Online Dating Made An Unsuccessful Attempt To Enter The Workplace
Contributed by: ElyseRomano on Tuesday, June 27 2017 @ 09:45 am
Last modified on
Office romance? What could go wrong? Dating co-workers is a notoriously risky proposition, and yet, one dating app thought playing cupid in the workplace could be its next big move.
Feeld, a service originally created for threesomes, made the bold decision to launch ‘Feeld for Slack’ - a bot designed to allow employees to share their office crushes in the popular team messaging platform.
To be used, a designated administrator at a company has to install the app. Once it's downloaded, anyone on the Slack team can direct message @Feeld and enter the name of their crush. If the feeling is mutual, both people receive a notification. If not, no one is ever the wiser.
Feeld says the bot is about “embracing feelings” and making organizations feel “more human.” Unsurprisingly, Slack isn't as keen on the idea. The company opted not to list Feeld’s bot in its app directory. Its developer policy says Slack “will remove Apps that we consider to be inappropriate for use in the workplace or that negatively impact the user experience on Slack.”
Dimo Trifonov, the founder of Feeld, stands by his company’s Slack app, saying he “could not see how it violates any of their rules” and reiterating his support of workplace romances to The Atlantic[*1] .
“I work with my partner and from time to time we hug, kiss, and cuddle in working hours, and we thought that in 99.99 percent of companies such behavior is simply impossible,” he said. “At the same time it felt so recharging, and actually impacted our productivity in a positive way. We felt so sad that people cannot see the workplace the same way we do.”
He may be right, but it’s easy to see how the bot could go wrong. We’ve seen stories time and time again of disgraced workers and workplaces that veered into inappropriate, sexualized territory. Harassment is a very real problem in some companies - just look at the allegations that have been levied against Uber, or the story of Tinder co-founder Whitney Wolfe, who founded Bumble after leaving Tinder and suing the company for sexual harassment.
Though employees absolutely have the right to explore romantic possibilities in respectful, consensual ways outside of the office, a dating app in a professional space is likely to make many uncomfortable and make companies justifiably nervous.
At this time Slack has removed Feeld for Slack from its app directory, although it hasn’t revoked Feeld’s access to its API. The bot can still be downloaded from Feeld’s website for anyone willing to make the extra trip, but it’s unlikely to receive much traction from there - and that may not be a bad thing.