Re:Ask HN: What don't you like about remote work?
by catlover76 on Thursday November 23, 2023 @11:43AM
(#38394641)
Every "social event" that I have attended over video chat has been a cringey fail. As you note, for most people, that kind of stuff just can't replace in-person interaction.
Re:Ask HN: What don't you like about remote work?
by throwaway60703 on Thursday November 23, 2023 @09:30AM
(#38393135)
We tried doing this, in many different forms, but it never worked out. At first meeting, almost everyone is present, the second one a half of the team, the third one practically nobody. No matter what we do - eat food, drink tea, play games, tech talks... Nothing works.
Small groups worked only if the people already have a relationship (which is rare), I never successfully got people to consistently join small groups with people they didn't know.
During the office times, this just happened naturally as people felt like it. I don't think you can schedule fun.
This part is very difficult, and requires very intentional work to build relationships. Honestly, teams should invest as much time into this aspect as they do in things like their CI pipeline or whatever they use to track work.
Regularly scheduled team lunches - at least once a week, during which no work is expected to be done, you just sit and chat about whatever while you eat (or don't, if you feel uncomfortable eating on camera.)
My employer used something called Donut to schedule random small groups of people for the equivalent of a coffee-walk (opt-in, of course.) This worked decently to get people together who you might otherwise not meet, and learn about their interests, which may overlap with yours.
Specialty interest channels - Dungeons & Dragons, video games, movie appreciation, beer club, pet pictures, etc. Onboarding should include that these things exist, and that new hires can join them if they're interested.
Having typed all that - none of this is a replacement for in-person interactions for the majority of people. Some people are fine with getting their socialization needs online, but the majority aren't.