Even Slack now recognizes office information overload. But technology may have a solution to the problem it created

Returning to work after the quiet and respite of the holidays is never easy. But in the 2020s, preparing oneself for the pressures of January isn’t just about work, a commute, or conflict with colleagues: it means coming back to an endless barrage of communication. Regardless of what field you work in, you likely know this already.

Beyond the persistent stream of email, a phenomenon now well over two decades old, but the rise of new technologies mean that one has to stay on top of an array of communication channels. In addition to Slack or Microsoft Teams, there are also texts and phone calls, too. The problem is apparently so bad that software makers are trying to solve problems of their own creation.

This week, Slack called Catch Up which lets you swipe through direct messages as if you were on a dating app: swipe left to mark it as read, swipe right to come back to it later. The feature, according to a Slack exec who spoke to The Verge, is meant to help people “triage” their inflow of information, using spare time to manage one’s communication.

It’s a pattern common in modern apps — email apps on phones also let you quickly swipe away the detritus that quickly builds in one’s inbox. Still, it’s worth wondering how it is we got here — and whether it’s actually where we want to be, too. When Slack first arrived, it felt like a breath of fresh air.

By centralizing communication in one place, it also allowed it to be the place collaboration could take place. Slack is more conversational than epistolary, which makes it better for real time discussions and a sense of collegiality as well. The trouble, however, is that Slack and, later, competitor Microsoft Teams, turned into their own time sucks.

With multiple workspaces, channels, direct messages and more, Slack can sometimes feel like its own part time job despite the company’s best efforts to try and rein in some of that chaos. Adding fuel to fire is the fact that email hasn’t gone anywhere. In many place it is still the home for more official communication, and is obviously how people connect with those outside their own organization.

Then factor in that the most immediate way to reach someone is one their phone via text or WhatsApp, and it’s easy to see how one can get overloaded by communication work rather than work itself. The whole trend is itself underpinned by the ubiquity and even potential insidiousness of tech: that one can not only get Slacks and emails all day, but one can get them all evening or on the weekends too.

Funnily, research from Slack’s own team suggested that the stress of persistent communication . The company even has that helpfully instruct one in ways to deal with information overload. As for a solution, it’s the kind of intractable problem that might have some longing for a kind of revolution.

After all, Slack’s attempts to make its own product easier to use does have a certain feel of missing the forest for the trees. Still, there are steps that can be taken. The old cliche “you can’t manage what you don’t measure” feels applicable here. For larger organizations, tracking of the volume and pace of communication seems like a no brainer in terms of employee satisfaction and well being, particularly since after the pandemic there is a new focus on mental health at work.

Choosing the right channel and time for communiqués also seems key. Most of us know that one co worker who either ignores rules around post work communication, or who spams Slack or email with queries. Better to be judicious and save up questions and comments to ask at appropriate times. Formalizing such an approach in company policies seems obvious, and if your company hasn’t so far, it’s already past time it did.

Yet, there is also a surprising option going forward. While what we now call “AI” in the form of ChatGPT and other tools may have its problems, one thing it does seem to do well with is summarization. It’s not hard to imagine simple AI tools to summarize, condense, and triage the flood of messages, conversations, and emails that one gets.

We should be wary of tech based solutions to the problems of tech, but this seems like a case where it might be helpful. Some response is necessary, however. When even companies like Slack recognize how unmanageable workplace communication has become it’s clear that change is needed. Connecting with colleagues, clients, and the public is the core of modern work.

But when that basic aspect of a job turns into a torrent, then both workers and the work itself may get washed away..