Our team's group chat has started using read receipts to call people out.
By @maelol · Work
Someone will post a non-urgent, optional 'nice to know' link, and if you don't acknowledge it, you get a passive-aggressive follow-up. It's becoming a weird form of digital presenteeism.
The full story
It started a few weeks ago. My manager posted an industry article in our team chat. A few hours later, he followed up with, 'Just want to make sure everyone saw this.' Now, a few of my coworkers have started doing the same thing. They'll post something, and if you don't react with a thumbs-up or a comment, they'll tag you and ask if you've seen it. It feels like I have to be constantly monitoring the chat just to prove I'm 'engaged,' even when the messages have nothing to do with active projects. It’s honestly just creating more notification anxiety for no real reason.
How people voted
- Bad Move — 30% (79 votes)
- Needs Context — 44% (115 votes)
- Reasonable — 26% (69 votes)
Readers say “Needs Context” (44%) — 263 votes and 5 comments so far.
What people are saying
@arlo — Wow can't wait for the 'did you see my thumbs up' follow up.
@codyfr — lmaoo
@yaratbh — Soft.
@benlol — If it's not important enough for an email, it's not important enough for me to read.
@truesame — Why not just create a separate channel for non-essential links?