The way I see it, being "always on" is one of the worst things about office work. Always on is a constant distraction from doing good concentrated work. I think off by default is a far better paradigm for remote communication tools.
Thanks for the feedback! Agree that for a portion of the remote work force, asynchronous communication is probably effective.
Teams that love Sidekick need to be always talking as if they're in the same room. To these teams, it's not a distraction but critical for getting their job done.
It's the worst for your personal productivity but are those interruptions an net gain for your team's productivity? Recognizing that inflection point is key to great teams.
The person being interrupted presumably loses a little productivity, but the person doing the interrupting probably gains quite a lot compared to having to figure it out on their own or wait for an email response in a few hours.
Have you tried the always on? I find it very productive. The difference is, it's muted when not actively discussing, so you get the presence without the distraction.
I don’t think this “echo” should be always on. Just turn it on when you fancy tuning in or otherwise off. It’s probably handy for yelling out a question without the formality of calling someone, then they rush to put their headset on, accidentally hang up and all that crap.
Worst case the pointies force everyone to have it on all day to keep an ear on things.
