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by throwaway936482 2016 days ago
Yep, and from a bean counter but also "someone who likes to do work while at work" Point of view having a chat tool that feels like work at work rather than a typical social media time sink is a GOOD THING. Slack has been an absolute productivity killer everywhere I've used it because it contains all the usual Skinner box tricks to keep users engaged with it rather than doing actual work. Workplaces shouldn't be about "the joy if connecting with each other". shudder
2 comments

I'm actually curious, how is Slack a time sink? I muted most of my channels and just check for DMs, thread replies and @channels from important channels. It's at most 30 minutes a day, roughly the same as email.
Maybe parts of the answer lies in that you had to do something: mute the channels.

Maybe others just accept the defaults

True, but in every chat app ever that I've used, nothing is muted by default.

And the reasoning is quite simple, for the average user who doesn't change any default value, a by-default-muted chat app is useless. There would be no messaging as far as a regular user would be concerned. What good is a chat app where you can't chat? :-)

You know, I’ve been thinking on this. You’re right. My office chair is way too comfortable—I need the backache to keep me motivated to leave work at work. /s