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I had a manager for a while who would make a point of catching me up on watercooler talk once a week or whenever we met about something else. Somebody quit in a
by TallGuyShort 10y ago
I had a manager for a while who would make a point of catching me up on watercooler talk once a week or whenever we met about something else. Somebody quit in a dramatic way a few days ago? New project everyone's talking about that has nothing to do with me? Only took about 3 minutes, but really helped me feel connected, be more aware of the big picture, what else was going on that might indirectly impact my projects. I understood when a team I communicated with might be stressed or distracted. I understood when resources were going to be harder to get. Really good practice.
- cs02rm0 10y agoFWIW, while this is important, it happens in remote working environments too.
- TallGuyShort 10y agoNot sure what you mean - I meant to say this is what my manager did for me as a remote employee. I've worked remotely for about 4 years, and this manager really made it work better than anyone else because of little things like this.
- wott 10y agoI also read it erroneously as if you were working in an office. Maybe the wording "catching me up" and "watercooler" :-)
- cs02rm0 10y agoApologies, I mistook watercooler as literal rather than a metaphor. I agree the little things that mimic, or substitute for, the subtleties of working in an office are still vital when working remotely.
- viraptor 10y agoI've done this as a weekly team conference call + hipchat for ad-hoc announcements (where announcements = anything from we're doing a new project to cat pics). It can still work pretty well.
- voltagex_ 10y agoSounds like there should be specialist training for people who manage remote teams. I wonder what GitHub does in comparison to Google (which seems to be sort of anti-remote).
- TallGuyShort 10y agoGreat idea. I think it's the same with many management scenarios. You could put someone in charge of a group of employees from a very different culture, and without any training or other investment into learning about how to make it work, they're likely to end up thinking, "I just can't get the team to perform - let's not hire people like that."
- voltagex_ 10y agoSounds like there should be specialist training for people who manage remote teams. I wonder what GitHub does in comparison to Google (which seems to be sort of anti-remote).