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When you work in an open office everyone ends up just talking on Slack most of the time anyway. Except those people who have no sense of boundaries, and will gl

When you work in an open office everyone ends up just talking on Slack most of the time anyway. Except those people who have no sense of boundaries, and will gladly invade your personal space and interrupt your train of thought at any time for any reason, leading to a constant state of anxious hypervigelence preventing you from ever fully concentrating on something.

rectang 2y ago
Meanwhile there are those who expect you to process every Slack ping, making them in some ways worse those who interrupt in person — since they don’t feel the distress of the person they’re interrupting through the screen. A workplace’s culture of consideration is expressed through communication channels, but is not determined by the choice of channel.
- Loughla 2y ago
  IM's and the like are the bane of my existence. If I'm busy I can close a door or put a sign up. I can close email. Nobody expects me to immediately respond to email anyways. But instant messages? Everyone expects instant responses. Even when their message is something like, "hey,I see you have your door closed. Are you busy?" FFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUU
  - savanaly 2y ago
    >But instant messages? Everyone expects instant responses. My understanding is people don't expect instant responses, but that's never been made explicit. What do you base your understanding on? Do folks tell you?
  - zenogantner 2y ago
    IM software can be closed, too, and in a healthy company the expectations around IMs should not be that they are "instant", but more of an async medium like email.
  - mulmen 2y ago
    In my 15 year corporate career I have never met anyone who expects an immediate reply to an IM.
- JambalayaJimbo 2y ago
  Slack pings are worse than in person interruptions. The async comms still interrupt the recipient but also force the sender to wait for a response. Pre-covid you could tell when someone was busy based on body language and avoid interrupting them.
- seadan83 2y ago
  I feel this. The, let's hash this out asynchronous synchronously over 30 minutes rather than talk for 3
SV_BubbleTime 2y ago
You know you can turn Slack off right? I’m a huge proponent of async messaging (email) over sync… but if you are in the office, turn that nonsense off if you need to get work done.
- bitwize 2y ago
  You know your employer can see if you've turned Slack off, right?
  - mulmen 2y ago
    They can see everything, so what?
- Trasmatta 2y ago
  That's entirely my point? You can turn Slack off. You can't turn off the coworker who constantly comes to your desk to interrupt your thoughts.
technofiend 2y ago
My employer invested tens of millions in telepresence, telecommuting and remote working options. When the pandemic hit they got Zoom scaled up and working for tens of thousands of employees. Which it did, beautifully. Now that the pandemic is over, we're back to mandatory 3 days per week, minimum, with more for higher level roles. Yet except for a recently acquired employee my entire team is remote. So, WFH and meet on Zoom or sit in an office and meet on Zoom. Unfortunately the sales people are the policy makers and they can't seem to wrap their heads around doing anything that isn't face to face. Yet we started on this investment in remote work to control travel costs.
DrBazza 2y ago
"Open office" - I've never been healthier (and fitter) than since I went remote. Not sharing an open office with coughing sneezing co-workers who would come in, no matter what, and commuting on trains, has been remarkable. I'd previously have 2-3 heavy colds a year. I think I've now had 1 in 5 years.
isoprophlex 2y ago
> people who have no sense of boundaries, and will gladly invade your personal space and interrupt your train of thought at any time for any reason You gotta game the system and learn some basic acting skills. Twitch your face. Pause just a little too long before responding. Get up in the middle of a sentence to stare out the window and just stop talking, forcing the other party to ask you to continue. Laugh obnoxiously loud at your own jokes. Stall, delay, confuse, whatever you do: make the experience not worth repeating for the offender. Get bipolar: be the very best person you can be on Slack. But be a complete hebephrenic bug eyed lunatic when someone interrupts you IRL.

rectang 2y ago

Meanwhile there are those who expect you to process every Slack ping, making them in some ways worse those who interrupt in person — since they don’t feel the distress of the person they’re interrupting through the screen. A workplace’s culture of consideration is expressed through communication channels, but is not determined by the choice of channel.

Loughla 2y ago
IM's and the like are the bane of my existence. If I'm busy I can close a door or put a sign up. I can close email. Nobody expects me to immediately respond to email anyways. But instant messages? Everyone expects instant responses. Even when their message is something like, "hey,I see you have your door closed. Are you busy?" FFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUU
- savanaly 2y ago
  >But instant messages? Everyone expects instant responses. My understanding is people don't expect instant responses, but that's never been made explicit. What do you base your understanding on? Do folks tell you?
- zenogantner 2y ago
  IM software can be closed, too, and in a healthy company the expectations around IMs should not be that they are "instant", but more of an async medium like email.
- mulmen 2y ago
  In my 15 year corporate career I have never met anyone who expects an immediate reply to an IM.
JambalayaJimbo 2y ago
Slack pings are worse than in person interruptions. The async comms still interrupt the recipient but also force the sender to wait for a response. Pre-covid you could tell when someone was busy based on body language and avoid interrupting them.
seadan83 2y ago
I feel this. The, let's hash this out asynchronous synchronously over 30 minutes rather than talk for 3

SV_BubbleTime 2y ago

You know you can turn Slack off right? I’m a huge proponent of async messaging (email) over sync… but if you are in the office, turn that nonsense off if you need to get work done.

bitwize 2y ago
You know your employer can see if you've turned Slack off, right?
- mulmen 2y ago
  They can see everything, so what?
Trasmatta 2y ago
That's entirely my point? You can turn Slack off. You can't turn off the coworker who constantly comes to your desk to interrupt your thoughts.

technofiend 2y ago

My employer invested tens of millions in telepresence, telecommuting and remote working options. When the pandemic hit they got Zoom scaled up and working for tens of thousands of employees. Which it did, beautifully. Now that the pandemic is over, we're back to mandatory 3 days per week, minimum, with more for higher level roles. Yet except for a recently acquired employee my entire team is remote. So, WFH and meet on Zoom or sit in an office and meet on Zoom. Unfortunately the sales people are the policy makers and they can't seem to wrap their heads around doing anything that isn't face to face. Yet we started on this investment in remote work to control travel costs.

DrBazza 2y ago

"Open office" - I've never been healthier (and fitter) than since I went remote. Not sharing an open office with coughing sneezing co-workers who would come in, no matter what, and commuting on trains, has been remarkable. I'd previously have 2-3 heavy colds a year. I think I've now had 1 in 5 years.

isoprophlex 2y ago

> people who have no sense of boundaries, and will gladly invade your personal space and interrupt your train of thought at any time for any reason You gotta game the system and learn some basic acting skills. Twitch your face. Pause just a little too long before responding. Get up in the middle of a sentence to stare out the window and just stop talking, forcing the other party to ask you to continue. Laugh obnoxiously loud at your own jokes. Stall, delay, confuse, whatever you do: make the experience not worth repeating for the offender. Get bipolar: be the very best person you can be on Slack. But be a complete hebephrenic bug eyed lunatic when someone interrupts you IRL.