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I found WFH terrible for onboarding new hires. They don’t have the work network and miss out on conversations, both work and water-cooler social stuff. It’s tak

by dahart 3y ago

I found WFH terrible for onboarding new hires. They don’t have the work network and miss out on conversations, both work and water-cooler social stuff. It’s taking much longer to get them up to speed and as productive as their co-workers than it did when we were all in the office. And yeah completely agree on working on the right things. Programmers (me included) pine for “focus time”, but we need a lot of talking to know if we’re overengineering or underengineering. I’ve watched a lot of people get their way with too much focus time and implement the wrong things, wasting weeks or months at a time.

johndhi 3y ago
My strategy in WFH onboarding is a ton of 1:1 meetings
- TheCleric 3y ago
  Agreed I’ve also started combining this with pairing exercises with trusted team members, and a fairly small, easy project for them to apply the information they are learning.
kelnos 3y ago
I generally agree with you on that, but my partner started a new job (as a technical lead for an engineering team) about 6 months ago, and her onboarding was actually pretty good -- not perfect, there were some snags, but the overall experience was positive. Was it as good as in-person onboarding? Maybe not as good as if she were in-person at this same company, but IMO it was still better than the in-person onboarding I've seen at other companies. She started getting solidly productive after two months or so, which I think is comparable to most in-person jobs, especially when you're not joining in a more junior position. But social connections with the members of her team were definitely slower to form, and I think there are still (after 6 months) some holes there. But... that's kinda ok? A company might be upset at any negative effects that might have, but I personally think it's a completely acceptable (fantastic, even) trade off for the ability to eliminate a commute, work in comfort, and have a more flexible schedule. Obviously not all companies are going to do remote onboarding well. Just as many companies don't do a great job of in-person onboarding either. But that doesn't mean throw up your hands, give up, and make people go back to the office. It means... do better. I do think remote onboarding is especially hard for people starting their first job in the industry. But I'm not convinced these problems don't have solutions. Maybe not perfect solutions, but good-enough solutions.
lannisterstark 3y ago
>water-cooler social stuff. I keep hearing this while at the same time seeing very little evidence for this. Most 'water cooler social stuff' is absolutely pointless small talk at best that you have to often engage in to remain polite. I'd rather not if I could avoid it except for certain circumstances with people I am already 'friends' with. Guess what I do with those coworkers I am friends with? we have a separate channel/group from official channels where we do that already. Nothing's missing there.
- dahart 3y ago
  Seems like you maybe ignored the whole point that new hires don’t have a friend group, and it’s harder to make one?
  - lannisterstark 3y ago
    New hires won't have an instant friend group with water-cooler talks either. They habitually make 'friend groups' with people they work with regularly, remote or otherwise. It's easier to just go "hey want to grab lunch?" in office, I'll grant you that, but it by no means is an 'absolute stop' for new hires from socializing with coworkers.

by dahart 3y ago

johndhi 3y ago

My strategy in WFH onboarding is a ton of 1:1 meetings

TheCleric 3y ago
Agreed I’ve also started combining this with pairing exercises with trusted team members, and a fairly small, easy project for them to apply the information they are learning.

kelnos 3y ago

I generally agree with you on that, but my partner started a new job (as a technical lead for an engineering team) about 6 months ago, and her onboarding was actually pretty good -- not perfect, there were some snags, but the overall experience was positive. Was it as good as in-person onboarding? Maybe not as good as if she were in-person at this same company, but IMO it was still better than the in-person onboarding I've seen at other companies. She started getting solidly productive after two months or so, which I think is comparable to most in-person jobs, especially when you're not joining in a more junior position. But social connections with the members of her team were definitely slower to form, and I think there are still (after 6 months) some holes there. But... that's kinda ok? A company might be upset at any negative effects that might have, but I personally think it's a completely acceptable (fantastic, even) trade off for the ability to eliminate a commute, work in comfort, and have a more flexible schedule. Obviously not all companies are going to do remote onboarding well. Just as many companies don't do a great job of in-person onboarding either. But that doesn't mean throw up your hands, give up, and make people go back to the office. It means... do better. I do think remote onboarding is especially hard for people starting their first job in the industry. But I'm not convinced these problems don't have solutions. Maybe not perfect solutions, but good-enough solutions.

lannisterstark 3y ago

>water-cooler social stuff. I keep hearing this while at the same time seeing very little evidence for this. Most 'water cooler social stuff' is absolutely pointless small talk at best that you have to often engage in to remain polite. I'd rather not if I could avoid it except for certain circumstances with people I am already 'friends' with. Guess what I do with those coworkers I am friends with? we have a separate channel/group from official channels where we do that already. Nothing's missing there.

dahart 3y ago
Seems like you maybe ignored the whole point that new hires don’t have a friend group, and it’s harder to make one?
- lannisterstark 3y ago
  New hires won't have an instant friend group with water-cooler talks either. They habitually make 'friend groups' with people they work with regularly, remote or otherwise. It's easier to just go "hey want to grab lunch?" in office, I'll grant you that, but it by no means is an 'absolute stop' for new hires from socializing with coworkers.