Ethics of Remote Collaboration
More than a year of working from home taught us all some things about remote collaboration. It became a necessity than a luxury.
Remote collaboration comes with some responsibility and ethics.
🗣 Keep in touch
It's best and recommended to follow a routine, but if you do take the liberty to change, inform your teammates. When do you start? When do you take a lunch break?
Your teammates can’t see your desk anymore, so they won’t know if you are there or away.
💻 Be digitally proficient
Adapt, be open. Get used to virtual meeting tools, and all the apps that help in your work life.
☎️ Choose the communication medium wisely
Make an informed decision about the method. Do you really need a meeting Can a message or an email do the job?
🙇🏻♀️ Think before reaching out
Before you reach out to your colleagues, check their calendars. Think if it is really required to disturb them in real-time. Think twice, but not too much, your efficiency is important.
Try to predict if you will need collaboration during the day and inform your teammates about it.
🤞🏽 Working in the same file
In the era of multi-cursor mode where you’re collaborating with your teammates in the same file — Figma, Google Docs, etc., it's important to consider —work together, but don’t mess with someone else’s work!
If you want to build on top of someone’s idea, or tweak it a little bit — make sure you either make a copy and change it or ask the owner if you can override it.
💰 Invest in a very good internet plan
Good internet is like oxygen to survive remote collaboration. It is also a courtesy to your teammates.
👩🏻 Show your face
If not always, every once in a while show your face to your teammates, so we feel like we’re working with humans and not machines.
And remember, there are humans on the other side, you’re not working with a machine. Empathize. Be efficient, be productive, but don’t forget the fun part. Crack some jokes, some chit some chat, have fun!
There are humans on the other side, you’re not working with a machine. Empathize.
I thought a lot of people would have a lot to talk about around this topic, so around this time last year, I hosted a meetup with the local community.
If there are any points that I may have missed, I’d love to hear them in the comments section 👇🏽
