This Slack effort doesn’t seem to have crossed the pond yet, but seems no worse, or more wasteful, than the uses instant messaging is put to over here.

The answer is, of course, to remember where you are — at work!

German workers achieve both higher productivity and shorter hours than the rest of us because, in their old-fashioned way, they arrive at the office, sit at their desks and work! No chit-chat, no loafing around the water cooler or wandering off to make coffee. Head down and graft.

We might benefit from a similar attitude.