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> Regular vanilla channel messages should never be expected to be synchronous. As you noted, that's completely unworkable. It is unworkable! But becomes the ex

by jjav 5y ago

> Regular vanilla channel messages should never be expected to be synchronous. As you noted, that's completely unworkable. It is unworkable! But becomes the expectation. > How would you establish a healthy office communication culture? The same way it has worked well for the ~30 years of my career before slack-obsession. Have something to discuss, put it on the calendar for the relevant people. For smaller things, send email and don't expect an immediate response. If things are truly on fire right now, make a phone call. Curiously, in decades past we always used IRC which is basically same thing as slack. But IRC never grew this culture of obligated insta-response, it was more for chatter that one could read or ignore depending on how busy. Not sure why. Perhaps because slack is a paid product, it's now part of the business so everyone is expected to take it Very Seriously and be on it all the time.

JohnBooty 5y ago
You're either luckier than me, had the wisdom to choose better workplaces, or both. The same way it has worked well for the ~30 years of my career before slack-obsession. Have something to discuss, put it on the calendar for the relevant people. In my ~20 years in the industry, instead of politely scheduling discussions for the future, people did one or both of the following: 1. Physically walked over to my desk and interrupted me in person 2. Sent me an email, often expecting a near-instant reply, requiring me to choose between "getting work done" and "monitoring my email." This is why I feel that it's more about company culture than the tools themselves. To be clear, a couple years back I did work at a company with a horrible Slack culture. I don't mean to defend Slack per se, and I definitely don't think it's the answer, but I don't think it's the problem either. Inconsiderate coworkers gonna be inconsiderate. Curiously, in decades past we always used IRC which is basically same thing as slack. But IRC never grew this culture of obligated insta-response, it was more for chatter that one could read or ignore depending on how busy. Amen. This is why I strongly feel it's a culture issue and not a technology thing. "Back in the day," generally it was the tech/engineer types using IRC. We all generally understood the concept of focus time and understood that IRC should not be used with the expectation of synchronous responses. Now, with Slack, we have a lot of corporate/managerial/whatever types using an IRC-like tool, and they often just don't "get it." Much like my elderly father initially struggled to understand that text messaging wasn't something that guaranteed an instant response.

by jjav 5y ago

JohnBooty 5y ago

You're either luckier than me, had the wisdom to choose better workplaces, or both. The same way it has worked well for the ~30 years of my career before slack-obsession. Have something to discuss, put it on the calendar for the relevant people. In my ~20 years in the industry, instead of politely scheduling discussions for the future, people did one or both of the following: 1. Physically walked over to my desk and interrupted me in person 2. Sent me an email, often expecting a near-instant reply, requiring me to choose between "getting work done" and "monitoring my email." This is why I feel that it's more about company culture than the tools themselves. To be clear, a couple years back I did work at a company with a horrible Slack culture. I don't mean to defend Slack per se, and I definitely don't think it's the answer, but I don't think it's the problem either. Inconsiderate coworkers gonna be inconsiderate. Curiously, in decades past we always used IRC which is basically same thing as slack. But IRC never grew this culture of obligated insta-response, it was more for chatter that one could read or ignore depending on how busy. Amen. This is why I strongly feel it's a culture issue and not a technology thing. "Back in the day," generally it was the tech/engineer types using IRC. We all generally understood the concept of focus time and understood that IRC should not be used with the expectation of synchronous responses. Now, with Slack, we have a lot of corporate/managerial/whatever types using an IRC-like tool, and they often just don't "get it." Much like my elderly father initially struggled to understand that text messaging wasn't something that guaranteed an instant response.