Slack Will Soon Be Able To Tell If You’re Prejudiced In The Workplace

PxHere

If we had a penny for every time we heard a story about women being treated differently (usually worse) at work, we’d be rich enough to leave our jobs and loaf around our mansions forever.

Hey, it’s just the truth. Stories of gender discrimination in the workplace are everywhere, even on Capitol Hill. We now even have data to prove that while men and women have essentially the same productiveness and attitude during the workday, women are still regularly discriminated against. And, of course, it doesn’t stop at sexism — it continues with racism, classism, ageism, you name it.

Well, Slack, the professional messaging app, is about to slap some professionals real hard with their own prejudices with the help of smart tools.

According to Quartz, Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield revealed that the company is creating products that will give individual users reports on how they talk to people of different demographics. More importantly, Slack will identify any differences in tone or language when speaking to those of different races, genders and ethnicities.

“If there are deep and systemic problems at an organization, Slack can exaggerate them,” Butterfield said.

Freestockphotos.biz

While, of course, language can be broadly interpreted, these upcoming tools will look deeper into text patterns, even going as micro as reading emojis. Possibly the best part is that each report is kept totally private to the individual. Butterfield said that the reports can be utilized as learning tools rather than a negative strike or an embarrassment, and he hopes that these tools will help cut down on workplace discrimination.

“These are analytics that no one else has access to you except for you,” Butterfield said. “And they don’t present you with any real moral  value either way, but [they answer questions like], do you talk to men differently than you talk to women? Do you speak to support groups differently than you speak to superiors? Do you speak in public differently than you speak in private?”

Quartz reports that the analytics tools are in their early stages but will hopefully be available internationally within the next few years.

[h/t Quartz]