Slack and Remote Working at CRUK

With the current climate, I’m feeling very lucky to have a job where remote working is not only an option, but part of my team’s culture. Admittedly, it’s never been as tested as it since CRUK’s head office closed in response to the COVID-19 outbreak mid-March.

When I started writing this, I realised that I’ve been on our department’s Slack channel since it’s birth six years ago. Back then, my desk was inexplicably on the other side of the office compared to my two engineering teammates and we all felt a bit awkward wandering to the other side of the office to ask a quick question that could be resolved in an instant message.

Over the next few weeks, our surrounding product team joined in, spurring the need for more channels (e.g. moving the more technical discussions to #general-dev). Slowly, Slack usage grew to the point where our whole directorate was using it to some extent, and up to today where there are just shy of 800 members in the #general channel. This is great as it helps a lot with communication, but it can cause issues.

Staying sane with Slack

Just to preface some tips: I am a very active Slack user and I despise unread notifications. Because of this, I read every new message almost every time I see the little red badge on the Slack icon. This isn’t ideal but it’s something I’ve learned to cope with.

Most of the time, notifications are not useful. If you’re struggling with a lot of noise from Slack I would first check that notifications are disabled. This lets you use Slack when you choose rather than Slack badgering you every time someone uses @here in the #cat channel. If you genuinely need notifications enabled, you can also disable @here on a per-channel basis in your notification preferences.

You can also disable the red badge on the Slack app’s icon, look for the ‘Show a badge on Slack’s icon to indicate new activity.’ checkbox. This is a discovery I’ve only recently made but it helps a lot with anxiety over unread messages.

If you’re like me and easily distracted by unread messages, remember that it’s OK to turn off Slack if you need to get something done. This is just the remote working version of finding a quiet corner of the office to really drill down into something.

You can also use the /remind command to make sure you don’t forget about someone’s query that you don’t have time to answer right now.

My Wishlist for Slack etiquette

If Slack’s strength is that it’s far more conversational than email, we should be making the most of this.

• If you have a query and you think someone specific might know the answer, try posting your query in a channel relevant to that query. You never know, someone else might know the answer, and if not, you’ve just captured some knowledge!
• Next, this shouldn’t come as a surprise, but if you are going to post your query in a channel, don’t use @here unless the office is literally on fire. Even then, don’t or you’ll look like Moss from The IT Crowd!
• If you must direct message someone to ask a query, don’t wait for a response — ask away! Don’t just say hi - I’ll either forget or I’ll have you lingering in my headspace.
• Finally, if your Slack makes use of giphy (and why not?), the CRUK Tech team have decreed that the shuffle must never be enabled — inappropriate gifs are all part of the fun!

Wrapping up

We’re in some strange times but hopefully this can help someone de-clutter their workflow. Remember, Slack is a tool, not a work queue.