Slack ‘s latest feature: Peeping boss.
Gabrielle Judge, known as the “Anti Work Girlboss” on TikTok, revealed how bosses can snoop on employees via Slack.
“Your boss is definitely spying on you, especially if you use Slack,” she divulged in a video shared Tuesday, now with over 460,000 views.
Slack is an instant messaging platform employees use to communicate through both direct messages and group channels.
During the one-minute clip, Judge unveils how to determine if your boss has seen your not-so-nice Slack messages.
The stealth worker captioned the clip, “Companies are using tools to spy on employees. You [might be able to] tell if your job is spying on you through this remote working tip. Thanks to the rise of remote working and the great resignation this is now a thing.”
The TikToker, who uses Mozilla.org as her source, claims, “Admins can export messages from public channels, but employers on either Slack’s free tier or paid tier need to submit a request to Slack before they can access your private chats.”
The resource also writes that employees can view “how many messages each member has sent, which are the most active channels, and more” through Slack’s analytics activity dashboard. (However, this Post reporter was unable to locate and verify this tool through the New York Post’s own Slack dashboard.)
The Post reached out to Slack for confirmation, advising users that “an employer’s right to access data is controlled by an employment agreement and applicable laws – not by Slack.”
“Slack is a workplace communication platform. Our data export tools are aligned with the business uses of our product, including compliance obligations and global privacy laws,” it said. “More information can be found in our data export guide.”
The Colorado resident was compelled to learn more about Slack’s privacy and permissions after suspecting that her own boss was snooping.
“There was this really weird thing that happened to me one time. I was in a team meeting and every time that I would ‘slack’ my teammate in the meeting I would hear my boss’ Slack ping,” Judge described.
Employees who use “Microsoft Teams” should also be aware of what they’re sending because the Microsoft program has features that allow employers to see what people are up to.
The 26-year-old concluded by urging her viewers to “never say or write anything you wouldn’t want everyone else to find out” on Slack.
Alternatively — for those who just can’t help themselves — she suggests creating a new, free Slack workspace, outside of your employer’s, where “one of you can be admin and control who comes in and out of that Slack.”
The viral video has many workers worried that their boss has seen what goes down in their DMs.
“Uh oh I gotta stop venting so much on teams,” commented one person.
“I told someone I was quitting in a couple of weeks. I was 1 of few on my team to be laid off even tho I was top a performer. We think they read Slack,” added another.
However, some people doubt their bosses are spying on them.
“Your boss is not reading your Slack messages unless you give them a specific reason to. They barely read their own messages lol,” quipped one jokester.
“As a boss, any boss reading Slacks have way too little to do in a day,” admitted another head honcho.
