Gideon Lichfield: Precisely.
Lauren Goode: And you can actually pause.
Gideon Lichfield: Yes, and that’s what makes it so easy, because there are 17 different apps but only one phone.
Lauren Goode: But then you wake up in the morning and at 6am you’ve slept blissfully for eight hours and there’s an email from Anna Wintour addressed to you and you’re like, “Wow, I really haven’t had my phone in that long have to put down.”
Gideon Lichfield: No, it’s more like, “I really shouldn’t have picked up my phone right now. I should have waited and left, had breakfast and coffee and some exercise and then picked up the phone, and Anna Wintour can wait.” I’m sorry, Anna.
Lauren Goode: Wow, you heard it here first. Dare I say that’s remarkably healthy, not specifically for your boss, but for any boss.
Gideon Lichfield: That would be the ideal. I’m not saying that’s what I actually achieve every morning, but that’s what I aspire to do. But I think what Lidiane said is very important for establishing culture. On Slack you can now schedule messages to not be sent until the next morning, but I think you should also just create a work culture that says if you get a Slack from me outside of your normal work hours, I don’t expect you to respond.
Lauren Goode: Isn’t that somehow the ultimate form of tech solutionism? That: “Oh look, they added this feature that lets you schedule something. They fix the problem that all this software has created.”
Gideon Lichfield: True, but that’s why I say it must also be a matter of culture. Like you can have the schedule message button but I think you should also just set the expectation that if someone messages you outside of work hours they shouldn’t expect a response unless they absolutely need one and if they absolutely need one need, that’s what calling is for.
Lauren Goode: I think it all goes back to the out of office message. I think we have to go back to the days of AOL instant messenger Away messages.
Gideon Lichfield: Which you can have on Slack though, can’t you?
Lauren Goode: You can, but no one pays attention to it. I have spoken to Lidiane about this. It was like customer complaint line. I was like, “And by the way, let me tell you what happened in Slack,” and even when I silenced notifications on one device, I could hear the sound of notifications coming from Slack through my iPad across the room.
Gideon Lichfield: But did you respond to these messages?
Lauren Goode: I was. I was. And I even got on a Zoom with you and another editor that day.
Gideon Lichfield: So I feel like you blame the software. I mean, yes, the sick emoji exists to indicate that you’re sick, but you also, I think, enable other people’s behavior if you react to it. In other words, if you put up the sick emoji and other people message you, they might interpret the sick emoji as, “OK, I can message her, but I don’t expect a response from her.” And if you do respond, you’ll be the one breaking the treaty instead of them.
