Slack goes down: Twitter reacts to workplace communications platform going offline

System went down on Monday morning in US, as many returned to work from holidays

Slack is a workplace communication tool used globally. Unplash

Slack was down for five hours on the first Monday of 2021, which meant professionals the world over struggled to get in touch with their teams.

The service cut had many returning to emails and phone calls to get the job done.

“Customers may have trouble loading channels or connecting to Slack at this time,” the platform said when it announced the first service cut.

Five hours after the cut started, Slack said most users should be able to access the platform.

"We're truly sorry for the disruption today," it said at 8.10pm Gulf time.

Slack also reported continuing problems with extensions such as Google Calendar integration, and email notifications.

It said it would release an extended statement on Monday's cut soon.

At the time of the service disruption, messages on the desktop app simply read: "Server error. It seems like there’s a problem connecting to our servers, and we’re investigating the issue."

On the mobile app, the error message read: "Couldn't send. Tap to try again."

Slack's status page said: "Customers may have trouble loading messages or connecting to Slack," as of 7.14pm Gulf time.

The cut was on the first Monday morning that many professionals are heading back to work in the US, after Christmas and New Year breaks.

The Slack error message. Slack

Twitter reacts to Slack going down

Naturally, it did not take long for Twitter users to react to Slack going down.

Many were quick to point out that the cut reflected how they felt about returning to work post-holidays:

Others are using it as an excuse to not log in for the day:

Another user assumed the worst, that she had been fired, when she first noticed her Slack was not working: