Treat Everyone as Remote
Second-Class Citizens
📚 Connect with us. Want to hear what’s new at The Pragmatic Bookshelf? Sign up for our newsletter. You’ll be the first to know about author speaking engagements, books in beta, new books in print, and promo codes that give you discounts of up to 40 percent.
As a remote worker, you may experience the feeling that you are several steps removed from the rest of the physically co-located company. This feeling manifests day in and day out. You have the nagging suspicion that discussions and decisions are happening in person without your input. You notice a worryingly empty email inbox during challenging periods and strangely quiet chat rooms. When joining a meeting via video call — you see ten tiny figures sitting around a conference room table, sharing one microphone.
This is when remote working sucks. You feel like an other; unlike so-called normal staff — perhaps even like a lesser member of the company. This situation isn’t right. However, don’t attribute these issues to malice. After all, for decades we have been used to working together in offices. Old habits die hard, especially if they aren’t challenged.
I remember a long time ago when the magnetic hub of our company was our HQ in Brighton. The anecdote in mind happened when we were hiring rapidly after receiving a funding round. We…
