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Same, but I get pinged twice per hour on average on Slack. And it's direct questions not @here. It drives me bonkers and I tell people off but somehow it still

by keyle 3y ago

Same, but I get pinged twice per hour on average on Slack. And it's direct questions not @here. It drives me bonkers and I tell people off but somehow it still happens. I think direct conversations online is turning people into junkies of the now. I actually day dreamed about going back to emails sometimes last week... Then I woke up when the notification bell went off.

nvarsj 3y ago
Just quit out of slack when you need to focus. I’ve done this before at gigs where people abused Slack notifications. The strategic solution is to improve the culture around chat notifications.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
wonderwonder 3y ago
The alert sounds drive me insane. I cant just ignore it either because the little number of messages indicator on my taskbar pool me in. Slack and Teams at the same time is a disaster. I miss only email too.
- scubbo 3y ago
  > I cant just ignore it either because the little number of messages indicator on my taskbar pool me in You can remove that number, and I highly recommend you do so (and, more, that you set your taskbar to auto-hide).
tobr 3y ago
You know, you can just quit. (Not your job, Slack.)
- keyle 3y ago
  That is not true. It's embedded in the way we work and essentially not being on it is either not working, or not being part of the team. You have to use the tools of the job that your team is using.
  - fknorangesite 3y ago
    They weren't suggesting quitting Slack permanently.
- adrianmsmith 3y ago
  Maybe. One place I was at the CEO said everyone needed to be reachable on Slack within 15 minutes during work time. Nevertheless I would go offline for an hour or two at a time (which is as long as I can do deep work anyway) and it never seemed to be a problem. But directly disobeying the CEO always felt like something that was one unanswered Slack message away from disaster.
dasil003 3y ago
Telling people off is no good because it reifies your frustration, leaves a bad taste in the mouth of the counter-party and ultimately fails to achieve your goal since it's just one person out of (presumably) many who are pinging you. A better way to handle this is to just stop responding. Disable alerts, turn off Slack if you must. Put a message in your bio setting ground rules for how to engage with you with some context on your time management philosophy. If folks complain, have a conversation with your manager about it. In some cases prioritizing responsiveness may be a priority, but this naturally comes at the expense of deep work, and it needn't be everyone all the time. Twice an hour is ridiculous for an IC in any case, hard to diagnose without more details, but it definitely indicates some kind of problem that a competent manager should be able to help you address.
- keyle 3y ago
  This might work in a large company. But not in a smaller company where you are the domain knowledge for many parts of it. I have raised it with my manager but it's one of those things "that come with the job". I have this pet theory that you're never as productive as the first year of employment, where you know your stuff and you're getting things done but people don't know it's you yet!!
  - dasil003 3y ago
    yeah I've spent 13+ years in companies of 1-50 engineers, and another 10+ years in larger orgs with thousands of technical staff. Even as a CTO in a small company I still found ways to protect focus time (including telling the CEO to call my cell if something was urgent). There are solutions if you are willing to examine your assumed constraints. Look at it this way: what will they do if you get fed up and leave?
  - ketzo 3y ago
    I mean, in a smaller company, you should theoretically be able to have closer relationships with the people asking you questions; surely you should be able to establish "hey, I might not always respond right away"
  - 3y ago
throwaway292939 3y ago
Snooze alerts? Why don't you direct people to use team channels.. that way over time the knowledge base is there.
- fknorangesite 3y ago
  > Why don't you direct people to use team channels.. that way over time the knowledge base is there. Seriously. Keeping these conversations in DMs keeps the knowledge siloed and ensures the current situation will never get better.
- sublinear 3y ago
  Teams channels are often much better than meetings. They might get their answers faster and for complex ones they can study it better. Also, nobody has to be put on the spot. Leaving them waiting a couple of hours max for an answer is usually the same wait time anyway. In the meantime you can also ask refining questions before producing the final answer.

by keyle 3y ago

nvarsj 3y ago

Just quit out of slack when you need to focus. I’ve done this before at gigs where people abused Slack notifications. The strategic solution is to improve the culture around chat notifications.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

wonderwonder 3y ago

The alert sounds drive me insane. I cant just ignore it either because the little number of messages indicator on my taskbar pool me in. Slack and Teams at the same time is a disaster. I miss only email too.

scubbo 3y ago
> I cant just ignore it either because the little number of messages indicator on my taskbar pool me in You can remove that number, and I highly recommend you do so (and, more, that you set your taskbar to auto-hide).

tobr 3y ago

You know, you can just quit. (Not your job, Slack.)

keyle 3y ago
That is not true. It's embedded in the way we work and essentially not being on it is either not working, or not being part of the team. You have to use the tools of the job that your team is using.
- fknorangesite 3y ago
  They weren't suggesting quitting Slack permanently.
adrianmsmith 3y ago
Maybe. One place I was at the CEO said everyone needed to be reachable on Slack within 15 minutes during work time. Nevertheless I would go offline for an hour or two at a time (which is as long as I can do deep work anyway) and it never seemed to be a problem. But directly disobeying the CEO always felt like something that was one unanswered Slack message away from disaster.

dasil003 3y ago

Telling people off is no good because it reifies your frustration, leaves a bad taste in the mouth of the counter-party and ultimately fails to achieve your goal since it's just one person out of (presumably) many who are pinging you. A better way to handle this is to just stop responding. Disable alerts, turn off Slack if you must. Put a message in your bio setting ground rules for how to engage with you with some context on your time management philosophy. If folks complain, have a conversation with your manager about it. In some cases prioritizing responsiveness may be a priority, but this naturally comes at the expense of deep work, and it needn't be everyone all the time. Twice an hour is ridiculous for an IC in any case, hard to diagnose without more details, but it definitely indicates some kind of problem that a competent manager should be able to help you address.

keyle 3y ago
This might work in a large company. But not in a smaller company where you are the domain knowledge for many parts of it. I have raised it with my manager but it's one of those things "that come with the job". I have this pet theory that you're never as productive as the first year of employment, where you know your stuff and you're getting things done but people don't know it's you yet!!
- dasil003 3y ago
  yeah I've spent 13+ years in companies of 1-50 engineers, and another 10+ years in larger orgs with thousands of technical staff. Even as a CTO in a small company I still found ways to protect focus time (including telling the CEO to call my cell if something was urgent). There are solutions if you are willing to examine your assumed constraints. Look at it this way: what will they do if you get fed up and leave?
- ketzo 3y ago
  I mean, in a smaller company, you should theoretically be able to have closer relationships with the people asking you questions; surely you should be able to establish "hey, I might not always respond right away"
- 3y ago

throwaway292939 3y ago

Snooze alerts? Why don't you direct people to use team channels.. that way over time the knowledge base is there.

fknorangesite 3y ago
> Why don't you direct people to use team channels.. that way over time the knowledge base is there. Seriously. Keeping these conversations in DMs keeps the knowledge siloed and ensures the current situation will never get better.
sublinear 3y ago
Teams channels are often much better than meetings. They might get their answers faster and for complex ones they can study it better. Also, nobody has to be put on the spot. Leaving them waiting a couple of hours max for an answer is usually the same wait time anyway. In the meantime you can also ask refining questions before producing the final answer.