Working Remote? Stay Connected
Last week, around 8 million people in the USA worked from home.¹ This week: Almost 45 million.² That is a mind-boggling overnight change.
Most of those 45 million have already worked from home now and then, so there’s no immediate concern that we can physically perform our day-to-day duties. But what about how we interact with each other? Google’s landmark study from a few years ago discovered that “how team members interact” is absolutely critical to a team’s effectiveness. And we’re in completely uncharted territory on this front at the moment.
So my goal with this article is to address the issue of how to stay emotionally connected to your team while physically separated. (There are other great articles covering logistics, ergonomics, flow, pros and cons, etc., and I won’t be covering those topics.) My goal is to share what’s helped me stay emotionally connected to my remote coworkers during my past 9 years of remote work. Hopefully this will spur some ideas about how you can stay emotionally connected during this time of “social distancing”.
What Helps
Daily realtime video interaction. In my experience, regular video check-ins are a fantastic way to stay connected. If at all possible, set up time every day to check in with your coworkers via video. If you’re doing AGILE-type work, a daily scrum is great; but use video. I know it sounds corny, but seeing people smile and wave when they log on and off will do wonders to keep you thinking good thoughts about your co-workers even as you deal with the inevitable problems, misunderstandings, and communication time-lags that are inherent to remote work.
Always-on Video: What’s better than daily video time? Video all the time! I hesitate to recommend this one since I’m not sure if the US’s current infrastructure will support us all with always-on video connections, but I can tell you from experience that it has changed my life as a remote worker. For the past few years I’ve been on a four-person team, and we have a live video feed on all day long. I am not exaggerating to say that I feel more connected to my remote coworkers than I have ever felt to previous coworkers, remote or local. Convince a couple of your coworkers to give it a try; it will feel awkward at first but I predict it will be the single best thing you can do to stay connected.
Of course, be sensible:
- Keep the groups small. Don’t join 10 people on one video-chat or the cross-talk will be overwhelming.
- Mute yourself when you’re talking to family or roommates, eating, etc.
- If possible, set up a separate dedicated monitor just for the video. (And for goodness’ sake, put your webcam over on that monitor as well).
If you’re willing to experiment a bit and step through the initial awkwardness, you will not be disappointed.
Use Slack (or GChat, MS Teams, Discord…): You probably already use chat tools, but for remote workers they’re crucial. Don’t use email as your main mode of communication; this deserves a whole ‘nuther post, but suffice it to say that email chains simply cannot support the number and complexity of discussions that need to happen in a modern remote worker’s daily activity.
Have a silly space: You know that funny story your coworker told you last week, about their [fill in the blank]? Yeah, that still needs to happen. Positive interactions are crucial to maintaining healthy team relationships; make sure you have a place for that. Where I work, there are a couple of Slack channels with a regular stream of memes, gifs, blog links, etc. Try to take an active interest in others’ humor, as well as be an occasional contributor yourself. (And if you’re a manager, please don’t squash this sort of occasional non-specifically-work-related banter as long as it’s generally uplifting. These convos need to happen because without them, the “hey you broke the code” conversations just won’t work.)
What Doesn’t Help
Asynchronous communication via “Status Reports” and email: My biggest mistake as a remote worker came several years ago when I led a small team of software engineers, all remote. We used JIRA and email extensively but only had one realtime meeting per week (and that was via telephone). The problem here is that the vast majority of conversations are problem-driven. Emails that start with “Hey, that server is down again…” are the norm; nobody sends emails like “Dude, I really appreciated that thing you did…” For whatever reason, email just does not lend itself to emotional-connection-building conversations; so don’t try to force it; there are better ways (see “What Helps” above).
Final Thoughts
Remote work can be fantastic. I have the best job in the world; I love my work (and my coworkers). Remote work is not without challenges - no job is - and one of its biggest challenges is staying emotionally connected while physically separated. Hopefully the ideas above are helpful to you; try them out. And if you have suggestions for me or the millions of new remote workers, please share with us all via the comments below. Have a great day!
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