Slack is become popular for communication and collaboration tools among Tech companies or even for Non-tech companies. You and me agreed that Slack is brilliant. We are not only using Slack for communication tools but we also can build an amazing bot and integrated them into another external system.

Especially since the pandemic, many companies enforce their employee to Work from Home. That’s why Slack turned into a Multi-Billion dollar company. Despite on how useful slack is, there’s still a downside to this amazing app. This app can affect people's behavior instead of keeping good communication, many people do something effortless as their acknowledgment.

Since you working not in the same room. Your team has communication problems. A big Problems

Emojis become popular among Slack Users. We can use emoji to express our emotions so other people can understand what do you feel at that time. Like celebrating your teammate birthday or just making a sign that you already acknowledge something.

I agree that Slack Emojis are fun, super fun. But you might not use Emojis in some situations.

Emojis as Affirmation

When your teammate sends you a message about something and you be a part of it even if they don’t mention you. Please don’t use react 👍 👌.etc as a sign “Ah Okay, I understand” it . They need more than that, they need a discussion they need another idea and they need a real response. If the whole company doing that, it will become a culture for them and it will leads to miscommunication. It might be more worst in the future, it will create a lack of communication problem

Emojis as Appreciation and Celebration

When you have a new onboarding guy. We give them a welcome warm. The HR share the information on the #general channel or #onboarding channel and all people celebrate it by reacting with Emojis. Or, today is your teammate's birthday and we celebrate them via Slack channel. But again, everyone reacts with emojis only.

For me, it’s hurt. They need a real response. Text is better than emojis. Text + emojis are powerful

They don’t feel like they have real friends, just a bot. They feel like they’re missing key conversations from the hallway track. This is an asynchronous communication problem. The company getting boring, and I don’t feel energized every morning.

So, how we can improve it?

As a sender Keep two-way communication by giving a good context. By doing asynchronous communication, you understand that do not expect people will reply to your message within a minute. They might be busy or not at their desk. Be patient, check your message before you send it, and make sure that your message is easy to understand. What is the context? what is the purpose? Why do you send/ask it ? What kind of feedback do you expect? it will be good to attach some documents to help them to learn and understand the context and problem. And don't forget to mention specific people who to be part of it. Putting some emojis might be good.

This is my principle:

You can learn about that principle here: https://dontasktoask.com/

As a reader/participant remember that your teammate needs a real response and feedback, They need appreciation. Everyone hates Noted replies, but it’s better to say Noted sir! instead of leaving thumbs-up emojis. A good communication will always exchange good information. Please don’t make your company like an empty hallway where people feel working alone, isolated, and dehydrated of communication.

Good communication is the bridge between confusion and clarity (Nat Turner)