[TheRealmccoy]

The biggest drawback of a real time communication tool like Slack is the React v/s Respond conundrum.

Productive communication and teamwork requires that we respond, rather than react.

What happens specifically with tools like Slack which start off as demi-official tool and then transcend to official is that, one gets into the habit of reacting, instead of responding.

I have personally seen this "fastest finger first" played, almost always.

There has been tons of literature written on reacting v/s responding and I need not dwell into it.

Another aspect is that there is no exit, once Slack is the primary communication tool. One is forced to use it, otherwise you are like an outcast and people more often tend to take it as a signal that the person is on its way out and hence moved away from Slack.

Rest of the drawbacks is documented in the article.

[mediocrejoker]

I have never heard of react vs respond. I wonder if you could explain a bit of what it means?

[TheRealmccoy]

Event: Your boss shares an article on @channel at Slack.

Reaction:: Since our boss has posted it and you don't want to be seemed a second rung player and the one who is NOT on her/his toes, you jump on the keyboard and first "Like/Thumbs Up" that post and then comment for the heck of it, something like "Wow", Amazing", "Insightful".

Then you look over your back ie, to see how many others have commented before you, and if you hardly see any, then you pat yourself on the back and consider the day to have been well spent.

Response:: You read the article once and decide whether it concerns you or to be discarded. If it concerns you, you read it once more, may be twice and take relevant notes. Then you decide, whether you should discuss this over an email to your boss, or a personal meeting would be more appropriate.

And thus, you draft an email or ask for 10 mins of private time with your boss.

[efsavage]

If my boss posts something I will assume they found value in it and thinks it is worth the time of X people to read it for information. If they have a question about it, they will ask. If reading it right now matters, they will say so.

If they are just trawling for likes and noticing who posts something first, I will find a new boss.

[colbyh]

I ignore stuff our CEO posts all the time. there isn't a pretense that everything he shares is a big deal, and if it is something important he'll send in an email or mark it as such.

might just be our culture though, there's aren't really any "jockeying for position" situations.

[nojvek]

Our CEO IS not on slack. He uses email.

Slack is for small teams which have a lot of shared context

[linkregister]

This seems like the hallmark of a pre-dysfunctional workplace. None of the engineering managers I've worked with wouldn't expect their engineers to drop what they're doing and look at an article. All but one were too busy themselves to be doing that sort of thing. None would want to jeopardize their schedules by distracting their engineers. Most managers aren't trying to be friends with their engineers; they have their own friends.

Maybe this is common in startups or in teams where the manager expects to be friends with their engineers. I suppose I've been fortunate to never be put in the situation where chatting with the boss overrode doing solid work.

[brandon272]

I cannot relate to the parent post at all. My boss shares content all the time on Slack. People rarely respond, nor is it expected, nor is the lack of expectation communicated, it's just implicit based on the culture. (i.e. "Check this out if you have time")

If my boss was sharing content and then my coworkers were "looking over their backs" to see who liked something first or liked something with enough enthusiasm, I feel like a lot of other things would also be wrong with that work environment to make people behave that way.

[majewsky]

> "Check this out if you have time"

Our boss actually uses e-mail for this purpose, which I find much more appropriate because it matches the "if you have time" bit better than Slack.

[TheRealmccoy]

I believe this has nothing to do with the workplace. The same thing never happened on email. If the workplace or culture would have been like that then, a group email sent by the boss/CEO would have solicited the same response.

On Email always worked like, it was email, for those it mattered, they responded and rest carried on with their work.

[kakarot]

Maybe some people on the corporate ladder are like this, but I just can't imagine giving a damn about making sure I see the latest article my boss has posted to Slack. I have work to do so that I can clock out and work on my own things. If bossman wants me to see something he better just email or text me.

Slack has its pros and cons, but these are largely the same pros and cons as any instant group communication platform. If one is depending on Slack too heavily for non work-related content then they have separate issues that need dealing with.

[r00fus]

So the boss throws out the article on a slack channel without any context? Sounds to me like if you want +1's that's what you do.

If you want reasoned discussion, there should be an ask from the boss on the channel-toss even if it is a @TheRealmccoy call-out on the posting.

[TheRealmccoy]

Again, the React v/s Respond conundrum.

At hindsight, if you look at a Slack channel, so much information would be found redundant.

It is there just because it is so easy to put out there, because of the intrinsic nature of the medium, and it is so because, most of it is reaction.

Like, oh this is nice, let's put it out on Slack.

While writing an email,when the communication is being initiated, there is sufficient pause built in the system, to let one ponder, is this really worth it?

Email is not fool proof either of this syndrome, but far better.

[r00fus]

What makes email inherently better for your React/Respond dichotomy?

What prevents redundancy is searchability. Most email clients are great for that, but Slack's searchability is inherently better than email - if you're not part of a channel (because you weren't on the team at that point), posts can be searched once you do gain access to the channel.

Emails between other team-members excluding you cannot since you will never have access to them.

There are so many times I just link back to a previous answer on the topic and just h/t the original poster. Takes a moment, but is far more definitive.

[FullMtlAlcoholc]

The vast majority of my usage of tools like Slack, as well as my teams's usage, would fall under the response paradigm you described above. Maybe it's because we're remote workers and we appreciate the fact that we don't have to engage in silly political games like the one you mentioned in the reaction scenario.

[ChristianBundy]

Here's a solid article: https://zenhabits.net/respond/

[asenna]

Never heard of ZenHabits before. Very cool concept and love the minimal design.

[TheRealmccoy]

thanks so ever much!

[lightedman]

"I have personally seen this "fastest finger first" played, almost always."

There's your problem - typing first.

Put everyone on a voice/video collab stream. Now at least you get to hear what's being suggested first like a real office, and respond without having to move away from your work window. "That idea is nonsense, it won't work within our framework guidelines for x reasons." Bam no waiting for people to read what they should be hearing in the first place.

No wonder nobody wants my solution - everyone's too busy listening to the hype of programs instead of the soundness of their workflow.

[icebraining]

No wonder nobody wants my solution - everyone's too busy listening to the hype of programs instead of the soundness of their workflow.

We're just waiting for you to post it in the form of a sound recording :)

[TheRealmccoy]

Typing I believe is not the problem, since we have been typing since like centuries now.

The problem is that there is no inherent pause built in the system.

It's boon is its bane!

[dsacco]

As a counterpoint, I've used Slack for nearly two years (across several companies at one time or another), and I've never observed this.

I did observe that some employees would consistently answer more quickly than others, but I never saw unsubstantive responses, and it didn't appear to have a chilling effect on people who responded afterwards or the overall result of the discussion.

[rdslw]

TLDR: why NNTP is better than IRC. 30 years later. New frontend, same problem.

I feel old.

[lightedman]

"Productive communication and teamwork requires that we respond, rather than react."

I argue if you're too lazy to do both at nearly concurrent times then you might not be suited for that line of work.

I have no problems handling upwards of 10 concurrent 'lines' (aka customer input or manufacturer input issues) on my own. Systems for this exist. Learn about them and use them, or fall by the wayside. These complaints are the complaints of those from the 90s.

[nsm]

This comment would have been more useful if you had mentioned some of these systems so we would know what to learn about.

[lightedman]

As if corporations make their proprietary money-saving/making schema public.... That's a new one I have yet to hear, thank you!