We tried to fix email. But what replaced it was just as bad

A truism in life is that finding a solution to one problem often ends up creating more of them. This is precisely what’s happened in the workplace, when one of the modern solutions to reducing an overflowing inbox has led to new problems to solve.

Email is generally an inefficient tool for many of the ways that we use it, and one solution to receiving fewer messages has been the shift to short, instant communications thanks to collaborative software like Slack, Microsoft Teams, Lark and even Google Chat.

Slack will have almost 50 million daily active users by the end of this year, growing from 8.7 million before the pandemic.Credit: AP

Slack was one of the pioneers in this space, launching in 2013 as a simple way to allow colleagues to send more casual messages to each other in organised #channels instead of clogging up your inbox. At the start of the pandemic it had 8.7 million daily active users. By the end of this year that number will be closer to 50 million.

That’s nothing compared with Microsoft, however, which launched its own version of real-time collaboration a few years later in 2017. Microsoft Teams now has more than 320 million people using it every single day.

Regardless of which tool you use, they are now one of the main ways we communicate at work, part of a suite of software that’s helped remote, hybrid and flexible working become the unshakeable success it is today.

However, we’ve really just replaced one problem with another. Instead of being overwhelmed by emails, employees are now saturated with Slack messages and tired of Teams. Their rise means that many workers are now expected to be ‘always-on’ and always connected to their bosses.

If we don’t take the time to consciously control new technology in a way that works for us, it won’t be long until it’s controlling us.

We’re entering dangerous territory here, as most workers are already working well over the hours they’re paid for. A 2023 Australia Institute study estimated that Australian workers were doing, on average, an extra 5.4 hours of unpaid work every week, adding up to 281 hours of unpaid work per year.

This software is also, by design, very addictive. Many have been created to be as “sticky” as possible, using tricks like dopamine feedback loops with every notification that are the same ones used in gambling to hook people in.

I must admit that I’m a former Slack addict. As a manager of lots of staff, I enjoyed being able to scroll through my teams’ conversations to see what was going on in my absence. I enjoyed the ability to rewind office chat to keep track of public conversations.

Like most of my work apps, I innocently added it to my phone one day, until checking Slack became almost an obsession. It was the first thing I checked upon waking, then repeatedly on work days, and finally on weekends, getting a small dopamine hit every time I was tagged in a post.

The day I left full-time work in 2020, I deleted Slack from my phone and computer, and have never downloaded it again. Going cold turkey is obviously an extreme tactic that not everyone can employ, so how can you break free from being “always on”?

The first is to turn off all notifications on every device. There’s a real convenience to having programs like Slack and Teams on your phone, especially to help with flexible work schedules, but adding a push notification every time someone mentions you, or you get a message, is overkill that you just don’t need.

Secondly, make sure you correctly use features like “Away” or “Do not disturb” that you can toggle on and off at different times to indicate when you are to be contacted. You should liberally use these so you can carve out time to concentrate without constant interruptions.

Lastly, these rules will only work if they are enforced, so agree on a clear set of principles for everyone in your team to follow. Without clear boundaries, it’s only too easy for them to spiral out of control.

The deep integration of collaborative software can be an effective way to fight back against the rising deluge of email, but they need to be used correctly. Turn off the defaults, step away when possible and communicate rules clearly with colleagues.

If we don’t take the time to consciously control new technology in a way that works for us, it won’t be long until it’s controlling us.

Tim Duggan is the author of Work Backwards: The Revolutionary Method to Work Smarter and Live Better. He writes a regular newsletter at timduggan.substack.com

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