Zoom, Slack, and Squirrel Jokes
Tags: Zoom, Zoom Fatigue, Slack, Asynchronous, Async

January 21, 2021

Most people who work as a part of a team, especially remote workers, know how useful Zoom and Slack are for keeping work flowing and teams connected… at times. These tools have their time and place, but they also have huge downsides. At the end of the day, we’ve got to know: what’s our option between Zoom and Slack? (Hint: it rhymes with “ doodle “.) This question has been looming over most remote work teams and I thought I’d put some energy behind the answer. So, we’ve got a joke for you…

Two Silicon Valley start-up-squirrels walk into a bar:

Racoon Bartender: What do you like about Zoom?

Grey Squirrel: Having a virtual space to connect “face to face,” swap ideas, and run an agenda.

Red Squirrel: It’s a meeting room you can join from any tree in the world and it helps me feel connected to my team.

Racoon Bartender: What do you like about Slack?

Grey Squirrel: It’s an organized async platform where I can get and give answers to so many questions, all on my own time. It’s basically the best version of Email.

Red Squirrel: I love dropping the squirrel emoji. Also, nothing ever gets lost in there. It’s all organized and searchable.

Racoon Bartender: What else do you even need to work remotely?

Both Squirrels: Nuts!

For squirrels, that might be the right answer. For you, it’s hopefully the best squirrel-based remote-work related joke you’ve ever heard this week. As for remote working humans in general- I’m pretty sure we need something more. Also, wifi, we definitely need wifi.

Having worked remotely for over 5 years, I rely heavily on both Zoom and Slack at this point but days pass that I feel fairly disconnected and disengaged with work. Weeks pass where I look at the clock far too often. Months pass where I feel that I work remotely-and not only in a good way.

What’s Wrong and What’s Right with Slack and Zoom?

A distinct power lies behind both of the primary comms platforms that helped me through every remote work week of the past five years. Let’s break down what we love most about each tool. There’s a lot to love, but there are a few top reasons why so many of us spend our days navigating between the two.

Zoom:

In a remote work setting, Zoom is the one place where you can make a joke, and people actually respond with laughter. It’s the place where we can be our true selves, be seen, be heard, and be human. The technology behind Zoom is powerful, but the actual medium that creates the magic has been around for decades now- video.

When we see a video of someone, we feel as close to being with them as possible-without actually holding their hand. To have this feeling, we can be anywhere in the world. Video allows for a three-dimensional human experience with a friend, family member, or coworker that gives us a real sense of the person we’re interacting with. We know their meaning, their intent and sentiment, far deeper than if we were only reading their words. So, we absorb what’s being transferred on a plethora of levels that we don’t even necessarily perceive. We simply absorb more information overall as well.

Video captures our attention via sight and sound. According to research, that accounts for 95% of the “how,” when it comes to how we experience the world. According to research, “our experience of the world is perceived 83% with our sense of sight. Hearing ranks next at 11%, and smell, touch, and taste rank 3%, 2%, and 1% respectively.”

No wonder video is marketing gold. No wonder we love having occasional zoom meetings to actually see and speak to our coworkers. Video is magic, and we feel more connected at work when we use it.

Slack:

On Slack, I can live my own life. I can respond to things when I want. I can mark any given message unread, and come back to it when I have time, more energy, or a more clever response. When I come back to it, I can even add an emoji of my own face that one of my coworkers made. It’s a little virtual playground, and the best part is I can decide when and where I want to jump in.

The magic of Slack is that it’s async, meaning nobody expects an immediate response from you. PLUS everything is stored and archived for all of time (TIIME, Tiiime, tiiiiiime). There are a multitude of benefits that async comms provides, but rather than tossing everything up on the wall, let’s focus on the two primary things-which the very foundation of async comms is built on:

You can contribute when you want Nothing is ever lost.

Even if you have the best note-taker this side of the Mississippi, that person is only human. They’re generally recording the meeting through their own relatively vague filter of “what is important to write down.” Actual information might be lost, and tone and nuance will certainly be lost.

There are wide-ranging benefits to async comms but being able to retrieve any message, from any time, in any channel-is principle to the power. The freedom to participate when and how you want is where the magic comes from. We all love Slack because our Slack is our Slack, and we can choose to play on the swings or go down the slide. We can even take a break and tell our friends (read: coworkers) that we’ll see them later. Everything will be as you left it when you return. The work will be there waiting for you to jump back into it with new energy

To review our favorite benefits of our two favorite remote work tools:

Zoom: Video is magic and it allows us to both take in more information and to feel more connected.

Slack: Async comms lets me feel free to contribute when and how I want, without ever losing anything in the process.

So, the question begs — what if there was a tool built on both of those benefits? What if there was a tool that harnessed the magic power behind both Zoom and Slack?

Back in the Silicon Valley Squirrel Bar:

Racoon Bartender: What would a tool that combined the best of Slack and Zoom look like?

Grey Squirrel: It would be an async platform BUT — based on video, I imagine

Red Squirrel: It would be built on short-form videos, where you could search any of the other videos added by your coworkers. You could even organize them by themes or channels.

Racoon Bartender: Why would people use it?

Grey Squirrel: It would create that sense of human connection, but you could participate when and how you want.

Red Squirrel: It’s like creating a video-platform work-playground where everyone can be themselves and show up when they want to.

Racoon Bartender: What would you call it?

Both Squirrels: Nuts!

For squirrels, that might be the right answer. For you, it’s hopefully the second-best squirrel-based remote-work related joke you’ve heard this week. As for remote working teams and humans in general — It’s already here, and it’s actually called Voodle. “Nuts” was our second choice.

What’s Between Zoom and Slack?

Short. Async. Video. Aka… Voodle! Get the human connection benefits of video with the flexible benefits of async comm. Stay connected to distributed teams without drowning in Zoom fatigue. Respond whenever, and wherever, you work without losing emotional context like we often do in text-based communication. When your team needs to fill the chasm between Zoom and Slack, try Voodle: the world’s new async video platform designed for teams to connect, align and collaborate no matter where or when they work.