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Our Week Without Slack

motherboard.vice.com

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Re: Our Week Without Slack

#41

Post by eddieroger »

kethinov wrote: post #38

They claim Slack is distracting while the picture at the top of the article is a bunch of people working in cramped quarters in an open office. I think they have bigger fish to fry here. Slack has a mute button. All that requires is self control. You can't mute coworkers sitting too close to you. Even with headphones (which notice half the people in the photo are wearing) you can only somewhat filter out the distract…

I agree that they have other issues beyond Slack with respect to productivity, but playing Devil's Advocate, muting Slack has the downside of just creating a large backlog of missed messages, and if the culture is to be dependent on it, mute only shifts distractions to later instead of eliminating them. This is worse if the culture holds impromptu Slack meetings that you can easily miss by being on mute. In that case it would be the culture and not the tool, admittedly, but any tool will have a similar problem.

Re: Our Week Without Slack

#43

Post by swozey »

fapjacks wrote: post #33

How do those people get any work done in a room like the one in the headline photo?

Most of them don't even have monitors. I'm assuming it's some shitty hip cowork space.

Best thing about slack for me is that it's an interface to send alerts/reminders/metrics to my team and I, but I'm one of those people who loathe email.

Re: Our Week Without Slack

#44

Post by thinkingkong »

kethinov wrote: post #38

They claim Slack is distracting while the picture at the top of the article is a bunch of people working in cramped quarters in an open office. I think they have bigger fish to fry here. Slack has a mute button. All that requires is self control. You can't mute coworkers sitting too close to you. Even with headphones (which notice half the people in the photo are wearing) you can only somewhat filter out the distract…

To play on this, theres a big difference between ignoring messages for awhile and having a shared understanding that everyone is ignoring messages.

I think thats where we need to focus.

Re: Our Week Without Slack

#45

Post by ydt »

kethinov wrote: post #38

They claim Slack is distracting while the picture at the top of the article is a bunch of people working in cramped quarters in an open office. I think they have bigger fish to fry here. Slack has a mute button. All that requires is self control. You can't mute coworkers sitting too close to you. Even with headphones (which notice half the people in the photo are wearing) you can only somewhat filter out the distract…

No kidding. That office layout is a nightmare. My last 2 gigs have been pretty weighted towards slack as the preferred communication medium amongst the team. My experience has been that it allows me safely ignore my email inbox with the assurance that anything truly vital will be directly messaged to me on slack. It's lived up to the hype for me.

Re: Our Week Without Slack

#46

Post by untog »

wink wrote: post #2

As someone having an IRC client open while working since around 15 years this is so mindboggling. (Well, everything regarding the buzz about Slack and how it's a replacement for email, no it's the best thing since sliced bread, no wait, it's horrible.. etc.pp) Why yes, of course you need to restrain yourself from chatting all day. And learn to ignore people or tell them you're not able to talk to them right now - but…

"I've been doing X for 15 years, and I'm amazed that people who are new to X are finding it difficult"

Is it really so surprising?

Re: Our Week Without Slack

#47

Post by untog »

kethinov wrote: post #38

They claim Slack is distracting while the picture at the top of the article is a bunch of people working in cramped quarters in an open office. I think they have bigger fish to fry here. Slack has a mute button. All that requires is self control. You can't mute coworkers sitting too close to you. Even with headphones (which notice half the people in the photo are wearing) you can only somewhat filter out the distract…

To be fair, Vice is an online magazine, not a programming firm. I can absolutely imagine that group conversations are more important in such an environment.

Re: Our Week Without Slack

#48

Post by parasubvert »

fapjacks wrote: post #33

How do those people get any work done in a room like the one in the headline photo?

Most modern office layouts at younger companies are open like this. It takes getting used to but can be very productive, especially if your work is collaborative or requires frequent/brief cross-team communication without 'booking a meeting'.

Re: Our Week Without Slack

#49

Post by trhway »

kethinov wrote: post #38

They claim Slack is distracting while the picture at the top of the article is a bunch of people working in cramped quarters in an open office. I think they have bigger fish to fry here. Slack has a mute button. All that requires is self control. You can't mute coworkers sitting too close to you. Even with headphones (which notice half the people in the photo are wearing) you can only somewhat filter out the distract…

the coworkers' noise doesn't cause the dopamine spikes like the IM does and thus doesn't creates addiction.

The guys should be applauded for having been able to recognize the problem and taking control [or at least making serious attempt to] over their dopamine addiction.

Many comments here are equivalent to "drink responsibly". Well, one can do it if one can ... otherwise cutting it off is a pretty sensible thing to do.

Re: Our Week Without Slack

#50

Post by trhway »

fapjacks wrote: post #33

How do those people get any work done in a room like the one in the headline photo?

It works just fine when you're young. Look at the age of people there. Beside keeping leasing costs down, it is a very efficient way of keeping old farts out. I worked in an even bit more overcrowded conditions around 20 years ago surrounded by the guys of my age, and we were very productive with no issues caused by overcrowding and with all the benefits of instant collaboration/teamwork/etc. These days, the open floor office is felt like a big downer for me, and the office like this in the photo - i'd have to be really desperate to agree to work there.
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