Idk I’ve used both and am unbothered by either one. If I need focused time I just use a setting which signals people about my availability. Unless I get something urgent I usually check once mid morning, once around noon and once around late afternoon. Don’t let the technology drive you or your work.

Teams is a prime example of over-engineering - when you have people who want to make changes just because it justifies their work. I do a lot of the writing for my company - and when people are able to join my document who are terrible writers, it really just makes my life harder. And now you get the "I ran this part through AI and replaced your writing with AI generated garble ..."

I don’t ever respond to any teams messages between 930 am and 430 pm when remote Those are “core” working hours. It makes me seem busy calling it core.

Anonymous wrote:I love Slack, but I guess it depends on how your organization uses it. I much prefer Slack to email - it's so much easier to track conversations. I guess it depends on how your organization uses it. We are mostly remote, with a bunch of fun channels where people share babies, dogs, random news, and social media. I'm a Gen X'er so not a digital native.

We just got Slack and corporate killed off a version of Yammer/Microsoft Viva Engage. The Yammer wasn't in my face. I had to visit the internal site if I wanted to see any of the content. Slack is in my face because I need to read it to get workgroup announcements and chats. In 2 months, I've been added to 26 feeds where I might have had 5 or so before. They want push info out of e-mail and into Slack.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Slack is worse.

If Teams chat is bothering you, ask specific people kindly to collaborate with you differently.

Shared document editing, combined with Teams upload glitches, has been a problem at my work. Is this one of your problems? Switch up the document review process to be linear.

If people are pinging you too much or writing too long chat messages, mute the threads or ask them to write shorter messages or take it to e-mail.

Most workers are barrage by info clutter, but we all have different preferences for handling it. It may help for you to collaborate differently. Many people will help and share their own preferences if you only ask.

Who has enough time for linear document review? That is very 20th century.

PP. I don't care to pretend that my boss will accept any of my edits on top of his edits. Also when a whole bunch of people edit a document and one of them screws up a slide, and people don't notice right away, version rollback becomes impractical. Also, as I mentioned my Teams implementation sometimes glitches (F500 company). Maybe because of remote workers' wifi disconnects or some reason like that. Anyway, we have issues. Once a document is almost final, typically we have to lock people out of it anyway. I think a modicum of sharing is helpful but usually the heavy lifters don't need 10 other people buzzing around the doc while they're in there working. Not convinced that having bosses in there messing at will is a productivity enhancer either. (I am not in the legal field.)

Do not monitor your teams. If you have to set it to do not disturb every hour for an hour.

You can spend 15 minutes answering important messages and then put yourself on do not disturb.

If your staff is constantly messaging, you tell them to please keep notes of any questions you have and send them all at once or five minute call.


Do not be so accessible to your staff.

I find chatting - Teams, Slack, Signal - all very distracting and a very ineffective way to communicate. Some people don't write in full sentences so it is hard to understand the point of what they are saying. Others don't reference what they are replying to. If I can, I send emails instead and always ask to speak one on one when there is something important to discuss.

Do you have focus time on your calendar? You can set priory contacts also.

Anonymous wrote:Slack is worse.

If Teams chat is bothering you, ask specific people kindly to collaborate with you differently.

Shared document editing, combined with Teams upload glitches, has been a problem at my work. Is this one of your problems? Switch up the document review process to be linear.

If people are pinging you too much or writing too long chat messages, mute the threads or ask them to write shorter messages or take it to e-mail.

Most workers are barrage by info clutter, but we all have different preferences for handling it. It may help for you to collaborate differently. Many people will help and share their own preferences if you only ask.

Who has enough time for linear document review? That is very 20th century.

I love Slack, but I guess it depends on how your organization uses it. I much prefer Slack to email - it's so much easier to track conversations. I guess it depends on how your organization uses it. We are mostly remote, with a bunch of fun channels where people share babies, dogs, random news, and social media. I'm a Gen X'er so not a digital native.

Thank you OP. I am permanently logged off mine. My boss is crazy, she messages me every minute.

I recently started a new role, and one of the ways that the team communicates is through a Teams group chat all day. I find it terribly distracting and hard to keep up with.

Additionally, it's not an effective way of communicating pertinent information because it could easily go unnoticed due to the volume. To me, it's the equivalent of coworkers talking all day, which would not ordinarily be acceptable even if it were work-related chatter.

That is the point of weekly meetings-- to discuss priority matters. If we are going to be on group chat all day, why bother with meetings?

Slack is a cesspool software.

Teams is more elegantly designed with options to control your inflow of data. I agree with the PP that there are ways to nudge the workflow into one that better suits you.

Slack is worse.

If Teams chat is bothering you, ask specific people kindly to collaborate with you differently.

Shared document editing, combined with Teams upload glitches, has been a problem at my work. Is this one of your problems? Switch up the document review process to be linear.

If people are pinging you too much or writing too long chat messages, mute the threads or ask them to write shorter messages or take it to e-mail.

Most workers are barrage by info clutter, but we all have different preferences for handling it. It may help for you to collaborate differently. Many people will help and share their own preferences if you only ask.

I am manager level at a major consulting firm, so I have to manage up and down. My job is already fast-paced and demanding, but these new ways of working through constant Teams messaging is absolutely draining my energy and I find it so distracting. I am here on a Saturday feeling burned out from the week and trying to recover…

Do any of you in similar jobs have any advice on how to cope?