Why Monitor Early “Goodbye” Messages in Slack?
In many teams, Slack is the heartbeat of daily communication. But sometimes employees log off early and drop a quick “bye” or “see you” before the official office start or end time. While this might be harmless, repeated early departures can impact coordination and productivity.
That’s where automation helps. With n8n and Slack, you can automatically detect early “goodbye” messages and instantly alert HR or a designated channel. This ensures transparency, better oversight, and proactive management.
How This Automation Works
- Slack Trigger: The workflow continuously listens for new messages across selected Slack channels like
#general-announcement. - Filter Goodbye Phrases: A function or regex filter checks if the message contains common sign-offs like “bye”, “have a good day”, or “see you”.
- Check Time Condition: The workflow compares the message timestamp with your company’s office hours (e.g., 9:00 AM start). If it’s sent earlier, it passes the condition.
- Notify HR: An alert is sent to HR (private DM or a dedicated HR Slack channel) including the employee’s name, the exact message, and the timestamp.
Pro Tips and Advanced Variations
- Custom Phrase List: Add or update the list of keywords to match your team’s culture (e.g., “logging off”, “heading out”).
- Flexible Office Hours: Support different shifts or time zones by pulling HR schedule data from a Google Sheet.
- Escalation Workflow: If multiple early departures happen in a week, send a summary report instead of single alerts.
Start Automating Your HR Monitoring
This Slack monitoring automation is a great example of how n8n can improve workplace transparency and team coordination. With just a few nodes, you can build smarter oversight systems tailored to your company’s needs.