Part of the reason why Slack has been so successful vs. other corporate messaging solutions is that it encourages employees to bring their “whole self” to work.
It’s perhaps the most important thing at work to feel like you can communicate easily and without fear of reprisal from managers and in my opinion had a lot to do with my extensive use of Slack.
It felt like, for the first time, the communications platform wasn’t “owned” by the strict hierarchy of the company. I created my own channels, and felt no fear when I communicated with co-workers. I wasn’t doing anything “wrong” ever in my communications, but, let’s face it: there are things that you don’t want your boss to know, especially if like the majority of people, you’re working for a bad boss that has to be “managed” himself.
If Slack continues in this manner, while it may make sense from a liability and business perspective, employees aren’t going to trust the platform anymore the first time a manager reads a private conversation and uses it against someone. And generally I’ve found it’s not hard to figure out you’re being spied upon.
I’m not sure what the solution is, but definitely if Slack allows managers private access (without a court order or similar serious situation where such access would be warranted), they can no longer claim they want employees to “bring their whole self” to work anymore.
I agree. It feels like Slack broke our trust. I don't have any records, but do remember slack in it's earlier days promised of not sharing private communication to the employers and sending the logs directly to govt agencies or 3rd party audit agencies.
> It’s perhaps the most important thing at work to feel like you can communicate easily and without fear of reprisal from managers and in my opinion had a lot to do with my extensive use of Slack.
This is a problem with your management, not with Slack. If your managers are abusing such a tool to read everything you write then you have much much bigger problems.
Yep. I work totally remotely and Slack felt fundamentally different to email: my extensive DM's with coworkers felt very analogous to physical contact.
Sometimes, if you're working in an office, you just want to lean back in your chair and whisper to your coworker "what a fuckin awful meeting, what was [boss] thinkin?". And as a full-time remote worker, Slack was the only place for that. I feel this will make 100% remote a lot tougher and more isolating because the life-line that was private contact has been severed.
It’s perhaps the most important thing at work to feel like you can communicate easily and without fear of reprisal from managers and in my opinion had a lot to do with my extensive use of Slack.
It felt like, for the first time, the communications platform wasn’t “owned” by the strict hierarchy of the company. I created my own channels, and felt no fear when I communicated with co-workers. I wasn’t doing anything “wrong” ever in my communications, but, let’s face it: there are things that you don’t want your boss to know, especially if like the majority of people, you’re working for a bad boss that has to be “managed” himself.
If Slack continues in this manner, while it may make sense from a liability and business perspective, employees aren’t going to trust the platform anymore the first time a manager reads a private conversation and uses it against someone. And generally I’ve found it’s not hard to figure out you’re being spied upon.
I’m not sure what the solution is, but definitely if Slack allows managers private access (without a court order or similar serious situation where such access would be warranted), they can no longer claim they want employees to “bring their whole self” to work anymore.
Oh well. It was nice while it lasted.