Slack’s SVP of People, Robby Kwok, said the company’s faced unprecedented times because of the COVID-19 pandemic, adding: “We’ve evolved along with it. First and foremost, that means prioritizing our employees’ health and well-being, while also providing as much clarity as possible on our plans for the future.” Kwok continued, stating, Slack’s on its way to becoming “A much more distributed company.” Most of the collaboration company’s employees will soon be able to work from home permanently if they choose, “We’ll begin to increase the amount of permanent remote employees we hire, too” Kwok summarized.
This will let Slack better deal with ongoing health challenges once it reopens its Silicon Valley-based offices so the company can “Prioritize the health and safety of employees.” As such, Slack’s extending the timeline for official office reopenings beyond September 1, 2020, I’m told.
“We don’t yet have a date when offices will reopen for limited use, but we’ll continue to monitor the situation and share updates as we know more”
Things are expected to look a lot different once offices do open up, and not just for Slack, but Kwok said that employees will have fewer amenities, meaning no catered lunches or coffee. The focus on in-person meetings with colleagues will lessen, Slack said. Acknowledging that this would impact everyone who has a stake in Slack including vendors, contractors, etc. “This is a responsibility we take seriously, which is why we’re committing to pay all Slack contractors through the end of 2020.”
The move comes as no surprise, especially as the number of cases in the U.S. continues to grow. Enclosed spaces are significant to the survival of novel Coronavirus germs that can linger in these spaces, according to experts, effectively making offices into Petri dishes and the ideal environment to spread said germs. We can only assume, knowing the dangers of returning to the ‘norm’ that reopening offices comes with a lot of other considerations. Slack’s move is widely seen as wise and I will not be shocked once more companies follow suit.
Workplace collaboration developer Slack recently released a new emoji pack for remote workers. To provide more context for Slack statuses, which the company said its customers complained about in a blog post writing: “According to our customers (and our own recent experience), when the majority—if not all—of your company ‘works remotely,’ that status is useless. Instead, you need to give a little more information or context around your availability.”
The emojis range from socially distanced high fives to heads-down work, and family time to reflect the growing number of new situations employees find themselves in. Emojis are set to make a debut this week and will be available to everyone in the coming days, according to the company. Add the emoji set by clicking the “add emoji” button located in the emoji picker.
Slack’s cleaned up its UI and overall user experience over the past few months. In addition, the company’s also formed a partnership with AWS to enable video and audio calling from within the platform, a sign that Slack’s getting serious about competition with Microsoft Teams.
