Homeworking with Slack

I have been working from home for a few years now, with Slack as my primary tool for communicating with colleagues. For me, This took a little getting used to, and I am aware that younger people than me are far more familiar with instant messaging, so my experience may not be very helpful. But in case it is of any use, I thought I would pass on what I have learned.

Treat Slack like phone call, email like a letter.

Slack is an interruption, like a phone call, so try to follow the same pattern: say hello, say what you want to say, then say that you have finished saying it, and stop saying it with a cheery goodbye. Slack back when you need to, but try to make it clear when you have finished talking for now. Otherwise, if you are Slacking me, I will have my hands poised over the keyboard in case I need to reply, mouthing the words 'any more?'. Emails are better for lists and things you need to refer to, because anything on Slack will eventually disappear off the top of the thread and be forgotten forever.

Explain if you are going to go silent for a bit.

If someone asks you for some involved information, say 'That will take a minute…' and get the information. Silence could mean anything, and the sender has no idea if you are at your desk or not, or if you understand the request. That you do understand, and are working on it, is useful data.

Presenteeism is a danger.

You are going to feel an urge to show you are working - and be convinced that people are thinking you are down the pub if you just go to the bathroom. You might feel the urge to take your laptop with you to the kitchen when making a cup of tea, in case you are messaged. Try to ignore this urge: hot water and laptops are not compatible.

Paranoia is your life now.

Also, you may experience a roller coater of emotions to the simple reply 'oh, ok.' Does this mean it is ok? Or is the recipient deeply disappointed with my reply? Facial expressions will be missed, so try to avoid this by using expressive emojis.

Clarify a task

I often (I am sure, annoyingly) end an exchange with 'So, what I am doing is…' and repeating exactly what I think I am being asked to do. Getting crossed wires is much easier over Slack, because you don't get the visual cues from being face to face, and context is missing.

Check the channel

When Slack sends a 'notification', it does not show the channel the notification is from. This can be annoying, as you can end up answering 'Where are we on this?' with the project that happens to be on your mind, rather than the one related to the channel the question was posed. And I try to keep conversations in the correct channel, but I often get it wrong. If you do this, you can always copy and paste what you typed into the correct one.

Direct messages

No one else can see your direct messages, which is sometimes useful. If you can't see the person you want to message under the 'Direct Message' heading on the left, it is most probably because you have not messaged them yet. Click on the '+' and find them on the list.

Status and Away

You can set a status, which comes with a emoticon. I like to communicate that I am having lunch with a rather boring icon of some white bread, but you can edit your status list, and choose your own. 'Set yourself to away' is different as this 'greys' the green dot that tell other Slack users you are about. This is like stealth mode. If you wake up with a gnawing doubt on your day off and don't want to alert everyone that you are about, set yourself to 'away'.

Notifications

You can set your notifications (and other preferences) by clicking on your name. I tend to want a notification for everything - but some people set it so that they only get notified if someone 'ats' them (by including their name in a post like this: '@chrishughes').

Be kind!

Always assume that anyone could end up being a member of any channel. Because then they will be able to read anything you said - even if you didn't intend them to.