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I managed a remote team and man is it harder than in person. One common remote work thought is “you get more heads down time” I’ve found almost the opposite.
by lettergram 3y ago
I managed a remote team and man is it harder than in person.
One common remote work thought is “you get more heads down time”
I’ve found almost the opposite. You have to be way more regular about engagement with each person. I would do 20 min meetings with every team member, every week. Team lunches over zoom twice a week, daily standup (1 min per person, plus breakout rooms for further discussions), Friday afternoon optional game days, etc. I always just hung out on a video conference, all day; similar to when people game.
In an office I can walk around the block with you and chat. In a remote setting I have to schedule some time and keep you engaged. It’s a long distance relationship, takes more time, and effort… much harder to sustain
- junofan 3y agoYeah it’s crazy. Add in time zones and it’s no contest.
- user_named 3y agoSounds like helicopter management
- jayd16 3y agoThese comments are so reactionary and low effort. A daily standup, plus 20 minutes a week, plus putting in the effort to be available as the manager is helicopter management?
- knifie_spoonie 3y ago> putting in the effort to be available as the manager Except that the parent commenter is expecting others to be available to them without regards to other people's working patterns.
- osigurdson 3y agoI just sounds like the commenter doesn't have a good concept of "why". They are going through the motions, booking meetings etc. but are not really leading anything, just doing stuff.
- jayd16 3y agoHow are you getting that? Where did they say it wasn't effective project management? They just said it was harder. And it is harder. For example, it's way easier to see when a junior dev is lost when you can see pain in there face from across the office instead of hoping it shows in one of the check-in meetings.
- red-iron-pine 3y agoasking simple, low effort questions -- "hey how do I log into [this new system]" -- is as simple as leaning into a room or over a cube, but with remote you have to poke someone. in person you just drag a laptop over but remote you have a call, share a screen, carve out time. not necessarily more disruptive, but sure feels like more effort, and now involves multiple apps sucking up bandwidth and potentially logging everything you say.
- osigurdson 3y agoGosh, dragging a laptop over seems way harder than starting a screen share. No need to carve out time. Companies should be explicit about whether or not they log every conversation. Creepy companies that like to spy might already have cameras and microphones all over the place - not a good look.
- oregano 3y ago"...but with remote you have to poke someone" This example does not make sense because in both scenarios, in person or remote, you're 'poking' someone (aka disrupting someone) to ask a question. Also physically schlepping a laptop around to show someone is way more work than a simple screen share....and in either scenario here you're needing to 'carve out time'.
- lettergram 3y agoLol I’m just ignoring all this, my team had WAY higher output and feedback was always extremely good (from team members and management) Still keep in touch with all my former team members and many requested to follow my to my next roles. The truth and my point was that as a remote manager you have a lot more input requirements. Basically; you need constant touch points with every person. These comments also point out the challenges in that, don’t want to over do it either.
- goostavos 3y agoOptional (non-optional) manager led mandatory fun over zoom is my nightmare.
- lettergram 3y agoI agree, I used to push the limits and always skip all fun events lol still do, for that matter. That said, I’d set aside budget and offer it anyone wants to organize. If they did it they got a free meal, they’d get to start at 2pm, and could purchase games/activities.
- osigurdson 3y agoTo me, it sounds like you are substituting activity for leadership.
- lettergram 3y agoLol the discussion here is around remote work, I brought up the difficulties managing a remote team. (1) Leadership & management are actually two distinct roles that are often conflated (2) how do you lead a team without talking to them? Your comment is fair-ish, but I think misses the mark. You have to balance touch points and removing blockers, with attitudes like “I want heads down time to work”. In an office you can walk pass, see someone struggling and offer to help. In a remote setting you need regular check ins. For what it’s worth here, I described maybe 2-4 hrs a week of meetings. How is that a burden? Lol that overhead of planning & engagement (5-10%) dramatically (like 1.25 - 2x) productively. It results in less waste and a more motivated / engaged team, if done properly
- osigurdson 3y agoAsk your team to do an anonymous, net promoter score for each of the meetings. If you can't prove the claim that productivity is increased by the amount you specify then consider cancelling the meetings.
- lettergram 3y agoNet promoter scores wouldn't have any baring on productivity. As an example, often the least enjoyed meetings can be productive (such as telling a person to stop working on their project).
- osigurdson 3y agoSure, but here you are merely communicating management error. Why did you ask them to do something that wasn’t needed in the first place?
- knifie_spoonie 3y ago> In an office I can walk around the block with you and chat. In a remote setting I have to schedule some time This is exactly what I love about remote work. Being able to schedule activities ahead of time and avoid my flow being interrupted makes me so much more productive.
- jayd16 3y agoI kind of hate it. The meeting is going to disrupt my flow no matter what. I'd rather bang out the day's meetings in an ad hoc but back-to-back way. With remote meetings it feels like there's so much scheduling overhead and in between meeting dead time.
- knifie_spoonie 3y agoI always found there to be much less overhead and dead-time for remote meetings. Mainly due to the fact that you don't have to find a free meeting room, and then having to move between them. I and the people I work with also like to organise meetings back to back. We spend our mornings getting through all our meetings by 11am, and then we've got the whole day to get work done without any interruptions.
- danbolt 3y agoLikewise; I really appreciate being able to section off time and plan my tasks around the availability. If a manager wants to book a meeting for something, there’s usually a bit of runway to get my notes organized.
- seanmcdirmid 3y ago> You have to be way more regular about engagement with each person. That is from the people's manager perspective. From the perspective of an IC, the lack of all that extraneous engagement means we have more time to write code. I know people who are RTOing to be on video conferences all day. Not a fun way to live.