Hot Take: Chat is the Enshittification on Emails and Calls

Work chat channels are the worst. When left to occur organically, chat conversations are disorganized, nothing is tracked, and everything is forgotten in a day.

As a High Performer™, I have devised a series of intentional systems and protocols so that I can participate in this lazy mode of communication effectively. However, I argue that even if we were super intentional and strategic with our chats all this effort would achieve the same, if not better, outcomes if we just applied the chat use cases to thoughtful emails and thoughtful calls.

Thoughtful Emails

Emails are the best medium for introducing something new to your team, sharing updates, and detailed instructions.

Do I really need to outline why? They are asynchronous, maintained as a thread to record the conversational progression (at least in gmail, outlook is terrible), and can be organized with labels and folders in your own personal system so you can always retrieve them.

The main problem with emails comes from the sender refusing to think - then emails become bloated, off-topic, not sent to the right audience, and so on. But, it would be so lovely to show up at work, open your email (during business hours only) and be able to systematically go through your inbox and see:

·        What you should know.

·        What is needed from you.

And then know those things and do those things and then be done!

Instead, in a chat-based organization, you have to show up, open slack or teams, see whatever bs has popped into your co-workers' minds and then be sure to bookmark anything you have to remember because it is lost to the masses.

Not to mention that the chat interruptions happen ALL DAY because if you turn off your notifications, you'll miss time-sensitive messages.

Thoughtful Calls

This may seem totally unintuitive but if you need to talk something through…why not talk something through? I hate picking up the phone as much as the next person, but, when it’s time to have a discussion, there is no denying that getting on a call to brainstorm and discuss works.

The caveat is that everyone joining the call needs to be prepared to focus and discuss. This is why chatting seems so attractive. Its asynchronous nature allows lazy, ad hoc discussions that do not need any intentionality.

But Salimah, you may say, I run a startup so I need to move fast! I don’t have time for all this bureaucratic nonsense!

Well, straw-person, your problem is that you think that effort takes time, when in reality, it only takes thought. Taking a minute to clarify your intentions and goals helps you be more effective in your communication, thereby quickly enrolling people into your thought process and getting to where you need to be way faster than what you are currently doing. So figure out why you are so resistant to thinking before interacting with your team and get your shit together!

Do you swear by your organizations slack or teams? Send me a thoughtful message on why!
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