Mastodawn

I wish I could reach the correct audience to suggest to that, if you are going to work full time remote, especially for a mostly remote company for the first time, it is absolutely crucial that you learn how people communicate and actively participate in it. Not just how work information is disseminated. Join your “random” and hobby Teams or Slack channels. Meet people not on your direct team. Join a social group if your company sponsors one you find interesting. It indeed takes effort as an introvert - but while working remote you are not building relationships organically like in an office, at all. Those work relationships are important to getting stuff done in business, being noticed when opportunities come up, emotionally feeling part of a team and mission, and staying mentally healthy. We spend a big chunk of our lives working!

Over the last 5 years of working and managing a team FT remote, this social interactivity is one of the top indicators I’ve observed of whether someone will succeed and be balanced and happy, long term - or whether they will burn out and be left behind. The people who often vanish the fastest never chatted except when prompted to do so for business, never turned their camera on, nor set a profile image.

I’m not telling you to step way outside your comfort zone. I’m not saying there aren’t situations where it’s necessary to turn off the camera. I’m not saying you’ll automatically fail if you never socialize. I’m just giving you some advice based on hard life lessons of watching people thrive versus be unhappy.

I’ve finally made it on Mastodon. Someone crossposted this to Reddit and it made my work chat.

Lady Secitup Dec 8, 2022

@hacks4pancakes

Миша Dec 8, 2022

@hacks4pancakes it was never a matter of "if" Lesley, but always a matter of "when"!!

Nick 'The Viking'Dec 8, 2022

@hacks4pancakes 😉 👍

@hacks4pancakes They were no doubt WFH...

Kevin Thomas ✅Dec 8, 2022

@hacks4pancakes woohoo ;)

Kai Klostermann

@hacks4pancakes Füll circle

@hacks4pancakes culture is intentional. You get the team, community, and workplace you intentionally cultivate.

@bbennettesq just like here.

@hacks4pancakes 100%. I've run a small social app. You absolutely get the community you work toward. You want a strong, vibrant but respectful community? Get those pruning shears out.

Michael Olsen Dec 8, 2022

@hacks4pancakes listen to your Aunt everyone!

kira :3 Dec 8, 2022

@hacks4pancakes hm that's interesting, thanks for sharing. I'm in the midst of interviewing somewhere that would be full time remote (/will probably end up in one no matter what since it's what I'm after) so that's good to think about

@chrisisgr8 it’s super important…

Rho Dec 8, 2022

@hacks4pancakes scheduled breaks with folks are great too. "Hey lets have a coffee break at 2" kind of thing, cross team/level/org/etc

Locksmith Dec 8, 2022

@rho @hacks4pancakes But if workers are remote, we need to be creative and inclusive here... The worst might be if many are in the office and some are remote. Would those in the office naturally begin to leave off those remote, just because "they are not there?"

@locksmithprime @rho @hacks4pancakes we had a lot of discussions at my last company about being “remote first” versus “remote tolerant”. Remote tolerant is what you described. A company allows remote workers, but really it’s business as usual in the office. I’m in this situation now. The prior company had everything built around remote employees. In office or not every meeting had a Zoom link, async work was the norm, and so on. That experience taught me it’s really a culture decision.

Locksmith Dec 10, 2022

@bitwisedan @rho @hacks4pancakes Agree.

I just had a company meeting this Friday. On site. There are about 12 people on site and 6 completely remote. I did have to press that the meeting and presentations be put through the conference so that people could log into it. And press more than I thought I had to at this point.

We need to be mindful and remind ourselves over and over to be inclusive, if we want to reach very talented people anywhere. In the future we lose these professionals who are remote, they quit, and then we will be asking ourselves "why oh why did they leave for other companies..."

Richard Barrell Dec 9, 2022

@rho @hacks4pancakes ooh thank you for that idea ❤️

Rob 🌱Dec 8, 2022

@hacks4pancakes good advice and observations , thank you. i work remotely and can add that ‘pinging’ folk for a quick chat (like in the cafeteria asking ‘can i sit here with you guys’) really works for me. For me (i’m a consultant) everything depends of folk like/trusting/seeing each other.

FearlessJuan Dec 8, 2022

@hacks4pancakes work is what I do, not what I am. I think that all these attempts to blur the lines between "work" & "life" are designed to keep us in an "always on" work mode. Some people make work their whole identity & neglect family, friends, hobbies, leisure time, etc. Some don't even know what to do with their vacation time.
Root out inefficiencies. I read somewhere that German knowledge workers work less hours & are more productive than their US counterparts. They automate everything.

@FearlessJuan there’s a difference between building a healthy relationship with your coworkers in lieu of sitting in a room with them for 8 hours a day and eating lunch together daily, versus doing stuff outside work that distorts your work life balance, truly.

FearlessJuan Dec 8, 2022

@hacks4pancakes let's distinguish between working relationships & personal ones. A minimum of decorum & mutual respect is to be expected in a work setting. We work together to get things done. I don't need to join social clubs, I'm busy working & helping others.
I heard a podcast abt a book written by a married couple analyzing how work has become the social outlet (& shouldn't) for many people in the US because they spend most of their waking hours working. Ironically, they met at work.

Pixie Dec 8, 2022

@hacks4pancakes This. Is. So. True.

PrestelPirate Dec 8, 2022

@hacks4pancakes This is great advice. We have an app called Doughnut that each week randomly pairs two people for a half hour video chat - its coffee and doughtnuts time that's completely non-work focussed and about getting to know each other.

We've also built the onboarding process to involve showing people where the hobby and non-work chat is, how to setup a profile image and Slack, and how to configure their cameras to hide their background so they can feel confident to have video on.

Christie Dudley Dec 8, 2022

@hacks4pancakes Embedded in here is also a metric for whether your team or small organization is likely to succeed long-term in the way they are operating post-pandemic. I was part of a small organization which had no extra channels of communication. We were distributed but never communicated. It just kind of petered out.

@longobord yep.

webhat Dec 8, 2022

@hacks4pancakes having regular one-on-one 's with people who are not in your direct team and who support you is also helpful

NicTea Dec 8, 2022

@hacks4pancakes The company I work for has transformed from fully on-prem to almost fully remote. We've tried many things, but culture has definitely suffered, especially for those who started after the transition.

Gatewood Green (Woody) 🌵🏜️ 🐾Dec 8, 2022

@nictea @hacks4pancakes I’ve been in a company that transitioned (COVID forced) and one that was always remote. Culture is EVERYTHING and starts at the top. In the forced remote we struggled to rebuild the in office culture online. Mostly because leadership didn’t have a cultural direction to manage the situation. Those of us who knew each other maintained our connections, but new people definitely struggled. The company never built the online social fabric in Teams that naturally exists in the office.

I now work for an internationally distributed company that was always remote. The entire culture is built around remote work. There is a huge social fabric in Slack with tons of social channels about every topic you can possibly image. All teams have “internal” and “external” channels to facilitate inter- and intra-team communication. During work hours social hours are regular and encouraged. Our formal, strongly encouraged mentorship program is built around remote connections. You are encouraged to be as active or not on Slack (even in the more formal channels) as suits you and your job role.

As a in office person most of my over two decade career, I’ve had to learn the new ways, and quite frankly it’s been great. It was over a year after accepting the job before I met my first coworker in person (my manager, after 13 months on the job), And while meeting in person was absolutely great, it in no way felt like I was meeting them for the first time.

It can work with great culture and there are a lot of companies that have always been doing it or made a good transition to it, but a good remote culture will not happen by accident.

Rui Craveiro Dec 8, 2022

@[email protected] Great advice! Thanks for sharing.

Karl Dec 8, 2022

@hacks4pancakes In the company I've recently joined, we're all mostly remotely working. I've been advocating to switch to a pleasant to use communication channel such as Slack, but they're still sticking to Ms Teams, and yet more than half the company runs Linux and has a terrible experience with Teams.

I think informal chatter and banter is instrumental to the success of the project.

Poggie Dec 8, 2022

@hacks4pancakes As an introvert with social anxiety, I actually find it much easier to do this in an online setting than iRL. I can simply mute the social channels and only check them & participate when I have the social energy for it while in the office it was much harder to avoid burning out socially. One of the many reasons I have been working remotely for the last 14 Years and much happier with it.

Michael Gurski Dec 8, 2022

@hacks4pancakes I actually find it *easier* and significantly less draining to interact online, ever since BBSes, FidoNet, then Usenet, IRC (still there), the plethora of early IM clients, and now Slack & Teams & social media.

I wish we'd have more social- and fun-oriented Teams chats at work, but We Must Be Professional... I'm skirting the line with the same profile image I use here, and a chat w/ 2 others where I respond in memes half the time.

Michael Gurski Dec 8, 2022

@hacks4pancakes I should probably add that only select people get more than 20% remote, sorta the nature of the beast. But even beforehand, I typically avoided all in-person social functions there.

Paisley Computer Dec 8, 2022

@emag @hacks4pancakes I am obsessed with gifs. I can't tell if my colleagues hate me or love it. 🤗

Eszter Dec 8, 2022

@hacks4pancakes One question I am curious about: Who’s responsibility (if at all) to facilitate communities and start offtopic-channels?

I started at my current company 6 months ago. Community building and ‘unnecessary meetings’ are strongly discouraged. Every time I bring this up, I am told to organize events myself outside of working hours.

What would population of Mastodon do?

Me, introvert, is clueless.

@bubbl3s not every company has a healthy culture, unfortunately. And if they don’t allow it they will have to deal with the consequences….

@hacks4pancakes that is a pretty nice piece of advice, and you structured it in a single toot! I am definitely going to send this toot to friends when discussing remote work. Thank you for sharing these thoughts!

Riskmgmtmom Dec 8, 2022

@hacks4pancakes great advice. I went from working for full time in office, to remote due to pandemic - and the forced participation verbal participation was killing to the team vibe.
At my latest job, there is a water cooler channel and various resource groups to network and participate - online or verbal - and they have helped to build a team culture. I had to force myself to try it, but so glad I did. I have more resources for help when I need it and I found fellow crafters!

@hacks4pancakes *ponders how infrequently I just chat with coworkers*

lporres Dec 8, 2022

@hacks4pancakes the problem with the random channel is that it gets noisy and one ends up muting it.

Michelle (she/her)

🇵🇷Dec 8, 2022

@hacks4pancakes I’ve always said working remote is a skill not a benefit. Not everyone thrives in this type of working environment. Self awareness is key to understanding if one needs to work harder at it or avoid it.

g-clef Dec 8, 2022

@hacks4pancakes I've found two things my present co does that are super-helpful:

1) There's a slack app called "donut" that does weekly random meetings (you get a DM each week that says "go, meet, chat"). I've leaned into that pretty hard, as it was the only way I got to meet many of my co-workers.

2) We have a person in HR who is our unofficial cruise director. She sets up remote events like assembling theremins, white elephant, etc. She's great, the events are a lot of fun, and help a lot.

Dany🇮🇹Dec 8, 2022

@hacks4pancakes my company does events which I always try to attend. My town is crap so there are nothing for adults to go and socialize where it’s actually a safe environment. So I do work events instead.

@hacks4pancakes Good advice. This generally applies to any online community as well. I've led guilds with hundreds of members in online multiplayer games and those who don't put in an effort to socialize and just show up to do what's required of them don't usually integrate and almost always end up being left behind and leaving. You can't be part of the actual culture when the relationship is only transactional.

Andrew C. Dingman Dec 8, 2022

@hacks4pancakes Absolutely. I worked remotely for the same company for over a decade, but in different departments. In the department where people did this best, I created relationships that will probably be lifelong, did my best work, and felt most satisfied. In the one that did it least/worst, I had a feeling of isolation, pointlessness, and a therapist telling me to get out.

Elle 💗Dec 8, 2022

@hacks4pancakes I fail to see how being part of a shitposting channel is going to prevent burnout.

And the last thing I ever want to do is be a part of a work social outing.

Karl Matthias Dec 8, 2022

@hacks4pancakes @toddsundsted 💯 and folks need to learn to over-communicate and to write things down—because otherwise no one knows what you are doing. Even more so than in an office.

I also encourage people to put everything into public channels in Slack, unless it really needs to be private. Otherwise there is no way for your colleagues to overhear a conversation that they have pertinent information about as they would have in an office setting. And it means that more interesting conversations happen inside the team and across teams, and there is thus a lot less siloing. People have a natural tendency to start a 1:1 chat with a team member to ask a question instead of asking the same person in the team channel, as an example.

Bev Robb ✍️ AKA: Teksquisite Dec 8, 2022

@hacks4pancakes great #remotework advice! Mahalo nui loa, Thank you, thx🥂WOOT

Amy Dec 8, 2022

@hacks4pancakes I wonder if the causality is the other direction though. It seems possible that the people for whom remote work functions best are the people who enjoy socializing in remote settings. If you don't enjoy it, I'm not sure how much trying to make yourself do it more will actually help.

bmt626 Dec 8, 2022

@hacks4pancakes this is advice I 100% need to follow

Dustin [BusySignal-KE2EFX]Dec 8, 2022

@hacks4pancakes At a place where remote wasnt really an approved thing... The pandemic forced it... I LITERALLY watched some of these things happen during worse times like IN the actual forced home pandemic times.

I started "Hallway Talks" where I reached out to a lot of those on a direct team, in a direct group, and cross functionally.

Prompted people to talk about whats happening...

I am glad I did. I think it saved people from both side of life's insanity during the times and now a lot of folks are working together to keep engaged no "hybrid" is a thing...

It is absolutely key...

Twice a week I schedule "hallway sessions" with team people - then also a group session.

All While Doing My Regular Job.

This kept the group "alive" both mentally and figuratively - it was worth it. The extra time spent team building those that even didnt report direct are still able to reference those timely discussions...

It is really required to get involved. And you're right - its tricky for those that are generally introverted.

But you gotta get engaged.

@hacks4pancakes I really need to work on that with my groups at work and see if I can motivate some sharing.

I'm really bad at sharing anything besides cynicism and shitposts so I'm a shitty example

Lysa Myers Dec 9, 2022

@hacks4pancakes ironically, some of the most tight-knit remote teams I've ever worked on in the last 16 years had cultures of always keeping the camera off in video calls, and having avatars rather than profile pics.
Those cultures also had zero social slack channels but the subject of work channels frequently veered off into movies/TV/memes.

Tony Ropson Dec 9, 2022

@hacks4pancakes very much agree with this. One of the reasons I have been somewhat successful in my current roles is I have a very “noisy” presence in our team’s chat rooms. I respond fairly quickly and throw a like if I don’t have something to contribute.
That being said this works out pretty well since my coworkers and boss all have a good sense of humor.

A Gunn Dec 9, 2022

@hacks4pancakes

I truly hate how I'm reading this toot during a work meeting that's kind of the perfect illustration of these facts 😖

@agunn @hacks4pancakes

well crap sorry

rahlzle dazle (Richard)Dec 10, 2022

@hacks4pancakes This is hard at times, for some of us introverts but you are right. Of late our Sr Eng has been running a "open office" chat while he works on things and it gives us all a chance to hang out and shoot the s**t and frankly its awesome.