4 ms·

Do none of those companies utilize chat? My experience with "open office" arrangements is that most of the conversation (important and casual) takes place in c

by elif 10y ago

Do none of those companies utilize chat? My experience with "open office" arrangements is that most of the conversation (important and casual) takes place in chats anyway--even between people sitting right next to eachother--because generally people don't want to distract uninvolved parties.

gtaylor 10y ago
> Do none of those companies utilize chat? Sure they do. But you're going to miss adhoc conversations that people in the same physical location have. Remote people aren't left out on purpose, but many times this chatter doesn't warrant saying "Hold on, let's not talk to each other's faces. Better do this on Slack.". Source: Worked remote for about four years, really missed these kinds of random chatter.
- __derek__ 10y ago
  This seems like it all comes down to the remote-first vs. remote-friendly divide.[1] [1] My favorite post on the subject is Holman's: https://zachholman.com/posts/remote-first/ https://zachholman.com/posts/remote-first/
  - gtaylor 10y ago
    Not ever saying a word in the office is just not realistic. You don't leave people out intentionally, but conversations happen organically sometimes. Maybe you're in the kitchen grabbing a poptart and start talking shop with someone who walks in. There are tradeoffs inherent in every working situation. This is one that really bothered me. It doesn't bother everyone, though.
    - geoka9 10y ago
      > Maybe you're in the kitchen grabbing a poptart and start talking shop with someone who walks in. I find that most talks like that are just shooting the breeze. _Some_ of them are useful and in my experience it's usually then they happen rarely. So I think it is beneficial for the team to get together once in a while, but working like that should not be mandatory and you should just let people go back to their preferred routines ASAP. UPDATE: And yes, make sure the culture is "remote-friendly" ("remote-first") even if most of your workers spend most of their working time in the office, otherwise it's not going to work (and I'd argue that this is a good approach even if you don't have any remote workers, but that's for another post).
discordianfish 10y ago
To be fair, a lot of my issues also come from the fact that I'm in a different timezone. Even without that though, it's less about not being able to discuss things but more about not being 'casually included' in what is going on which leads to general misunderstandings.

by elif 10y ago

gtaylor 10y ago

> Do none of those companies utilize chat? Sure they do. But you're going to miss adhoc conversations that people in the same physical location have. Remote people aren't left out on purpose, but many times this chatter doesn't warrant saying "Hold on, let's not talk to each other's faces. Better do this on Slack.". Source: Worked remote for about four years, really missed these kinds of random chatter.

__derek__ 10y ago
This seems like it all comes down to the remote-first vs. remote-friendly divide.[1] [1] My favorite post on the subject is Holman's: https://zachholman.com/posts/remote-first/ https://zachholman.com/posts/remote-first/
- gtaylor 10y ago
  Not ever saying a word in the office is just not realistic. You don't leave people out intentionally, but conversations happen organically sometimes. Maybe you're in the kitchen grabbing a poptart and start talking shop with someone who walks in. There are tradeoffs inherent in every working situation. This is one that really bothered me. It doesn't bother everyone, though.
  - geoka9 10y ago
    > Maybe you're in the kitchen grabbing a poptart and start talking shop with someone who walks in. I find that most talks like that are just shooting the breeze. _Some_ of them are useful and in my experience it's usually then they happen rarely. So I think it is beneficial for the team to get together once in a while, but working like that should not be mandatory and you should just let people go back to their preferred routines ASAP. UPDATE: And yes, make sure the culture is "remote-friendly" ("remote-first") even if most of your workers spend most of their working time in the office, otherwise it's not going to work (and I'd argue that this is a good approach even if you don't have any remote workers, but that's for another post).

discordianfish 10y ago

To be fair, a lot of my issues also come from the fact that I'm in a different timezone. Even without that though, it's less about not being able to discuss things but more about not being 'casually included' in what is going on which leads to general misunderstandings.