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I don't know what you do but I've solved problems and saved companies millions by overhearing a conversation in the office that would have been a Slack DM remot

I don't know what you do but I've solved problems and saved companies millions by overhearing a conversation in the office that would have been a Slack DM remote. At one customer I was able to identify that 3 separate business units were all competing for the same tender, they were all undercutting each other not realising. There were 3 separate private channels in Slack #customer_tender #tender_response_customer and #project_unicorn_tender not one single person was in more than one of those channels. Now all this goes away if your company only uses public channels and has regular discourse in them. But unless the company was built remote first, I've never seen this in my 25 years of professional experience. And all of this is without counting the fact that most enterprises use Teams not Slack, and Teams hides information from everyone. Don't get me wrong, remote companies can work, and some people do not work well in offices. But without a fundamental shake up of the structure of the companies remote work is very, very hard.

jonathankoren 4y ago
This goes away, if they have better management and coordination. They’d be in the same mess even if they were physically conference rooms. Unless you somehow think that people spontaneously drop by meetings they’re not invited to
- zwayhowder 4y ago
  You'd be amazed what people say in open plan offices thinking they can't be heard. But you are correct; however again in 25 years, the number of those years working for a company that had perfectly working leadership, management, communication and coordination is very very low.
- zwayhowder 4y ago
  I should add - now that I've googled you - you and I work in very different areas of 'IT'. The problems I imagine you deal with need a lot of quiet dedicated focus time; while my problems need me to be able to wrangle a dozen cats into something like a coherent strategy that sometimes involves whiteboards, sometimes coffee and sometimes vodka. That's a people problem that requires people solutions, not technology products marketed as people solutions. But I've been in your shoes too. (ok, not that smart, but I sat next to an ML guy for six months once troubleshooting his Kafka woes). I don't every intend to imply that there is one perfect answer for everyone.
hdjjhhvvhga 4y ago
> But without a fundamental shake up of the structure of the companies remote work is very, very hard. While I agree, I could rephrase your argument as "remote work is very easy provided that you adjust your structures accordingly."
- zwayhowder 4y ago
  I see you've worked with me before :) "Zwayhowder, the way you've phrased this sounds very angry, could we just tone it down a little" is comment in slides/reports that I receive often :D I'm just passionate, I swear.
nunez 4y ago
I've never worked at a place that disabled DMs in Slack. Is that even possible?
- zwayhowder 4y ago
  I doubt it. It's the culture of using public channels instead of private DMs that needs to change. The UX of Teams makes channels much higher friction than group messages.

jonathankoren 4y ago

This goes away, if they have better management and coordination. They’d be in the same mess even if they were physically conference rooms. Unless you somehow think that people spontaneously drop by meetings they’re not invited to

zwayhowder 4y ago
You'd be amazed what people say in open plan offices thinking they can't be heard. But you are correct; however again in 25 years, the number of those years working for a company that had perfectly working leadership, management, communication and coordination is very very low.
zwayhowder 4y ago
I should add - now that I've googled you - you and I work in very different areas of 'IT'. The problems I imagine you deal with need a lot of quiet dedicated focus time; while my problems need me to be able to wrangle a dozen cats into something like a coherent strategy that sometimes involves whiteboards, sometimes coffee and sometimes vodka. That's a people problem that requires people solutions, not technology products marketed as people solutions. But I've been in your shoes too. (ok, not that smart, but I sat next to an ML guy for six months once troubleshooting his Kafka woes). I don't every intend to imply that there is one perfect answer for everyone.

hdjjhhvvhga 4y ago

> But without a fundamental shake up of the structure of the companies remote work is very, very hard. While I agree, I could rephrase your argument as "remote work is very easy provided that you adjust your structures accordingly."

zwayhowder 4y ago
I see you've worked with me before :) "Zwayhowder, the way you've phrased this sounds very angry, could we just tone it down a little" is comment in slides/reports that I receive often :D I'm just passionate, I swear.

nunez 4y ago

I've never worked at a place that disabled DMs in Slack. Is that even possible?

zwayhowder 4y ago
I doubt it. It's the culture of using public channels instead of private DMs that needs to change. The UX of Teams makes channels much higher friction than group messages.