Navigating the uncertainty; advice from a fully remote experience at Knock
Every day feels overwhelming.
This isn’t normal.
The status quo sucks.
Say it out loud. It’s okay to admit. The times we are living through right now are filled with uncertainty and anxiety.
I often think of teachers who have been thrust into a completely different work environment. I couldn’t handle the stress of working with 150 teenagers every day. They are rock-stars for their ability to do it in a normal year, let alone in this current climate.
A lot of people now find themselves in the same spot. They are hard-working individuals who have been forced into remote work against their will. Remote work is daunting, confusing, and not normal for them.
Knock has had a fully-distributed engineering team from our founding in 2015. We have an infrastructure set up to succeed with our remote workforce, but we don’t have a global pandemic playbook either.
As a software engineer for Knock, I’ve been lucky enough to have a job that allows me to work remotely for the last two years. My experience with working in startup environments has taught me that there’s always a level of uncertainty, but this pandemic is affecting me personally too. I hope by sharing what improves my remote experience at Knock, that it can help you navigate that uncertainty.
In my experience, there are two themes that help us navigate the uncertainty of a pandemic and allow us to thrive in a remote environment; culture and over-communication.
Culture matters
At Knock, our team came up with an acronym to define what our culture was built to embody- POPSICLE.
Passionate
Open
People first
Simplicity
Impact
Courage
Learning
Enjoying life
We are constantly reminded about these values in all-hands, off-site meetings, and in all company-wide communication. Knock sends out periodic anonymous surveys to gauge how employees feel we are living up to these values and how we can improve.
Mantras or culture statements may sound cheesy to you at first, but you will grow to truly appreciate them when they are really emphasized.
Someone shared with me a bit about a book they had been reading titled “Nonsense: The Power of Not Knowing”. The author, Jamie Holmes, explains that in uncertain times, we tend to latch on more to our core values. If family, faith, or work are critically important to you in normal times; you might find yourself relying on it even more during this pandemic.
That logic resonated with me. My work-life and relationships have always been critically important to my happiness. I often feel awful with everything that is going on, but I constantly think about how the people I work with are kick-ass. I feel confident in our team and our ability to overcome this together. I find myself latching onto Knock’s culture and the people I work with to get through the days. Knock’s culture and values resonate with my core values.
We have an awesome HR and culture team. They have constantly been scheduling meetings with individuals to check up on all of us; how is your mental health doing? How are you handling the changes from stay at home orders? Is there anything Knock can do to support you?
Even if I’m feeling OK, the constant reminder that others at this company are there for me is reassuring. The culture matters.
Our leadership team is very open about the details of the business- the good and the bad. They are constantly sharing details about how the real estate industry is responding to the pandemic and planning for all outcomes. Their openness helps ease anxiety about what is coming and defines a vision for the future.
We are encouraged and oft-reminded to take care of ourselves. If I need a mental health day, I know I can speak up and take it.
Our health benefits package is generous. Our HR team has provided us with details on all of the resources available to us to manage stay-at-home orders while still getting the mental/physical/dental care we need. The investment that Knock puts into our health does not go unnoticed.
We have a Slack channel set up for #knock-self-care. Inside, we are sharing at-home fitness plans, online course recommendations, meditation apps, and encouraging each other to take care of ourselves.
As a company, we know to spend time on fun. We all need an outlet.
Our Frontend Engineering team has started dedicating time to play games together. We have played a pictionary-esque game at skribbl.io, and we have spent time playing some of the Jackbox Party Pack games.
Find out what is important to you and the people you work with.
Define a set of values that you can all rally behind.
In times like these, it can make all the difference.
Over-communicate
It feels like when you Google “tips for working remotely”- the emphasis is always put on over-communicating. I’m going to emphasize it for you too.
If you are in an office, you likely have random collisions with others for “water-cooler” talk. Collisions happen before and after meetings, during lunch, and walking in and out of the building. These instances give us actual human interaction. We are able to talk about things that aren’t work related and transactional, and that’s important communication.
Before working remotely, I often felt like specific meetings ended with a thought, “this could have been an email”. I think that less often now that I work remote. I find myself scheduling more impromptu video meetings (even if they are quick questions) than when I was in an office. I think there’s more value in the face-to-face time in a remote environment.
On our engineering team; our VP of Engineering recently started something new- a weekly Fika. The name comes from a Swedish term for enjoying coffee and sweets. The idea is simple, create an open space for casual conversation and dedicate time to it.
Every Tuesday and Thursday we have a Zoom link open for all of the engineers to attend and chat about our lives and the world. We enjoy snacks, show off our pets, and get some face to face time with teammates.
We often schedule work related meetings longer than we end up needing. In these instances, we often end with some time to “shoot the breeze”. Take advantage of the time everyone has already allotted and spend it as more water-cooler talk.
Our leadership team has doubled the frequency of our all-hands meetings. We see each other more often than we used to.
It’s not all video chat related too. Put emphasis on your written communication. Use an instant messaging platform like Slack, it’s 1000000% better than depending on email.
Our Slack is mostly used for work-related conversation. Planning road maps, chatting with different teams, private messaging coworkers, sharing documents, etc.
You should prioritize the speed of this communication. If you send an email in an office setting; it might sit in your inbox for a couple of hours. For example, a teacher may be used to having back-to-back classes and it might not be realistic to answer instantly. If someone needs an immediate reply; they likely rely on in-person communication and co-location. Now that’s not possible.
This presents a problem. We are replacing a medium of communication (in-person) with instant gratification with another (written) that has traditionally been used for less time sensitive information.
As a message sender, try to let the recipient know whether or not it is urgent. Know that everyone has a different workload and schedule that is not as visible to us in a virtual space. They might not reply immediately, and you might have to follow up. That’s OK. I promise you, they aren’t intentionally ignoring you.
As recipients of communication, I think we need to default to treat incoming communication like it is time sensitive. Remind yourself to check your messages and to reply at a decent interval. If you need time to think through a problem, then let the sender know. If the topic warrants a conversation, consider an impromptu or scheduled video chat.
These recommendations might seem excessive, but remember that you are losing the instant-gratification we get with in-person communication. Over-communication helps set expectations between us.
Slack is also used for plenty of informal, asynchronous, and optional communication. We have a community of channels in Slack as outlets for each other. #knock-self-care, #sports, #knockbookclub, #music, #food, and many others.
Dedicate time to informal and formal communication. Chat and reach out to one another, and build empathy with each other. Not only will it help us get through the pandemic, but it’ll make for stronger team connections as life returns to normal.
Wrap it up
These are uncharted waters for us all, and it’s okay for us all to admit things aren’t normal. It might not be completely normal for a while. This undeniably results in anxiety and uncertainty for many.
Employers and employees; take small steps and you can better equip yourselves to handle these difficult times. Define a culture, and breathe it in everything you do.
As you transition to remote (even if it’s temporary), spend more time in meetings. Load up face-to-face interaction that you all are lacking. Reach out to each other, have lunch on a Zoom call, play games together, and do anything to strengthen connections between coworkers.
Remember, this is all temporary.
To everyone out there, you can do this.
To my coworkers at Knock, we’ve got this.
Better days are ahead, onward and upward.
