Grating coworkers, tone-deaf bosses, a ninth ask for revisions on a PowerPoint deck—as the workday annoyances pile up, it’s only a matter of time before every worker hits a boiling point. And when they do, they often hit up a trusted colleague to vent to in a direct message on a platform like Slack or Teams.
“So often you’re sitting in a meeting, you’re hearing something, and you’re like, ‘Am I crazy, or are they contradicting themselves? Did they change the strategy again? Can you believe they just said this thing?’” says one former employee at a consulting firm, who agreed to speak to Fast Company anonymously. Sounding off to coworkers in DMs feels like both an outlet and validation: “It’s for your mental health, right?”
The problem: While this act feels like the equivalent of a private, hushed conversation in the hallway or sharing a drink at happy hour with a confidante, there’s a risk in kvetching on your company’s official corporate communications channels.
Your bosses have ways to get their hands on your messages. On Slack, DMs can be accessed if the company provides Slack with a reason for the download. With Teams, your history’s pretty much accessible whether or not a DM is private. Plus, AI is making it easier for companies to snoop on DMs as well, with at least one tool that can track employee sentiment and trends in public (and otherwise private) chats.
You may think switching over to personal text messages is a safer method. But complaining about a coworker may not come with a ton of protection: States with at-will employment rules provide companies with a wide berth for when and why they fire employees, which can include no-texting policies.
In these situations, companies can treat backchanneling as a violation of company rules—or simply fire you without tying your termination to outside communications.
Backchanneling beyond the gripe
Venting is a big part of backchanneling. There’s complaining about the guy who always cooks shrimp in the microwave, or ranting about a boss who tells you to hire a babysitter so you can come to the office during a blizzard.
But in other circumstances, you may move off company-sanctioned comms platforms when you need to support coworkers during turbulence at work—or even let them know when their jobs might be at risk. In such cases, backchanneling may be less about talking smack, and more about sharing vital information.
When the consultant’s company initiated mass layoffs, few staffers knew what was happening. The company made no internal announcement, which led to most employees sharing and finding out details through conversations on anonymous networking app Fishbowl.
“When [they] finally acknowledged it, they provided absolutely no details. They said, ‘We don’t know when we’re going to do it. We don’t know how many people it’s going to be. We’ll keep you posted,’” says the former employee.
That’s when the information sharing began. Both partners and contractors began posting what they’d heard on Fishbowl, rumors of which departments could be impacted, and even when the rollout would begin. “If I didn’t have that, I would have been in the dark completely. […] I knew what day to wake up early to see if I had the email for the meeting that was going to lay me off,” the source continues.
Some employees also choose to backchannel for other important reasons, such as communicating about real, problematic workplace conditions. That could be toxic or abusive management, discrimination, or any other serious violations.
While “most private sector employees can be fired for any reason, including no reason,” says Jason Solomon, Director of the National Institute of Workers’ Rights, having unsanctioned conversations with your coworkers about unfair, even illegal work environments fall into the situations in which you may be legally protected.
“It can’t just be venting. It has to be more like, ‘We’re talking about this, and we might do something about it.’”
The National Labor Relations Act calls these conversations “concerted activity.” This typically covers discussions ranging from reporting unsafe working conditions to union organizing.
Even though you may theoretically be protected by law, only a few cases make it to court. That means that if employers find out about backchanneling, they might not hesitate to ding you for the messages—or worse. At-will employment, standard in the U.S., allows employers to fire you for any (or no) reason, which in many cases can create soft barriers that might make you think twice about hitting send.
If you find that your conversations with coworkers are bringing up real issues, however, there are two things to keep in mind.
First, remember that official channels do exist for filing workplace complaints. But if you’re not ready to go that far, there may be strength in numbers: “Try to enlist as many of your coworkers as possible,” Solomon says. “The boss is not going to want to fire everybody.”
The point of going off company-sanctioned channels is so you don’t have to watch what you say and how you say it. But experts say you should still use discretion. You can’t ever exactly know where your communications could end up, even if you think they’re safe at the time.
In 2011, the NLRB sided with an employer’s decision to fire a bartender for venting in a Facebook DM about not getting raises and being forced to share work without tips, among other complaints. Although the message mentioned workplace pay practices, the NLRB decided it wasn’t protected concerted activity: No coworkers participated, and no group organizing was considered. The message never went beyond private venting, so it was fair game for termination.
What complicates things even further is a post-pandemic workforce. With the rise of remote work, more things are forced to be put into writing, since many workers simply spend less time in person. “It takes so much longer to get to know people—that element of trust,” says the former consulting employee. “Pre-Zoom, it would be a walk-and-talk.” In the past, a venting session used to be a muffled conversation in the breakroom—now, it’s become a video call, chat, or other documentable forms of communication.
On the other hand, some workers have given up on griping altogether, even if there’s plenty to discuss.
Another worker at a software company tells Fast Company, “I only do it with people who are no longer with the company. I consider that to be safer.” They have worked with their company for four years, and aren’t interested in taking any chances with their career.
“You never know if people can turn that against you. Not everyone is going to be your friend. If you say something that might offend people, that is going to travel faster than light.”