• In a recent survey, 97% of respondents said they added something “extra” in digital communications.
  • Wordiness and overuse of punctuation and emojis help us avoid being misunderstood, experts say.
  • While this “Slack-splaining” can lead to psychological fatigue, it has upsides for teams.

Hiiii!! 😀

Everything going ok!? It’s been a long week, lol!! 🤣🤪

When do you think you’ll be finished with the Johnson project?

no presh tho 👍

Gimme a shout if you need anything, kk?

You got this!!! 💪

Welcome to the weird, exhausting, and common world of Slack-splaining.

We all do it — in fact, we can't seem to help ourselves. Overwritten messages with overheated punctuation and abundant emojis are as standard in today's remote workplace as smelly leftovers in the office fridge were in 2019. 

According to a survey by Loom of roughly 3,000 employees in the US and UK, 97% of respondents said they felt the need to add something "extra" in digital communication, including multiple sentences, additional punctuation, and emojis, to clarify tone and meaning.

It may seem innocuous — a few exclamation points here, an upside-down smiley face there — but experts say that having to Slack-splain can be psychologically taxing. That's due in large part to the sheer number of digital messages that we contend with during the workday. 

A report by Zapier last year found that 90% of workers spent up to five hours a day checking work messenger apps like Slack and Microsoft Teams.

"It certainly doesn't help our social anxiety," said Aditi Paul, an assistant professor at Pace University whose research focuses on the influence of technology on interpersonal communication. 

But according to Paul and other experts, eliminating Slack-splaining for good isn't a solution, as there are clear benefits to thinking more about others.

The sweet spot, they say, lives at the intersection of empathy and authenticity — being considerate of team members, while staying mostly true to yourself. Lean too far in either direction, and you increase the risk of burnout and disengagement for yourself and others.

"Turning your thoughts into written communication is a lot different than spitting out words in a meeting," Paul said. "You have to think through your message, consider the context, and imagine how it will ultimately get interpreted. All those microcalculations make for an involved and exhausting process. Of course, it will take a toll on us."

Why we Slack-splain

When offices closed in March 2020, nearly all communication went digital, seemingly overnight. Since then, remote or hybrid work has become the default for the majority of office workers. Only about 43% of the workforce has returned to the office, according to swipe-card data tracked by Kastle Systems — and many workers don't plan to anytime soon. 

The lack of face-to-face interaction with colleagues makes it harder to develop natural rhythms of communication. 

Just ask Natalie Bartels, a 31-year-old senior public-relations manager, in San Diego. Bartels, who leads a team of 10 Gen Zers spread across the country, said she's had to cultivate a Slack persona at work that's markedly different from her real-life demeanor, which tends to be "sarcastic and dry."

Bartels said she often worries that her Slack messages to her team members will be misconstrued, so she "fluffs them up with emoji and exclamation points" to make sure they don't come across in an overly negative way. "I have to make sure I sound nice," she said. 

Her impulse is one of kindness, but that doesn't make it any less draining. She's met her colleagues in person only a handful of times.

"I have to think about my team members' feelings — if someone is having a bad day, I don't want a Slack message from me to be the reason they spiral," she said. "But it's also so tiring to have to think about it all the time."

We're constantly trying to replicate what's missing from how we talk in real life into our digital lives, according to Jeanine Turner, a professor at Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business and the author of "Being Present: Commanding Attention at Work (and at Home) by Managing Your Social Presence."

When we're physically with other people, we communicate both verbally and nonverbally through our facial expressions, body language, tone, and use of space, she said. In an environment that takes cues away — email, text, and Slack — we feel a need to supplement what we're saying. 

"In person, you might say: 'What a great idea, and you'd smile and lean forward, and there'd be excitement in your voice," she said. "Your challenge on Slack is to communicate that same enthusiasm with your hands tied behind your back. If you were to say 'nice' or 'good' without an exclamation point or smiling emoji, the other person might come away thinking, 'Is this terrible?'"

The subtle upside of Slack-splaining

Yes, Slack-splaining requires extra effort. And there's some overthinking and psychological second-guessing involved. But, Turner said, it may all be for the best. The less you know a person, the greater the lengths you need to go to get your meaning across. After all, with so little face-to-face interaction, how else will your personality shine through? 

"With remote work, the relationship can't develop any other way," she said. "Take away the opportunities to get to know someone at happy hour, or over a slice of birthday cake in the office canteen, and Slack and email are how you build relationships."

What's more, the phenomenon has an upside, experts say. The urge to Slack-splain forces us to communicate with clarity and empathy — a much-needed skill in today's workplace, Pace University's Paul said. In too-heavy doses, it can leave the perkiest of us feeling worn out. But in measured amounts, it can promote cohesion among teams — and, ultimately, make us better people.

"You have to think about how your message will be received by your audience," Paul said, "which makes you more mindful and sensitive."