Pros
Slack is a great product.
Kontras
Slack is not what it promotes itself to be. It talks the talk, but does not walk the walk. If you believe the enthusiastic internal cheerleaders and the well-worded website content, then you’ll join an environment anticipating that diversity, engagement, and belonging are a real thing at Slack, that the people who work there are kind and thoughtful, as repeatedly promoted. I’m here to tell you. No. And No. Under a very thin veneer of pseudo-kindness bubbles an ocean of incredibly bratty snarkiness, arrogance, and elitism that were incredibly common at Slack. Slack is a factory of disrespect. Mean-spirited words and actions lurk unsuspectingly around every “nice” corner. Primadona Complex rules the day, every day. Even the so-called nice people are super pushy, high-maintenance, demanding, nitpicky, never satisfied, super needy, they always need or want something more, something else, enough is never enough. The figurative papercuts were ongoing. Does that help? Does that make sense? Don't know what happened there. Being condescending and patronizing is a sport at Slack. There is no grace to ramp. No patience or true understanding during what can be quite a steep learning curve. Compassion? What's that? Folks at Slack act like they are 100% perfect 100% of the time and never make any mistakes ever, which of course, is utterly untrue. They are a band of imperfect jerks! The automatic assumptions of ignorance and incompetence were exponentially more common than assumptions of common sense, skills, and knowledge. Really insulting and infuriating. Slack and its parent company, Salesforce, would do better to just keep making its great products and raking in the billions and stop going on and on about DEI. Just. Shut. Up. You don’t mean it, Slack. You definitely don't mean it Salesforce. Not at all. You pay lip service. But your cultures areTRASH for Black people, Black women in particular. Absolute TRASH. The racism, the white supremacy, the privilege, the rampant aggressions, the rudeness, the disrespect, the disconnect in the hearts and minds of many, the super low Black presence in high places and all spaces of your company. Sure, the pay and benefits are great, the RSUs are nice. But it is crystal clear why so many Black folx and others leave. Attrition is a serious problem, both at Slack and Salesforce, and the “Great Resignation” is not the cause. The Great Revolution is. Hey Slack. Hey Salesforce. Time out for the PERFORMATIVE BS. Going through the motions will never get the job done. Nobody is impressed by your box checking. Yay us! Look at what we did! We’re not perfect, but we’re trying. If I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard someone at a tech company say that. None of the surface things matter if the way that Black people are treated at your company on a day-to-day basis is still unjust, unfair, and inequitable, if the lived experience of Black people at your company is still not positive, if bad behavior, bullies, and rotten apples are allowed free reign rather than being called out and rooted out repeatedly, if the environment still isn’t sustainable for Black folx to truly and happily belong and thrive across the short and long term, if you’re still not engaging in genuine and authentic, continual and sustained anti-racist ACTION and work on race. Don’t talk about it, BE ABOUT IT. No, really. Don’t just go through the motions, actually change, evolve, grow. Do. The. Work. Top down is always how it goes, at any company. Senior leadership sets the tone. You can't continue to write off the race problems at your company. You have to fix them. Retention of Black folx at Slack (and in the tech industry at large) was a problem long before the pandemic and will continue to be a major problem for many years to come until there is genuine commitment (at all levels of the organization) to the ACTUAL, ongoing, individual and collective WORK of being anti-racist in all aspects of the company. Period. My advice, skip this whole experience (It is EXHAUSTING!) and search for a company where hypocrisy isn’t the main core value.