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One of the hidden assumptions in "hire people that write well" is that people who write well would also likely have high reading comprehension skills. Or, the i
by nthj 6y ago
One of the hidden assumptions in "hire people that write well" is that people who write well would also likely have high reading comprehension skills. Or, the inverse—I find that the ones who want to jump on a quick call vs. writing out their request are the same people who seemingly don't read the documents I produce.
Quickly reading and understanding almost everything I can find—code, plans, schedules, calendars, strategy, memos—is how I excel in remote environments. It's not a huge time commitment, 20 minutes a day, but I have the organization's "state" modeled in my head, which helps me identify dependencies and potential bottlenecks before they're surprises.
- jfengel 6y agoDifferent people have different communications styles, and resolving that is always tough. But there are definitely those who communicate poorly in any medium -- and I find that often they're the ones who like media where they don't leave a trail that can be pinned on them. There are are advantages to the "quick call", and some people definitely work better that way. But I much prefer written communication: not only do I get to refer back to it, but it's more asynchronous, freeing me up considerably. "Let's talk" often seems like a barbarous imposition on my time, that I have to hear it right now and make any decisions while you're staring at me. I try to keep in mind that they just have a different communications style, but that's not always easy.