Re:How Slack Harms Projects
by vinceguidry on Sunday August 18, 2019 @09:55AM
(#20730143)
I think upper management cares much much more about perceptions than about actual individual productivity. So long as the "mission is accomplished" then they'll spend as much money as they need to ensure the optics goal is met doing it. And teams that look happy and engaged are preferable to a workforce that's 5x more productive but doesn't look happy and engaged, probably because they're busy doing work.
My org just burned wheelbarrows full of cash bringing on like a hundred interns and then holding an immense company-wide conference, all for optics. It was well understood that very little work was going to get done.
Even with a lot of creativity I can't imagine how the workforce being unproductive and doing their work at home instead of the workplace where they're actually being paid to work is in the interests of your organisation.
What appears to me more likely is that someone in upper management has been roped into using slack because it's the next hip thing being pitched by some sales team and that nobody is actually aware how much productivity it costs.