Yahoo Finance Popular app outage sends millions of remote workers into meltdown
Popular workplace messaging app Slack went down on Wednesday morning, sending millions of remote workers into a tailspin.
The app is used by workers to communicate, share files and collaborate with colleagues.
Slack reported having 12.5 million users as of March 2020 as offices shut down and employees around the world took up remote work to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
The company confirmed the mass outage at 9:53am, saying users were reporting “general performance issues” including message sending failures and timeouts.
“We’re working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible and will provide an update shortly.”
Users have reported general performance issues such message sending failures and timeouts. We’re working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible and will provide an update shortly. https://t.co/AALbQGsDHq
— Slack Status (@SlackStatus) May 12, 2020
The website also suffered an outage, delivering a 503 error message.
According to Down Detector, connectivity issues began around 9:30am AEST.
However the service was back up and running by 10:40am AEST.
But that didn’t stop frustrated workers from poking fun at the service’s mass outage.
me messaging every channel saying "hi?" during the Great Slack Outage of 2020 pic.twitter.com/UzQmED909o
— Pellegrino Princess (@juleslasalvia) May 13, 2020
Slack is down #slack #outage pic.twitter.com/kK6KWO2Dwf
— Alok Mishra (@mishraalok) May 13, 2020
Many shared how they tried to tell colleagues about the Slack outage on Slack, only to - unsurprisingly - fail.
Hmm, better jump on slack to tell the team about the slack outage... 🤔 pic.twitter.com/yGFChiR3Bz
— Craig Somerville (@ca_somerville) May 13, 2020
Others noted that they were only just learning about the less popular Google suite chat service.
It took a global Slack outage to realize there is Zoom and Slack functionality built into G-Suite. 🤔 pic.twitter.com/oUs8GXvXi6
— Zack Onisko (@zack415) May 13, 2020
But others were concerned that the Slack outage was an attack.
Never realised how much I relied on #slack while working from home. No one replies to emails. Let's hope its an outage and not an attack. #webdev #developer pic.twitter.com/3tAygTOP4N
— Alex Leybourne (@AlexLeybourne) May 13, 2020
However, most reflected that the Slack outage was an opportunity to rest or get some work done.
“Honestly, this Slack outage is so refreshing and liberating. Take your time, you guys,” one user said.
Honestly, this Slack outage is so refreshing and liberating. Take your time, you guys
— Jake Wiederrich (@JakeWiederrich) May 13, 2020
If the Slack outage is bothering you - go outside and take a walk - you've looked at your computer screen enough for three lifetimes already.
— mattbillenstein (@mattbillenstein) May 13, 2020
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