CEO Stewart Butterfield notes that "as we get bigger and we exist for longer, the greater the likelihood that the actual problems of the world will be present at Slack too."
Slack has not implemented policy changes at its own firm in light of the controversy surrounding other tech firms. The firm has released diversity reports, including one last month, which show that the company is still mainly made up of white employees.
But, it has made some gains with its global hires of women, women in leadership positions and technical roles and with African Americans and Latinos. "We exist in the actual world--if we all agree that this world has some systemic issues, and it's sexist and it's racist--that's not going to stop when people walk into our office," Butterfield says. "I don't mean there's nothing we can do about it. There are things we can do about it, but people are coming in here with their own life experiences."