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I switched to fully remote work 2.5 years ago, and my tips are somewhat similar. All of these things have positively contributed to both my own well-being and j

I switched to fully remote work 2.5 years ago, and my tips are somewhat similar. All of these things have positively contributed to both my own well-being and job satisfaction, and they've been positively mentioned to me by higher ups in reviews and such. I didn't start these things with that intention but it has been a welcome side benefit - I started to do all this because working remotely left me feeling isolated and lonely. Now, things are pretty good and I can't really imagine going back to work in an office! - Use Slack for water cooler talk, but not just "on brand" links like articles about software. Make or join a #videogames, #movies, #music, and/or #photography channel and talk with people outside your team. If it makes sense, some of these hobby channels can have little activities or contests. Our photography channel runs an inconsistently updated photography "contest", but mostly we just share our favorite shots and talk about gear we can't afford. - Have a team happy hour about once every other week, during company time. We do ours on a Friday, just after 1pm for me (central time). It's late enough that many people are ready to relax a bit before the weekend but early enough to let the people on the west coast join. Just grab a drink (hard or soft) and talk about stuff! - Do activities after hours with coworkers, if they're open to it. I run a bi-weekly movie night (on weeks we don't have the happy hour) and invite everyone on the team to come. Frankly, it's usually only a couple regulars, but those that come seem to enjoy it and it's really improved team camaraderie. On some nights we switch it for a game night. Among Us is a newer game that is absolutely perfect for this.

cvhashim 6y ago
> I run a bi-weekly movie night (on weeks we don't have the happy hour) and invite everyone on the team to come How does this work? You guys meet up in person?
- jakebasile 6y ago
  We just watch the same movie at home, and sit in discord for light discussion/jokes. I just count down to press play so we're all somewhat synced up. It's close enough.
  - est31 6y ago
    Hmm sounds like a good idea for a social app that syncs the movie watching experience. If someone wants to make a toilet pause or rewatch a scene it's hard to sync again.
    - ruffsl 6y ago
      SyncPlay + MPV is a nice open source way to go about it, sharing time control and synchronizing playback. With youtube-dl installed, you can also stream YouTube together as well (Google Hangouts used to be about to do this before they purged all the integration features), not just local media files. But playing from local media files though helps save a lot of bandwidth when watching with friends with limited connectivity, or in prioritizing voice/video call quality. There's also browser extensions such as Netflix party, or mobile apps such as Rave, but the first is still buggy, and the later is a bit sketchy. Plex also has a watch together feature, so everyone can just stream from your own media server, no exchanging files beforehand, but only supports mobile platforms so far, looks like browser or PC support is still in the works. Discord has been the best internet voice app I've found for movie watching, as the voice activated mics and background noise suppression improves the watching experience for everyone else considerably. Anyone else have suggestions?
      - est31 6y ago
        Thanks for the overview of available products! It's great to hear that others saw this as a potential market as well. Google wasn't the first search website, MS office not the first word processor, Apple didn't invent the mouse. The market still seems ripe for someone to make a "proper" social media watching product, and I think there is no better moment for it than the current corona times.
    - social_quotient 6y ago
      Plex has a feature called “watch together” and does a good job https://support.plex.tv/articles/watch-together/ https://support.plex.tv/articles/watch-together/
    - 6y ago
wccrawford 6y ago
We actually allow team talk time every day. The IT meeting is supposed to be about discussing what we've done and what we'll do, sorta scrum-style, but management knows and allows it to run as long as we like while we socialize. This was even the case before we went fully remote for Covid. I believe the CSRs do the same, but I haven't been to their meetings. They tried a scheduled after-hours happy our with the whole company, but people showed up for a few weeks and then it died off. We have Discord and have a few channels including #general and #random. We haven't found the need to get more specific since there's only a few of us. It might be nice to have those specific ones shared with the entire company instead of just the team, though. I think I'll suggest that. The photography one in particular caught my attention because a few people on the team wanted to do a flat-lay photo contest with a prize, but CS just wasn't into it. We're still considering doing it unofficially. Thanks for the info!

cvhashim 6y ago

> I run a bi-weekly movie night (on weeks we don't have the happy hour) and invite everyone on the team to come How does this work? You guys meet up in person?

jakebasile 6y ago
We just watch the same movie at home, and sit in discord for light discussion/jokes. I just count down to press play so we're all somewhat synced up. It's close enough.
- est31 6y ago
  Hmm sounds like a good idea for a social app that syncs the movie watching experience. If someone wants to make a toilet pause or rewatch a scene it's hard to sync again.
  - ruffsl 6y ago
    SyncPlay + MPV is a nice open source way to go about it, sharing time control and synchronizing playback. With youtube-dl installed, you can also stream YouTube together as well (Google Hangouts used to be about to do this before they purged all the integration features), not just local media files. But playing from local media files though helps save a lot of bandwidth when watching with friends with limited connectivity, or in prioritizing voice/video call quality. There's also browser extensions such as Netflix party, or mobile apps such as Rave, but the first is still buggy, and the later is a bit sketchy. Plex also has a watch together feature, so everyone can just stream from your own media server, no exchanging files beforehand, but only supports mobile platforms so far, looks like browser or PC support is still in the works. Discord has been the best internet voice app I've found for movie watching, as the voice activated mics and background noise suppression improves the watching experience for everyone else considerably. Anyone else have suggestions?
    - est31 6y ago
      Thanks for the overview of available products! It's great to hear that others saw this as a potential market as well. Google wasn't the first search website, MS office not the first word processor, Apple didn't invent the mouse. The market still seems ripe for someone to make a "proper" social media watching product, and I think there is no better moment for it than the current corona times.
  - social_quotient 6y ago
    Plex has a feature called “watch together” and does a good job https://support.plex.tv/articles/watch-together/ https://support.plex.tv/articles/watch-together/
  - 6y ago

wccrawford 6y ago

We actually allow team talk time every day. The IT meeting is supposed to be about discussing what we've done and what we'll do, sorta scrum-style, but management knows and allows it to run as long as we like while we socialize. This was even the case before we went fully remote for Covid. I believe the CSRs do the same, but I haven't been to their meetings. They tried a scheduled after-hours happy our with the whole company, but people showed up for a few weeks and then it died off. We have Discord and have a few channels including #general and #random. We haven't found the need to get more specific since there's only a few of us. It might be nice to have those specific ones shared with the entire company instead of just the team, though. I think I'll suggest that. The photography one in particular caught my attention because a few people on the team wanted to do a flat-lay photo contest with a prize, but CS just wasn't into it. We're still considering doing it unofficially. Thanks for the info!