The Cost of a Click: Why Teams Skip the Easiest Win in Group Chat platforms like Slack, WhatsApp and iMessege
We now live in a world where it takes more cognitive effort to ignore a Group Chat Message than to acknowledge it. And yet, radio silence. Inside most companies, messages are read, skimmed, absorbed… and left hanging. No thumbs-up. No heart. Not even the sympathy 😂. Somehow, reacting to a teammate has become harder than reacting to a client. Let’s break this oddity down like scientists examining an uncontacted tribe.
Step 1: The Hidden Workout of Reading a Message
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Time to read: 7–10 seconds
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Brain activity: Visual parsing, memory recall, context decoding
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Calories burned: ~0.2 kcal
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Mental toll: Mild, but real. You’re doing actual “invisible work”
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Decision complexity: Do I need to act? Respond? File it mentally?
The mind engages language processing, emotional nuance, even past interactions. It’s not just reading. It’s social calculus.
Step 2: The Olympic Feat of Clicking a Reaction
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Time to click: 0.4 seconds
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Calories burned: ~0.001 kcal (less than chewing once)
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Muscle effort: One finger. Barely a twitch
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Cognitive load: None. Pure autopilot
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Social payoff: Instant. You just made someone feel seen
The irony? This is the easiest thing you’ll do all day—and also the most appreciated.
Why It Doesn’t Happen (Despite Being Laughably Easy)
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Slack fatigue: Too many channels, too much noise
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Ego dynamics: “I don’t owe them a reaction”
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Misjudged casualness: “They know I saw it”
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Internal undervaluing: We over-credit clients, under-credit colleagues
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Power signaling: A weird corporate version of seen-zoning
Psychological Fallout: When Silence Talks Loudest
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The sender thinks: “Was that unclear? Was it wrong?”
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Brain interprets silence as micro-rejection
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Motivation drops subtly—but consistently
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Teams become less communicative, less confident, and eventually, less effective
It’s a dangerous spiral built on not clicking a button.
Client vs Colleague: The Acknowledgment Gap
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Client messages: “Brilliant!” “Thanks so much!” “You’re amazing!”
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Internal messages: Seen. Nothing. Void.
We’ve professionalized external validation while privatizing internal effort. That imbalance kills morale over time.
The Maths of It All
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Reading: 10 seconds, 0.25 kcal, high neural activity
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Reacting: 0.5 seconds, 0.001 kcal, zero thinking
You do 95% of the work by reading the message
But you leave 95% of the emotional value behind by not reacting
Final Thought
In the hierarchy of modern labor, there is no cheaper, faster, or more impactful leadership move than a simple emoji reaction. If your team is doing the work, click the damn button. It costs nothing. It means everything.