5 ms·
Just to give some context first: I work in a small remote-first company, and some people are in different time zones (or even travel between time zones). I tot
by gingerlime 9y ago
Just to give some context first: I work in a small remote-first company, and some people are in different time zones (or even travel between time zones).
I totally agree that this can overcome if you "just talk to each other" (or in the remote/online sense, update your calendar or post a message on slack).
The problem however I see is when communication is broken, which happens too often in my experience. The "Sorry, I woke up late", or "Sorry, I forgot to update the calendar" after-the-fact communication irks me personally and hurts collaboration. Perhaps I'm wrong, but my perception is that a lot of people associate flexibility with lack of accountability ("I'm flexible, I'll just take a break right now, and I don't need to tell anyone, because, well, we're all flexible").
To summarise, I would say that clearly-communicated flexibility works great. But it's an essential prerequisite for it working.
- closeparen 9y agoThis sounds like you still expect colleagues to be available for immediate, unscheduled interruption unless otherwise noted. I think the idea is to reverse that. We should be accountable to getting the work done, not to being available for unscheduled communication.
- icebraining 9y agocloseparan is exactly right. If you're saying you can't work because the other person is on an unannounced break, that means you'd be interrupting their work otherwise. Coordination means finding a time appropriate for both, not having to pre-announce one's availability so that others can barge in whenever they feel like.