Waiting on you
When an employee genuinely can't continue without you, the question sits right above the message box until you answer it, and on Waiting on you with everything else.
Employees don't ask permission to do their job. Sending the email, publishing the post, updating the record: if they can do it, they do it, and they tell you after. What they can't do is invent a fact you never gave them or sign into an app you haven't connected, so those are the only reasons a question ever reaches you.
What you can be asked
| Kind | What they're asking | You answer by |
|---|---|---|
| Pick one | A choice between a few options. | Tapping one. It sends straight away. |
| Pick several | Any number of options. | Tapping the ones you want, then Send. |
| Go ahead | Whether to do something only you can approve. | Go ahead or Hold off, or Change something to say what to do instead. |
| An answer | Something only you know, like the phone number for the contact page. | Typing it in the message box, which says Answering and their name while your reply is for them. |
| Files | Photos or documents the work needs. | Add files, then Send. |
| Connect an app | Access to an app the task needs, like Gmail. | Connect and the app's name. It ticks itself off once the app is connected. |
| A few questions | Two or three quick things at once. | Answering them one at a time. |
When none of the options fit, Something else lets you say it in your own words. Not now turns down a connection or a request for files. The team's suggestion, when there is one, says Suggested beside it.
In a company, your Manager's calls show their options side by side, and Compare in full opens the whole comparison. A call never expires, and the team keeps working on everything that doesn't need it. See Making the calls.
Where it shows up
- Above the message box, in the chat with whoever asked, the oldest first. It stays there while you scroll back through the conversation. When more than one is waiting, 2 more (with their faces) moves to the next.
- On Waiting on you, at the top of your Employees list: everything waiting across your team, oldest first, each answered right there. Tap a face at the top to see only that person's. Answered lists what you settled in the last few hours.
- In a group chat, above its message box, for the people in it. In your team room, a topic shows only what that step needs and Team shows all of it.
- On the sidebar, as a red count on Employees, with the same count in the browser tab's title.
- By email, and as a notification in the desktop app. A choice's options are links: tap one and the chat opens with it picked, one tap from sent.
After you answer
Your answer goes into the chat as your reply. Under it, Sent, then Seen once they've picked the work back up. If it couldn't send, it says so right where you tapped, and tapping again tries again. A question that stops mattering (they found the answer another way, or you said it in the chat) leaves on its own and says No longer needed.
What happens while you're away
That thread of work pauses; nothing is retried or forced, and the same question is never asked twice. The employee carries on with anything else it can finish without you, and it goes quiet in the chat until you answer, so you come back to the question rather than to a wall of updates around it. When you answer, it picks the work back up and mentions in one line what it got done meanwhile.
Questions expire after about a week. An expired one says Expired. Treated as no.: the blocked step never goes ahead without you, it just doesn't happen.
Tip
Seeing the same question come back? Answer it once in chat as a standing instruction ("always use the Acme account") and the employee remembers it instead of asking again.