
No one is talking about the biggest problem with Slack - raiyu
https://qz.com/1641708/slack-doesnt-care-that-you-cant-block-a-workplace-harasser/
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frankish
I agree with Slack's position on this. Muting or blocking a co-worker is not a
long-term solution. These types of issues in a work environment need to be
resolved, not ignored.

~~~
greenyoda
Exactly. And the right solution in this case would have been to contact HR and
file a harassment complaint. (Or alternatively, tell the harasser that if they
don't stop immediately, HR will be notified.)

If Slack is being used as an office communication system, the company needs to
make sure that people treat it as part of their office (like corporate
e-mail), not as some kind of social network.

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dclusin
In practice how this is works is that the person being harassed goes to HR, HR
does nothing, and then that person quits. Nothing usually happens to harasser.
The point of HR is to protect the company from its employees, not help
mitigate disputes.

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whenchamenia
This is untrue. Most HR, while the companies agent first, sees harassment as a
huge liability and loves to be able to take action with sufficient
documentation.

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munchbunny
What about when the documentation is incomplete and it's one person's word
against another's on a subjective body of messages and actions, and where the
aggressor is often of a higher rank?

Sexual harassment often lacks sufficient documentation, and that's precisely
why HR is usually not seen as an ally to the victim.

~~~
greenyoda
In some cases evidence is scarce, but in the story told in this article, there
would seem to be a set of messages recorded in Slack, so it wouldn't just be
one person's word against another. If the person being harassed wanted to make
a really strong case, they would have sent a Slack reply saying "Don't ever
send me this kind of message again!" to have a record of it.

This also makes it scary for HR, since if they do nothing and the victim sues,
the Slack messages could turn up during discovery.

(I'm also guessing that this kind of behavior suggests that the aggressor is
not of higher rank. Someone with real power over the victim probably wouldn't
just stalk them on Slack, and any manager would be acutely aware that you
don't want to say things like that in writing.)

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ClassyJacket
She should talk to her company's management. It's not a social network for
meeting people, it's a work tool. If someone was harassing me in person at
work, I would speak to my team leader. Same if they did it on Skype or Slack.

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raiyu
I think there's a difference between asking Slack to police it, versus just
having the ability to mute a conversation or limited do not disturb.

There are conversations where you need to be more or less involved, and
choosing your level of involvement on a per conversation basis, rather than on
the entire account would be helpful.

Of course it looks like a minor "feature request" but I'm sure rolling that
out would actually be a bit of an under taking. I know that I had to cull the
channels I was in and other conversations so that the alerts I was receiving
were actually pertinent to me, especially on the mobile app. Not as much of a
problem on Desktop, but none the less.

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vokep
How would a mute button make her situation better? That will not make the
problem (the guy's behavior) go away. He'll realize she muted him, and find
other ways. Tell HR.

Slacks response is entirely reasonable.

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milkytron
I agree with the other commenters, Slack shouldn't be responsible for managing
workplace harassment.

But on another note, does Skype for Business, Webex Teams, or any other
workplace IM application allow blocking of other users? The author should be
comparing Slack to those instead of social media that you can easily opt out
of. You can't really opt out of corporate IM.

~~~
ClassyJacket
I just checked and Skype for Business actually does, but I was surprised.
That's not a tool you should ever need in the workplace.

~~~
thrower123
It's sort of common in the older generation of more enterpisey chat platforms.
Ethical firewalls are a huge requirement in some industries, and a lot of them
are implemented as just block lists.

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baobabKoodaa
The ability to mute would be useful for more than just the harassment example.
I frequently get useless notifications from Slack bots, which either give me
useless tips on how to use Slack or ask me some useless gallup questions. It's
mind boggling that Slack not only thinks these constant interruptions to
everyone's workday are somehow beneficial -- but also that people shouldn't
have the ability to turn them off.

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liveoneggs
a co worker is harassing you on a fully logged corporate platform? there
_might_ be another solution than "blocking" (aka ignoring)

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zarmin
Non-native widgets? Insanely laggy UI if you have more than one workspace
signed in? 9GB of RAM just to keep the thing running?

Oh, it's a people thing.

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bitlax
The biggest problem with Slack is that you're sharing your company's internal
communications with a third party.

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akeck
In this context (corporate), this is an HR problem. I don't think I can mute
fellow employees on Teams either. But yes, Slack gets used in other contexts
which really do need a block function.

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copacopab
In the most respectful way possible, the argument of this article is dumb. And
clickbaity.

