Option C is for Comedic Company Communications: Our Slackbot

Mar 24

2 min read

I’d like to take you back to a distant past when Slack avatars were various palettes of gingham. I had just started my first fully remote job and was new to the casualness of communication tools like Slack. My messages were always direct, productive, fully-formed sentences, wrapped with appropriate punctuation. To liven things up a bit, I would sometimes sprinkle in a few exclamation marks. I later felt rebuked by articles lamenting women’s overuse of exclamation points in their office communications in order to not come across as too bossy (professional?), but I swear I was just using them to stave off having to send a GIF.

The pressure to engage on a personal level was mounting with morningly GIF drops in the team channel of oversized coffee mugs, furiously typing cats, and Forrest Gump’s enthusiastic wave. I had to participate. Otherwise, I would be a noticeable GIF abstainer.

I don’t remember what my first GIF was, but I am sure it was well thought out to have all of the following connotations:

I am fun and light-hearted.
I have done this before, just not here, there is no need to commend my sudden participation.
I know not to pick the first GIF that comes up, only a newbie chooses the overused ones.
Similarly, I know not to pick a totally obscure one.
I’m not too out of the loop on pop culture references, and I am not oblivious to the context of the clip.

I was reluctant, but eventually I really enjoyed the benefits of relaxing my communication style. Even though I was multiple states away from all of my coworkers, I felt close to them. And now, having fun, laughing, and connecting with the genuinely awesome people I work with feels essential.

I’ve since upped my Slack game and built a slackbot for Option C, just for fun. Just for an opportune muffled chortle. Sometimes, just for the eye-roll of amusement at my dorkiness. It is essentially short-form Mad Libs, where all of the random parts of speech begin with the letter C, an homage to our company and my need to add one more constraint when playing a game.

We’ve got multiple Slack commands for any of work’s moods.

Excited that you completed the project before the deadline?

Try /option-celebrate