Slack is like Morse code in a remote culture

Hear me out. I often wonder how the Carnegies, Rockefellers, and Morgans built empires in a time when the fastest form of communication was the telegram. Today, we have email, text, and video—all lightning speed—yet decision-making in so many companies remains slow. I believe this problem is multifaceted: from a lack of trust and wild assumptions to the disbelief that information and tasks can be completed so quickly. We’re still stuck in “human time” that slows everything down. The classic lines: “Let’s talk about it next week,” “I’ll do that tomorrow,” or “Move the meeting” …or the worst…decision (death) by committee? RFPs that no one reads, or worse an RFP for a bid less than $500,000…are all too familiar.

I’ve posted before that it’s either fully remote or fully in-office—no in-between, no hybrid—and I still stand by that. But I’m curious about the companies that are just starting out fully remote, never having had an office culture. How are they faring?

Here’s the problem with Slack: every message feels direct and robotic, with a tone that’s almost always short. In real life, it’s like asking someone, “What are you eating for dinner?” without any context or understanding of who they are. Then there’s the timing issue. Across or within departments, even a five-minute delay in response—let alone an hour—causes people to move on to other tasks. Coming back to that moment of the ask takes a mental reset. Sure, some might argue there are productivity gains, but let’s face it, we’re human. We feel. We get hungry. We get sick. We get distracted. “Human time” isn’t easily measured.

And yet, projects get done. Could they be done faster? Maybe, but at what cost? Would that mean a purely process-driven environment with no human camaraderie? The pandemic subtly but deeply changed individuals, and, as a whole, it transformed culture. It doesn’t seem like we’re returning to a humanity-based approach in any capitalistic endeavor.

I used to believe that companies could be built for the greater good of their people—gone would be the days of CEOs making 200 times what employees earn. But today, with communication tools at our fingertips and glowing screens everywhere, the need for the “human” to show up feels almost entirely gone. As of November 8, 2024… God, I hope I’m wrong. 😑

Slack is like Morse code in a remote culture by Mark Michael