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What are the biggest friction points in working remotely?
What are the biggest friction points in working remotely?
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James Saurus
Missing my team and the social side mostly!
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@james_saurus Just curious, how do you connect to your team socially these days?
@james_saurus Might I suggest you use thursday.social - you can socialise and play games in smaller groups with your team mates.
Full disclosure, my team and I created it and launched it today.
@phoenixworkspace Well said. It's really about consistency and being able to put in the necessary hours.
Being an offline team feels more like a community. You share your moments with other team members. It's easy to come up to someone and ask for a comment or advice when you are in one building and don't need to schedule a call 39489748 hours prior. It gets lonely when you're remote.
@raghubharat I even do some small coworkings in coffee shops with buddies to get back the sense of the community back
@sofya_narbut Agree!
Well that is also the reason why I like to smile during video calls!
because I understand how difficult it can get for some colleagues.
number one experience that is challenging to replicate in remote teams is the interpersonal exchanges that happen outside of regularly scheduled meetings: hallway chats, grabbing coffee, walking to your car/public transit
@antonovna I agree and I really miss hanging out with my team mates in person. I love the flexibility that remote working provides though. We try to nurture out interpersonal exchanges via weekly social sessions online. It helps to an extent.
@raghubharat I agree. Since I do prefer working remotely due to the flexibility it affords. And meeting the colleagues once in a while but regularly does seem to solve the social aspect.
For me, it is remembering what day of the week it is. This is important because weekends are a reminder to take a break. Being self-employed, motivation and workload isn't the hard part. I tend to work at least a couple of hours every day. Because I don't take the weekends off entirely, I can easily forget if I need to be doing a Monday's workload or a Friday's.
@kristina_longmuir My gosh Kristina, thank you.
Finally someone that is spilling some truth about this! Ahahah
IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO REMEMBER WHAT DAY OF THE WEEK IT IS
Business idea: Build an app that tells people what day of the week it is, like at least 3 times in a day.
Employee burn down and too many meetings for things that could've been done via a water cooler conversation
I never feel get close to my colleagues. It just 'doing something' with ghosts!
Remote work is not for everyone. I have hired dozen of remote people and found it extremely difficult to achieve productivity.
The main problem is in the organization of time. You need to learn how to somehow combine work and personal time.
No lunch dates with friends and colleagues. I used to eat out for lunch a lot, but now that I am working from home, I often just end up having leftovers for lunch alone.
That might sound wrong, but I as a manager of multiple teams, manage by just being there in the office with the guys and gals. No remote set ups or zoom talks can replace that.
During lockdowns I usually had around 9 meetings per day. It went down to like 2 per day when i came back. It usually takes 15 minutes to catch up with all the teams.
But I agree that the mixed model would be best for us. Split it between remote and coming by once in a while
Less of a cohesive team vibe. I have been working remote managing a team for awhile now, and occasionally we come into the office together. There is a huge difference in the quality of communication, the team bond, and the overall comeraderie when we are actually in the office together. Also, as many have said being fully remote creates a lot of meetings that could otherwise be very quick chats.
The biggest friction point is having the necessary segmentation between work and personal life so that you can spend time reflecting on the other.
I used to enjoy my commute where I could think through problems at work as a part of my process in 'closing that door' for the day as I transition into personal life.
Miss people, jokes, and memes that your colleague sent to you while sitting next to you :)
Really difficult to concentrate on tasks, you even start to believe that it's only your problem.
When I see other people always doing smth, complete tasks one by one, I start to think like "Am I really so lazy that I can't be like them?".
But, after a few conversations, I heard the same thoughts from my colleagues and friend. Makes life easier :)
Lines between personal life, study and work are too blurry. Since my workspace is also my bedroom, I feel like I never fully disconnect from my responsibilities. Also, technology keeps me connected to work even in times I'm not supposed to be working (throughout Linkedin, Email, etc).
I also find it way more difficult to connect with people outside the formal sphere.
COMMUNITY
A really wise man once said:
''people that you work with are, when you get down to it, your very best friends''
I cried right after
but, well... I don't know if we should listen to that wise man because he also said: '' If I had a gun with two bullets, and I was in a room with Hitl*r, bin-Lad*n, and Toby, I would sho0t Toby twice"
:) movie quote :)
