack/teams message. Then be taught the strengths and weaknesses of each. Maybe I need to make a course.
devdas 6y ago
And then you have people who hate talking on the phone. If you don't respond reasonably quickly to IM, I'll make a ticket for you to write up documentation instead and mark it a blocker.

Aeolun 6y ago

> It sure doesn't help that people think they need to greet me and wait for a response before they actually say what they want to say. This is indeed intensely frustrating. It is so ridiculous that when you just don’t respond, you’ll end up with a person just saying only ‘hello’ to you three days in a row...

somurzakov 6y ago
in cases like this, i just reply "sup" and switch back to my main window, until sender formulates his/her question
vishnugupta 6y ago
This is a wide enough pain that someone has created a webpage: https://www.nohello.com/?m=0 https://www.nohello.com/?m=0
- mkl 6y ago
  Strangely, their own recommended way of linking to the page ("Short link to this page: http://nohello.com/." http://nohello.com/.") leads to a 404 error.

briandear 6y ago

> Coworker needs my attention immediately? Call me. I despise unsolicited phone calls. It’s figuratively kicking in your door. I can delay a Slack response for a few minutes. I can’t delay some jackass barging into my “office.”

Kaze404 6y ago
I agree, I also hate talking on the phone. I believe that's true for most people though, which makes them question themselves if they really need to go through that awful process. At least that's how I reason about a problem before bothering someone with what's essentially not their concern.
abalashov 6y ago
Second that. Phone calls - and they're all unsolicited as far as I'm concerned - aggravate me far more than a barrage of IMs, though both are undeniably aggravating. There's a small irony to this since I've been in the VoIP industry for about 15 years. :-)
somurzakov 6y ago
+1. if somebody needs my attention - look at my calendar and send me a calendar invite with zoom link attached and if I accept it - you can get some attention. your urgent is not my urgent, it is your poor planning. unless it is live production support, for which I get incident notification from ServiceNow anyways

rubidium 6y ago

“ the relationship I've had with Slack since the beginning of my career.“ As someone a bit older, I’m just thinking that maybe it would be helpful to have an on-ramp of business communications course in college or when starting a first job. Start with important things about in person communication. Then with writing a good memo. Learn to make a good phone call. Then write a good email. Then write a good IM/slack/teams message. Then be taught the strengths and weaknesses of each. Maybe I need to make a course.

devdas 6y ago

And then you have people who hate talking on the phone. If you don't respond reasonably quickly to IM, I'll make a ticket for you to write up documentation instead and mark it a blocker.