Slack is Productivity Theater

It’s like email with extra steps and less security

Technology revolutionized the way we do work. For the first time in our evolutionary history, we had unfettered internet access. Email allowed remote communication with co-workers and clients. Better software and hardware makes our computers and electronics faster and more effective. Our cell-phones can even keep us connected to our schedule and emails. Innovative productivity apps and technology, however, cause distractions and lower productivity. We aren’t built for handling all of these distractions multitasking.

In light of recent news about Slack, I wanted to revisit my issues with its use. Founded in 2009, the company aimed to revolutionize work and disrupt email communications.

Now the tech giant reports revenue of around 400 million USD. It’s used by hobbyists, clubs and societies, workplaces and even laboratories.

Slack now allows users to send a message to any other user on the platform. This includes users within a different Slack workspace. This opens people up to potential avenues for harassment. This is all sounding a little familiar with the constant notifications and harassment. Slack has gone full-circle, morphing into email.

Is Slack peak productivity theater?

Like email with more urgency

It is time to do away with constant emails and announcements. Especially the ones where somebody inevitably clicks Reply All. Slack creates a workspace with separate spaces to discuss different topics or projects. These separate spaces are called channels. The chat features let you send messages to other users for more direct communication.

Instead of the email announcements clogging our inbox, we receive pings and notifications. We are tagged in different channels or conversation threads. We are continuously pinged and urged to check our mobile or Desktop notifications. This perpetual connection to work makes us anxious. Are we replying to a co-worker fast enough? Have we missed any notifications?

There is no barrier to sending a message. The informal nature of the platform makes it easier than ever to send a message.

Feel like you need to prove that you’re working on something? Make sure to respond quickly to any message!

Unlike email, Slack unintentionally creates a sense of urgency. The GIFs and other features or integrations are the bells and frills of the system.

Like email with worse security

Slack isn’t more secure than email or other messaging platforms either. It recently admitted to leaving passwords unencrypted for a month. They stored these passwords as plain text. This means that if someone got a hold of them, they wouldn’t need to use any tools or ciphers to decrypt it. A savvy hacker that knows how to look for it could easily find it. Is this just a one-off security issue?

The platform does not offer end-to-end (E2E) encryption like other messaging apps. In E2E encryption, a message is encrypted by one device and can only be decrypted by the receiving device. In some cases, your employer can access private messages and channels. Using Slack opens us to privacy and security issues that other platforms and email avoid. Slack allows paid clients to index, archive and search through all posts on the workspace.

Like email but more distractions

How many apps and tabs do you have open right now? Instead of focusing on one tab or task, we are constantly moving between windows or tabs. According to a Microsoft study, information workers switch windows/tabs every 40 seconds.

Slack is designed in a very user-friendly way. People want to use the app, we want to get rid of those pesky notifications. The extra bells and whistles, more communication and messages, disrupt our work. We provide proof-of-productivity by responding very quickly to Slack messages. When Slack experienced a short outage for a few hours, people reported higher levels of productivity, via RescueTime. What are we supposed to make of all this?

We always overestimate our innate ability to multi-task. The truth is, we really can’t focus on multiple things at once. Our attention and focus are finite, forcing us to refocus every time we switch tasks. Productivity expert and author Cal Newport suggests longer productivity blocks where we focus on a single task. Even a momentary glimpse towards our inbox throws a wrench in our focus. Slack is like email, with lots of notifications we are obligated to check. Unlike email, we receive Slack messages much more often.

Checking our Slack is draining. We can get addicted to checking it in the morning and evenings, just like email. Cal Newport explains why this is problematic:

“If you keep interrupting your evening to check and respond to e-mail, or put aside a few hours after dinner to catch up on an approaching deadline, you’re robbing your directed attention centers of the uninterrupted rest they need for restoration. Even if these work dashes consume only a small amount of time, they prevent you from reaching the levels of deeper relaxation in which attention restoration can occur. ” Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World

Email is also a major time-drain and productivity pit. But the barrier to communication is slightly higher. You’ll receive fewer emails than you would receive Slack messages over the day. With email etiquette, it is normal to take a day or two to respond to non-urgent emails.

People need time to focus and work on a task without short distractions and breaks. In chasing faster and deeper communication in work, Slack reduces productivity. The stress and anxiety of replying to a Slack message are heightened.

Slack is peak productivity theater

With Slack, we can show our value and dedication to the workplace. We can reply to messages quickly and even after hours to gain favor with supervisors. We are more accessible than over to our bosses and co-workers. All the while, Slack continues to offer less and fewer benefits over traditional email.

Checking our Slack notifications often will distract us from our work. Given the amount of time it takes for us to refocus, this is problematic. The culture of making work faster, better and more productive puts extra pressure on the workplace. As more and more companies are taking accelerationism to the extreme. More innovation, more task automation, more streamlining, quicker communication. It makes a lot more sense to slow down and do away with the productivity theater. Rather than focusing on getting the most work done effectively, we need a healthy balance.