How to Navigate Office Etiquette in Slack
It is possible that among some of the co-workers, friends and people with uncertain relationships that make up its 5 million daily users , Slack’s chat software has fulfilled its stated goal : “To make work easier, more enjoyable, and more productive. “In my personal experience, he sometimes achieved one or the other of these goals, although rarely at the same time.
Slack What really makes it extremely reliable, so it provides a chat, which you may or may not be required to participate in your work. In that sense, it’s similar to its predecessors Hipchat (which still exists), Campfire ( doesn’t exist now if you haven’t used the program yet ) and IRC (which is a protocol and predates all others, but now is not the time to get into that). But due to the combination of time, good design, ease of use on a smartphone, and the whims of the extremely wealthy, Slack (the company) is said to be worth over $ 1 billion and continues to grow. This means that millions of the aforementioned users must figure out how to behave in their new, possibly work, chatting home.
The problem with proposing etiquette rules for Slack is that the rules that apply will vary greatly from situation to situation. The way you should behave in your work in Slack is different from how you should behave in your Slack “shoot the shit with your friends.” And how you should speak in your Slack company will depend on where you work. However, as with the rest of the web, the way Slack works in general creates a few rules that you really need to follow so that you can coexist harmoniously with your coworkers or whoever the heck you talk to.
1. Imagine that everything you say is read out loud in public.
Admittedly, this isn’t only true for Slack, but it’s also worth applying this rule to email or anything you say on the Internet in general, but this is especially true for Slack. (This can help to think of this as the “ What if this were read in open court? ” Rule.) Chats are informal in nature, and this informality encourages you to shoot shit in a way that is not always appropriate or safe when using the program. which may at some point in the future allow your boss (s) or the whole world to read what you say, even in your private messages .
Again, depending on where you work or who you talk to, what is normal can vary. But if you don’t have control over your storage settings (which you almost certainly don’t), be very careful. You can fall prey to flawed privacy settings: As Molly Fisher of New York Magazine told New York Magazine earlier this year , sometimes people get caught talking shit just because they think they are on a private channel when they are actually on public channel. Even if shit is the norm in your company, it’s never a bad idea to tread lightly – it’s better to be a more reserved person in the room than someone who plays too fast and sly.
2. Be careful with @channel and @here
Slack has two functions, @channel and @here, that allow you to send notifications to everyone in a given channel / room and to everyone who uses that channel on their desktop, respectively. They are extremely useful if you need to quickly communicate something like a fire alarm, free meals, or some breaking news that is relevant to everyone’s life. They are very annoying when they ask if anyone has a spare pen. The potential for abuse and erroneous notifications when using @channel and @here is such that when you use the former, Slack double-checks if you want to, letting you know how many people you will be sending notifications to and how many different time zones in which these are allocated. people.
Proceed with caution.
3. Respect someone’s ~ status ~
It might not be superfluous to say that Slack is essentially an AIM chat in which adults are forced to participate as part of the job, and in line with this role, it allows users to set their “status” to indicate that they are in a meeting, or on vacation, or sick leave. Respect these statuses. If it’s not urgent and someone’s busy, maybe just sit back and wait for them to get back to work before bombarding them with messages. Grab seltzer water, go for a walk, do other work – there are many things to do in due time, other than sending someone else busy with a series of messages. It may also be useful to apply this rule to messages in non-working hours in the French style . Once again, this is very dependent on the situation: maybe you can write to someone who is not available, if you mentioned that it is not urgent, but he may receive one or two notifications.
4. Organization is the key to success
It’s pretty straightforward. Naming conventions can vary from place to place (or as a way for overzealous new bosses to announce their presence), but chances are good you’ll end up in at least a couple of channels with the same name at some point. To avoid errors and potential embarrassment when placing anything dedicated to a private channel in a public channel, use flagging, mute, and other settings built into the software to group your channels and messages by type, importance, or whatever. helps you avoid fucked up.
4. If you are at work, you should probably use an avatar that will make you recognizable.
There is some leeway in this, although some companies have adopted this as official policy. Slack has become the de facto method of communication in many of the workplaces that use it, and with that comes the fact that people will recognize you by the avatar you use. If it’s your face it will help colleagues recognize you, but if it’s an illustration of a 19th century monkey (an avatar I used once for a few months), it’s not.
Speaking of recognizability, be careful not to be too talkative (or at least seem too talkative) when you have to work. If you have some kind of deadline or your boss knows you have a specific task to do, spending a lot of time on the public channel talking about lunch can get you in trouble. At least take it to the secret channel you use to complain about the said boss.
5. Be careful with / giphy.
Slack has a very popular plugin that allows users to post GIFs by typing / giphy [search term]. The plugin finds the GIF marked with the search term in the GIPHY service and places it. It’s cool, but you can’t see which GIF he is posting. This means you might end up with some pretty promising GIFs, or at least GIFs with some unintended meaning, since the GIFs provided by the integration are G rated by default. So, you know, be judicious with this command. This can be changed so that you can preview the GIF before posting, but by default this setting is not enabled.
6. Be nice
One of the side effects of Slack becoming the de facto way of communicating in offices is that new hires can feel alienated. Your Slack is likely littered with private channels that you and your work friends use to gossip, or post stupid bullshit, or share photos of pets, or all of the above. That’s okay (remember rule number one though), but if you’re laughing at a meme or private joke in one of these weak channels in the office, the new person is likely to feel confused or possibly left out. you need to invite them to all your cool secret channels, but try talking to them, say hello, or share some tips over lunch. Maybe even invite them to some of your cold secret channels. Do it because it feels good to the other person.
7. Errors are possible.
Etiquette is common, and Slack etiquette is no exception. If the place you work or the group of friends you chat with on Slack doesn’t have strict rules, most of the above (and any other rules you may have) are malleable. You will probably screw up and break the informal rules at some point, just like others. If these are serious, truly serious violations that make others feel unsafe or truly unwelcome, this is a big deal that may require action. If someone posts too many good GIFs, it doesn’t really matter. When it comes to the latter, be judicious about your reactions and remember that everyone makes mistakes. When in doubt, a reasonable, quick, and sincere apology never hurts anyone.
8. Think about who needs to be in your Slack.
The reality is that Slack is almost always a form of work. It can be the fun part of the job, or the relatively harmless part, but if the Slack you work in is just you and your friends, it’s still part of the job. If you’re a full-time employee, that probably means you have to work for Slack, but not everyone needs to be there. If you work with freelancers or other contractors, consider if they really need the extra challenge of keeping up with another messaging service. If they are busy with day-to-day operations, they may be, but if you talk to them once a week, you might save them the hassle.