Employees responding instantly to your Slack messages is a fantastic thing. Just as the Rolls Royce is a fantastic car.
There is only one problem — the cost. If not, would we not all be driving a Rolls Royce?
What is the cost-to-company of ‘super-fast response culture’? It is devastatingly high:
- When people are constantly interrupted, they are inefficient and unproductive — it can easily take twice as long or more to get the same work done.
- To do your best work, you often need long periods of undisturbed focus. So employees are unable to do their best work.
- When you are constantly interrupted, your brain has to strain harder to do the same work due to the switching cost involved. It increases your stress and drains you out.
Last month, I spoke to a bunch of people and almost 50% felt the invisible pressure to instantly reply to every message.
And there are reasons for that, especially in a work-from-home scenario. Managers want reassurance that their team members are working and not goofing around. Also, people hate waiting for responses to their messages.
But just as we opt for lower-cost cars instead of a Rolls Royce, we should find low-cost alternatives to the ‘instant response’ culture.
We can do many things to solve this problem but sharing them here will make this post too long.
However, a solid starting point would be to give employees an hour or two every day free from checking messages frequently. If they use this time for deep work, I am confident that the outcome would convince most managers to make this a permanent feature.
– Rajan