“The workplace is continuously evolving – and never more so than in the past few years. hours worked, emails sent) among their employees, but only 15% of employees believe doing so helps their productivity. A third of executives are tracking activity metrics (e.g.Employees say they are spending on average 32% of their time on performative work that doesn’t contribute to company and team goals but is done to appear productive.Many organizations are stuck in old ways of working and antiquated approaches to driving productivity: The report, based on a global survey of more than 18,000 desk workers, found only 23% of companies are investing in technology to improve productivity and efficiency, and just 27% of companies are using AI tools to help do so. The new Slack State of Work Report finds that companies are missing opportunities to unlock new levels of employee productivity with time-saving technologies, hybrid work, and talent development. For example, employees surveyed estimate saving at least one month per year through automation. Instead, concentrate on the task in hand and, never forget, walking down the corridor to have a chat or picking up the phone can build far better personal relationships without all that screen clutter.Quick take: New Slack State of Work Report finds that companies are missing opportunities to unlock employee productivity, such as using AI and automation to streamline repetitive, time-consuming tasks. So if you're worried that Slack is having a negative impact on your work and home life, don't get locked in the dopamine reward cycle of constantly checking for messages and responding to every notification. You wouldn’t dial in your manager on every call to a client, but with Slack, that is how it can feel.” “Rather than being allowed to get on with work, there’s always someone looking over their shoulder. “Bosses are in chats and so people can feel as if they’re being watched and micromanaged,” says business coach Mary MacRory. Businesses may not just lose out on productivity but also on work-life balance if their employees believe they are being constantly monitored. Nevertheless, the problem many users are finding with Slack, and other instant-messaging based productivity tools, is not just needing to check them but rather the fact they are being used in the first place. “If someone really insists we can use it, but only so long as there are milestones in a project where we agree to have proper meetings.” “It’s often out of our control because a new client will ask us to collaborate with them on it, but my push back is always that there is nothing wrong with email for messages and Dropbox for large files,” she says. But if you have to, don’t lose face to face contact. To help achieve this, she has two simple Slack rules. When she set up her design company, Perq Studio, three years ago, Laura Giffard committed to allowing staff to work to a four day week. This productivity issue has led some executives to dramatically curb the use of Slack. People are still getting work done, she believes, but they are making up for lost time by working longer hours. Scientists found no difference in distraction between Slack and emails but one of the researchers involved, Gloria Marks, said the true cost is not so much productivity but stress.

This view agrees with research from the University of California and Humboldt University, which found workers can lose up to 23 minutes on a task every time they are interrupted.

The result is workers are increasingly finding it difficult to concentrate fully on the task they're doing. Beyond a loss of production, it has the longer term impact that users are either distracted by the tool or anticipating being distracted by it. The problem isn't necessarily Slack as a platform, but how people use instant messaging software. The result is workers end up checking messages about work, rather than doing any, he surmises.

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