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Why a Slack Backlash Is Inevitable

bigtechnology.substack.com

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Re: Why a Slack Backlash Is Inevitable

#11

Post by colincooke »

There is really no strong argument made in this article. It seems like most, if not all, of the problems they talk about are _employee_ problems not slack problems. Slack is simply a medium to chat with your company and team, one which is pretty easy to use desipite its flaws. Employees being toxic is just that, it's not because of slack.

As others have mentioned, this is a professional communication tool there is no need for fully private conversations. Chats should always be accesible by HR/admins.

Re: Why a Slack Backlash Is Inevitable

#12

Post by Olreich »

I was thinking the article would be about the deteriorating quality of Slack and the lack of improvement in their facilitation of perusing channels.

The article was instead that CEOs don’t want to get talked about behind their back and so are going to shut it down. While Slack might increase the ease of that, it’s not like employees couldn’t do it via email or at the water cooler instead. This speaks to leadership problems more than anything else.

Re: Why a Slack Backlash Is Inevitable

#13

Post by Cacti »

rigel_kentaurus wrote: post #4

This article would've been better with some concrete examples, or a study, or really anything to back it out. "Slack can be used for bad things". Well, so can email, mailing lists, support forums, internal chat systems (jabber), etc. Not even one example, just "A lot of my CEO and founder friends talk about this". As with any tool, it's how you use it. Best implementations I have seen of Slack is when the rules are c…

Exactly. “High-school type problems” are created by immature people, not the tool. That kind of behavior would never be tolerated at any of the companies I’ve worked at, no matter what the medium.

Tech companies, and startups in particular, tend to have these problems because their culture and leadership is sophomoric and immature, and those people hire and promote (or fail to fire) similar people.

If a CEO thinks this is a problem in their company, then they need to, well, be a CEO and do something about it. Leadership sets the tone. Lack of leadership creates a void.

Re: Why a Slack Backlash Is Inevitable

#14

Post by dreamcompiler »

staticassertion wrote: post #5

A lot of these issues seem to come down to: 1. Just fire the shitty people. I don't know why companies don't do this more in the US - it's at-will, just fire them. 2. Why are you trying to stop your employees from organizing???? > “The onus is on the CEO,” Flory said. “Our focus has been on the values,” Agreed on this last statement. Ultimately if Slack is becoming a toxic environment there are obviously other issues…

> 1. Just fire the shitty people. I don't know why companies don't do this more in the US - it's at-will, just fire them.

I've asked this question of managers many times. The answer is usually some variation on "The shitty ones are the ones who know how to work the system to their advantage the best. They're the most likely to sue for wrongful termination and otherwise make my life hell if I fire them."

Re: Why a Slack Backlash Is Inevitable

#15

Post by Minor49er »

My coworker wrote a bot for Slack that spams most of our channels with random gifs throughout the day. Most of my other coworkers find it amusing, but to me, it's quite distracting. I opened an issue with Slack to ask them to add an "ignore" feature, but they responded that ignoring anyone is counterproductive so they won't be adding it. Thanks, Slack.

Re: Why a Slack Backlash Is Inevitable

#16

Post by macspoofing »

Yes. It's only a matter of time before there is a backlash to Slack.

I won't understand the backlash when it comes, just as I didn't understand the excitement. Slack is just a chat client. Chat has been around forever. Corporate chat clients have been around forever. What am I missing?

Re: Why a Slack Backlash Is Inevitable

#18

Post by eloisius »

Minor49er wrote: post #15

My coworker wrote a bot for Slack that spams most of our channels with random gifs throughout the day. Most of my other coworkers find it amusing, but to me, it's quite distracting. I opened an issue with Slack to ask them to add an "ignore" feature, but they responded that ignoring anyone is counterproductive so they won't be adding it. Thanks, Slack.

Luckily my company does not have this problem but I’ve felt it before. I will leave channels that turn into distractions like that.

Re: Why a Slack Backlash Is Inevitable

#19

Post by overgard »

I think there's something there but I don't think I'd describe it as high school culture. It's more that things are way more permanent/visible. A one off watercooler comment from someone having a bad day is suddenly A THING. Sometimes people need to vent and commune without it going on their permanent record.

I personally find myself doing the opposite and censoring myself on slack, because I know a comment that's funny in context might read terribly a year removed.

Re: Why a Slack Backlash Is Inevitable

#20

Post by taneq »

Minor49er wrote: post #15

My coworker wrote a bot for Slack that spams most of our channels with random gifs throughout the day. Most of my other coworkers find it amusing, but to me, it's quite distracting. I opened an issue with Slack to ask them to add an "ignore" feature, but they responded that ignoring anyone is counterproductive so they won't be adding it. Thanks, Slack.

Write a bot to raise random requests for an "ignore" feature with them throughout the day until they get the message. ;)
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