4 ms·

We focussed a lot on async collaboration and unfortunately we get issues of team associations. You just miss out on any water cooler talk and struggle to build

by neebz 10y ago

We focussed a lot on async collaboration and unfortunately we get issues of team associations. You just miss out on any water cooler talk and struggle to build relationships with individual employees. This impacted our employee turnover massively even though we gave competitive salaries, flexible work hours and work-from-home.

jobvandervoort 10y ago
We do a few things to alleviate this, I'm not sure if they are enough for scale: 1. Daily call with everyone where we talk about our private lives for the most part (30m call, 28m private life talk: everyone has to tell something they did for fun last week) 2. Very active chat, with many non-work channels 3. A 'watercooler' hangout, where people join to just casually talk over video chat
- wott 10y ago
  You're describing everything I hate, and which made me love remote to get rid of it. And you even increase the amount of time lost in those useless and horrible things.
k__ 10y ago
I have the feeling this water-cooler talk thing is mostly an issue if there is no focus or the management is bad. If everything is fine, I don't talk much "privately" with people at work and some "more social" individuals talk about their private things, when "at the cooler". If there are problems in management, we talk about these "at the cooler".
- weatherstorme 10y ago
  Water-cooler talk is a way to bond with others. Some of my greatest friends were made at work, and this talk happens when we want a break. Usually getting food, coffee, or going to work out. Water-cooler talk isn't only there to bad mouth management, but to make connections/friends.
  - k__ 10y ago
    Hm, okay. Maybe I'm special, in a bad way? I don't know. I never really got along with people that I was "forced" to be together with. School, University, Work. I mean, people liked to work with me and I'm mostly really polite and inclusive and all. But I didn't find many people I considered interesting at these places. I got all my friends from meetups, online communities, parties, etc.
    - weatherstorme 10y ago
      That's perfectly fine. Some people prefer to keep work at work. It is good to do though if you want to climb up and understand the politics at your office (which sucks). I'm also just a super social person, and kind of an outlier.
      - k__ 10y ago
        haha, yes. Every time I noticed such things going on at a company, I jumped ship.
andrey-p 10y ago
I'm working for a small (<50 employees) company, and I'm pretty lucky to have a management that cares about this. Stuff we've got: - weekly all hands meetings where people talk about what makes them excited - lots of non-work-related chat rooms - 2-3 meetup opportunities per year - culture of quick ad-hoc synchronous meetings We also had a board game night via Tabletop Simulator (http://berserk-games.com/tabletop-simulator/ http://berserk-games.com/tabletop-simulator/) It also helps massively if the company is remote-first. We've got a central office where several employees are based but you never feel like you're missing out if you're based elsewhere.
- Vraxx 10y ago
  That is pretty awesome. I've only worked remotely from a place where everybody is based in the same office, but I think your place addresses the big lack of social interactions that usually accompanies remote work. On a side note, I'm also tangentially interested to see how VR can affect the remote workspace. I've used Bigscreen Beta (shared multiplayer lounge with virtual screens) with the Vive to work on a mutual side project with some friends and being able to see each other's screens by turning your head rather than by sharing with some program has also made the experience feel closer to in person work.
jahaja 10y ago
I'm curious about how much the need for social interaction through work differs between Europe and the US. In Scandinavia I feel that there's a pretty distinct border between work and friends/social life. Socialising with colleagues is usually pretty superficial like afterwork and such. Maybe this is the reason I find these "water-cooler moments" so vague and overrated. Personally I think I derive a good and rewarding working relationship by basically just working together, even if that would be mainly through text. I do however realise that there's a lot of people - in my current on-site job as well - that really avoids communicating through text if it's possible to talk face-to-face. I'd assume these persons would probably not enjoy working remotely. I hope remote-only companies make sure that new hires actually can, and like to, communicate through text.

by neebz 10y ago

jobvandervoort 10y ago

We do a few things to alleviate this, I'm not sure if they are enough for scale: 1. Daily call with everyone where we talk about our private lives for the most part (30m call, 28m private life talk: everyone has to tell something they did for fun last week) 2. Very active chat, with many non-work channels 3. A 'watercooler' hangout, where people join to just casually talk over video chat

wott 10y ago
You're describing everything I hate, and which made me love remote to get rid of it. And you even increase the amount of time lost in those useless and horrible things.

k__ 10y ago

I have the feeling this water-cooler talk thing is mostly an issue if there is no focus or the management is bad. If everything is fine, I don't talk much "privately" with people at work and some "more social" individuals talk about their private things, when "at the cooler". If there are problems in management, we talk about these "at the cooler".

weatherstorme 10y ago
Water-cooler talk is a way to bond with others. Some of my greatest friends were made at work, and this talk happens when we want a break. Usually getting food, coffee, or going to work out. Water-cooler talk isn't only there to bad mouth management, but to make connections/friends.
- k__ 10y ago
  Hm, okay. Maybe I'm special, in a bad way? I don't know. I never really got along with people that I was "forced" to be together with. School, University, Work. I mean, people liked to work with me and I'm mostly really polite and inclusive and all. But I didn't find many people I considered interesting at these places. I got all my friends from meetups, online communities, parties, etc.
  - weatherstorme 10y ago
    That's perfectly fine. Some people prefer to keep work at work. It is good to do though if you want to climb up and understand the politics at your office (which sucks). I'm also just a super social person, and kind of an outlier.
    - k__ 10y ago
      haha, yes. Every time I noticed such things going on at a company, I jumped ship.

andrey-p 10y ago

I'm working for a small (<50 employees) company, and I'm pretty lucky to have a management that cares about this. Stuff we've got: - weekly all hands meetings where people talk about what makes them excited - lots of non-work-related chat rooms - 2-3 meetup opportunities per year - culture of quick ad-hoc synchronous meetings We also had a board game night via Tabletop Simulator (http://berserk-games.com/tabletop-simulator/ http://berserk-games.com/tabletop-simulator/) It also helps massively if the company is remote-first. We've got a central office where several employees are based but you never feel like you're missing out if you're based elsewhere.

Vraxx 10y ago
That is pretty awesome. I've only worked remotely from a place where everybody is based in the same office, but I think your place addresses the big lack of social interactions that usually accompanies remote work. On a side note, I'm also tangentially interested to see how VR can affect the remote workspace. I've used Bigscreen Beta (shared multiplayer lounge with virtual screens) with the Vive to work on a mutual side project with some friends and being able to see each other's screens by turning your head rather than by sharing with some program has also made the experience feel closer to in person work.

jahaja 10y ago

I'm curious about how much the need for social interaction through work differs between Europe and the US. In Scandinavia I feel that there's a pretty distinct border between work and friends/social life. Socialising with colleagues is usually pretty superficial like afterwork and such. Maybe this is the reason I find these "water-cooler moments" so vague and overrated. Personally I think I derive a good and rewarding working relationship by basically just working together, even if that would be mainly through text. I do however realise that there's a lot of people - in my current on-site job as well - that really avoids communicating through text if it's possible to talk face-to-face. I'd assume these persons would probably not enjoy working remotely. I hope remote-only companies make sure that new hires actually can, and like to, communicate through text.