07/09/2020

How to Use Slack Without Annoying Your Colleagues

Here are some tips on how to make Slack work for you

Whether you've been working from home for a decade or have been thrust into the remote office for the first time, navigating the minefield of text-only communication can be dense, difficult and draining. Slack is the go-to communication program for many remote offices, but used improperly, you could end up unintentionally annoying all your coworkers.

“Digital communication is much more challenging than physical communication, because it lacks the ability to really transfer tone well,” said Elaine Swann, etiquette expert and founder of the Swann School of Protocol. “The inflections in our voice get lost, and we're not able to hear or emphasize body language that sometimes speaks louder than words.”

Couple that with notification overload and water cooler talk spamming your work channels, and you’re bound to get a little frustrated with your colleague’s Slack usage—or vice versa. If you’re new to an organization, it helps to go through the Slack history to see what the style is—do people joke around a lot? Do casual conversations mix with work, or do people use a lot of emoji? That’ll get you a long way to feeling like part of the in crowd. But, above all else, there are a few best practices you should follow to avoid driving people nuts.

Please select this link to read the complete article from WIRED.