How Slack changed Apple’s employee culture, with Zoë Schiffer

There have always been listservs/IRC channels/email chains and other electronic and non-electronic means for employees to talk about various subjects. Apple has removed these before and will remove them in the future. A popular whiteboard located near the office of a former VP was removed because a message hurt his feelings. You should never assume that Apple, or any other company, is going to allow employees to use their forums at company expense without Apple corporate getting involved.

I was long gone before Slack came to Apple. Back then, I avoided becoming involved in any online communication that wasn't directly related to my work. I follow this strategy today. I don't participate in Slack channels about anything other than work topics. Maybe I am privileged, or a humorless killjoy that doesn't want to post animated GIFs or photos of my vacation or any of the other non-work relevant topics that make up most of the Slack channels at places I have worked.

Some people are much more vocal about issues and love to discuss these issues on Slack, company mailing lists, etc. This always seems to end poorly for the employees.

If you want to get serious about some of the issues brought up in this article, I can only think of trying to organize and get the NRLB involved, set up collective bargaining and use a lot of the same mechanisms that labor used in other industries.

This solution isn't compelling to me, but as I said before, maybe I am privileged. It is my opinion that Slack channels, online surveys and other forums to vent complaints is not the answer, but I don't know what is.