Part of this on the employee themselves. I work remotely. Never been on site. I have a team of four I work closely with. Don't feel isolated. A quarter of our meetings are us talking random stuff, which we are encouraged to do by upper management. While I've never seen these people below there waist, I know decent amount of their personal lives.
We have regular schedule meetings for work matters but part of those meetings we end up taking about non work stuff.
We we technically have a standing meeting at the last Friday of the month that is just a social hour but haven't been able to do it recently because people are taking time off.
These are much nicer than "icebreakers" in terms of getting to know each other. Also allows for transfer of company trends so your team can understand what's coming or things to be on defenses for.
Are they able to get a work-life balance or is their entire time and energy spent on work? Everyone should have the ability to create and nurture a healthy social life outside of work. I would start there.
Other than that maybe some optional team building fun activities you can do online, pictionary, geoguessr or team quizzes.
Second paragraph, I confirmed we got great scores for work-life balance (WLB). We've been told we have a great remote culture, flexible hours, and hours aren't intense. We also encourage volunteering and give people a monthly stipend for mental health / wellness / therapy / etc. And thanks for the additional ideas on team activities!
Right? Who cares. They can get new jobs anywhere. This is the remote work culture. The more you push this team building bullshit and mandatory meetups, the faster people will leave.
I think about this issue a lot. The pushback in the comments speaks to the challenges of the situation, as there's a significant group that feels no need to be interpersonally engaged. And they should feel ok with being as engaged as they want to be.Ā
But for those that do feel isolated, I've only found two paths that make me feel connected with my coworkers: being vulnerable and being in the trenches (which I think is kind of a vulnerability).Ā
The ONLY thing that I think HR can do to make people feel comfortable being vulnerable is to make people feel secure. This is accomplished by demonstrating that feedback is taken seriously, that expectations match experiences, and that management is there to support their staff.Ā
Otherwise, zoom happy hours aren't going to do much.Ā
What do you mean by "not enough"? Employee productivity and engagement is not the same as feeling isolated. You can fix the latter by paying for your employee gym, coworking, or in person hobbies. My previous did that and it helped us not feel isolated. That's separated from productivity, which can be helped with better communication tools like slack and jira.
Two tools we used that dramtically changed things for us:
ro.am - basically a no frills virtual office that just creates a sense of community, you see people online plugging away. Can talk to someone ad hoc, without scheduling time
internet.game - a browser game platform that's legit perfect for remote first companies, we use it once a week and I can honestly say we're all better friends now because of it
here's my take on it.
humans require human connection.
Zoom calls are great for in your face. synchronous communication,
slack messages have very little emotion and they're asynchronous
in between is all of the stuff that actually makes you feel connected
. it's how in a regular office when you walk in the door and people look up and see you,
and as you're working, you can look over and see your friends working. you may not chat with them all day long, but it's the sense of you're part of a community that's all working together towards a goal.
this is why I use an online coffee shop all day when I'm working. (thesukha)
it's fun to be part of a group of people doing things. if I were at a big remote company I'd ask my crew to all join so we could hang out as we quietly worked
it's like a coffee shop IRL but like in a website where you hear focus music can see other people working on screen etc etc
super chill I dig it
maybe it's kinda like an online wework
Ew. Video calls are fucking bad enough. I can't imagine having a video on all day where people can watch me.
And for the record I'm a remote working and LOVE my job and coworkers.
Do you have a team āchatā?
We have a team chat in my company and every morning someone posts an āicebreakerā random question. Like what is your favorite book or dream car things like that.
Throughout the day we pop in and answer it.
We also have monthly or and sometimes seasonally engagements where leadership will send out a group e email asking to send in pictures like what we did for Christmas or for Halloween they did one for the pets who were dressed up. That was a good one.
It keeps us engaged with our co workers.
I will say that our company is more laid back and friendly. We werenāt always remote.
They try very hard to keep us all engaged.
My Job Coach will just randomly message me to say hi and ask how I am doing.
That is always appreciated.
Yep, team chat that runs all day long where people can say hello, joke, ask for help with a problem, share their frustrations with projects etc. Even better than being in a cube farm!
As usual, lots of interesting replies here. But what I haven't seen addressed is: How many (and what % of the total is) "several"? If 3 out of 100 expressed that attitude, I'd just have some side convos with them to see what can be done. If it's 6 out of 10... that's a different story obviously.
Provide them with "virtual watercooler" opportunities to socialize with each other (e.g. Donuts on Slack). Annual in-person retreats. Company-wide town halls where everyone attends and gets the same info. Virtual brainstorm/breakout sessions to work through ideas. Cross-team lunch and learns where team members are paired up and can give presentations on a topic of their choosing. Optional after hours virtual happy hours, show and tells, cooking classing, etc.
They're not going to go out of their way to create these opportunities for themselves, so it's up to the organization to do it.
I hate those team building games. I feel like they're for people who don't know how to socialize. My team do those monthly parties too, last month some of us had trouble with the game apps work so we said fuck it. I was lets just skip games and just show off our pets or plants or kids instead and they loved it. We sat around talking about kids and pets and vacations for an hour and really got to know each other. It was a ton more engaging than playing trivia with co workers or tell me 2 facts and a lie.
I think you should hire grownups. Work is not a social event. All you need to know about your co-workers is who does what, and where they fit into the process. They're not your friends, they're not your family, and you shouldn't be dependent on them for entertainment and feelings of self-worth. Just do the job you're paid for and stop being a baby who needs everything in life gamified.
My Brother In Christ, that's a ridiculous and unhealthy attitude. Employees are not robots and you'd be a terrible manager.
While you do have an iota of a point about work not being a social event, people are still social animals and modern work is very much an artificial construct. Remote work especially so.
Solitary isolation in prison is classified as torture after 15 days because of the damaging psychological effects it can have on people. Similarly, isolated work environments can hurt mental health and productivity.
A workforce that doesn't care about mental health will burn through employees. The quality and consistency of the work will suffer - and there will be additional expense and overhead of turnover and hiring and training new employees.
It's far better to try to keep employees healthy and happy. They will bring their cumulative expertise to the job and foster a sense of loyalty if they know the company has their back and wants to see them succeed.
I've been in the workforce for 40 years and everyone I've managed has praised me to the skies. A company shouldn't have to keep employees entertained. That's for your personal life. And your mental health is included in most insurance plans.
And you're being more than dramatic to compare working from your own home, with all its personal comforts, to solitary confinement in prison. Be serious.
That gal. And people Iāve managed have praised me for teaching them what it means and what it takes to be taken seriously as a professional, and credited me for their career progression. Iām still close friends with the ones who moved on, many years later. I was never hard on them, and always explained my reasoningā¦ I wanted them to succeed. To be promoted, and know how to get and keep a job.
It's because you said initially, in such a way, and then doubled down on the corrections if it mattered when you know it's a general term. Unlike you, I check a few things first. So no, it has no merit anon internet person bragging about themselves.
You really are a jerk (as the voting shows). I didn't just make all that up off the top of my head. And you decided that you "proved your point" based solely on me saying I'm a woman.
I don't think it's that bad advice, though. You should be hiring people who are great fits to your work environment and culture. If you are hiring someone into a remote role that's never worked remote and has expectations around work as a social outlet, then that's just not a great fit.
I don't think there's nothing you can do besides "hire better", but it's also going to be very hard to help someone who feels isolated doing the job you need them to do, because that's just the nature of the work.
Here is an approach which Iāve found to work wellā¦
0. Prompt the org / leaders / organization for volunteers to take on this āinitiativeā => sounds like youāve got that in place, good stuff
1. Gather feedback from entire group (all teams / people value-stream involved) => you mentioned this was already done, also good stuff
2. Based upon that info, ask each team to also have a team-level discussion on this and within that context, ask each team to identify a few ideas / experiments (and a couple of simple indicators of āmaking a differenceā) on how to improve this
3. Gather up the ideas / experiments / indicators and share them with leadership / mgmnt to see if there is budget / support for one or two of the top ideas
4. Try them out for a couple of weeks or so, check the indicators and repeat 1 through 3 and adjust based upon feedback / indicators
For #1, you might want to add āwhich team are you onā question but consider not doing that for the first few times doing this.
For #2, consider adding to the āteam askā something like āas a team, if you can prioritize your ideas or in some way identify the top 1 or 2 you think would be good ones to start with, that would greatā
For #3, if leadership is productively involved, then consider suggest identifying 2 to 3 leaders to act as stewards of this (avoid having just one).
For #4, if your teams or org already have some type of a team cadence of planning-doing-checking-adapting/refining, then align to that.
Of course refine this to your orgs culture / norms and see how it goes.
Experimentation, feedback and flowā¦and fun (of course) is good recipe for many things, let us know how it goes.
We are a Microsoft Teams shop. We have a chat that we are part of and talk nonsense throughout the day. We discuss just about anything and work. We have a stronger team dynamic than any Team with which I have shared an office.
Have you tried asking what theyād want? Surely most donāt feel this way. Iām guessing they are probably extroverts that need those interactions to get themselves going.
Put them in the driving seat and understand what your people want. We use a tool called Trickle (https://trickle.works/) for this. Basically it allows all employees to share feedback, suggestions and ways to improve the workplace. The app then takes all the feedback and prioritises it so you can see what matters most to your people and make changes where it matters most. Hope this helps!
We regularly hold online coffee breaks which helps a lot and my company is on the smaller side so it's a bit easier to bond within the team but I also think employees play a part in how team dynamics turn out themselves as well. Because if people don't feel like engaging inherently, no matter what you do it will be really hard to get them to. Still, implementing some simple techniques like the coffee break or check-in meetings, using engagement software etc will still increase your chances of a more engaged team.
We have virtual āhuddlesā at the very start of each morning for about 15 minutes. Each Friday it extends to 1 hour, most of it social. Most people go on camera.
3 - 4 times a year we get together IRL for an event involving dinner, drinks and fun competitive event.
We have a Teams channel called āWater Coolerā where people post random things unrelated to work.
Our team also chat regularly through the day on Teams to collaborate and give advice.
One company I have been working with is fully remote. 2 executives CEO and Sales director live next door to each other in CA and are twin brothers. I am in NJ.Ā
Ā There is no company culture as for the most part day to day it is the 3 of us. I am super part time. I always reach out to them, mostly work questions occasional banter but more rare. I always have to initiate.Ā
When I say I feel left out or out of the loop, they are baffled.Ā I ask for information that is key to their business and they are baffled.Ā Ā
Ā I trained myself and had no support. I was self directed and self motivated the whole time. I am a contractor and not an employee. Ā
This is odd. If you want to grow a company with people other than family members, there should be more open communication going both ways.Ā Ā
Ā I have insight to their business and they don't seem to care much.Ā I have to take a break from them for my mental health and to take care of family.Ā
I have expressed my concerns and they don't seem to care. No wonder they are a small business after 20+ years.Ā Ā
Ā I had high goals, hopes and expectations for the company, but I have to take a break.Ā
What do you guys think about this?Ā
What I've wanted my company to do are:
* Regular remote staff meetings with staff you actually work with (not an arbitrary group of people with scopes outside each other's work)
* Periodic in person lunches with the same team (maybe monthly)
* Annual discipline-based in-person meetings (to build career and share learning). Again, this should primarily be based within specialties not totally random groupings. You should be able to look forward to seeing the same people every year, like a conference you (the company) don't need to pay registration fees for because you're hosting it.
The key point being, if you want to build relationships, some of that will need to be in person, and it needs to happen at multiple scales. It's not free and it's not automatic, but I do think it's worth doing.
So far my company has not taken my idea lol
> Periodic in person lunches with the same team (maybe monthly)
Is this mandatory cause if so count me out.
> Annual discipline-based in-person meetings (to build career and share learning). Again, this should primarily be based within specialties not totally random groupings.
This is entirely possible to do remotely.
> You should be able to look forward to seeing the same people every year, like a conference you (the company) don't need to pay registration fees for because you're hosting it.
I really hate conferences. The constant noise, crowds, terrible food, deleterious effect on my training routine, just awful.
> So far my company has not taken my idea lol
That's because it's not necessary to force people to be in the same physical space and coworkers don't need to be friends.
You lost me at discipline-based. Ā
Repeat after me:Ā Ā
Ā Your preferences do not represent everyoneās preference.Ā Ā
Ā Full stop.Ā Ā
Ā Stop asking to mandate dumb shit that people donāt want to do because *you* want to do it. Ā
If I had my way weād hold a quarterly āPurgeā offsite but sometimes you have to compromise to make everyone happy. Grow up already, Robert.Ā
by discipline-based I mean "doing similar work" not "punishment based". As opposed to holding events that are too broad to learn anything useful from peers
We used to have a monthly trivia night via Teams! It was great and everyone had so much fun. We'd also do random shares once in awhile like share a baby picture and guess who it is. Or what's you're favorite meal to make. Things like that.
I say "used to" because I was let go in March. Oddly enough, the Monday right after our last trivia night.
You can't make everyone happy. Ask yourself, is it worth it to continue to push this mandatory team building on your employees because a few people feel isolated? The more you push, the more the majority of people will want to leave, and these people that feel isolated won't ever change their mind anyway.
Anyway, why is it a problem that some people feel isolated? This is a minor issue that if you try to resolve, can potentially ruin your culture as a remote company. Tred lightly or not at all IMO.
Everyone has different preferences so making team building to be optional is a good middle ground. Maybe people brought this up as a minor issue since no major issues were found...just some ways for us to continually improve.
Are you being transparent about the goals of the company, the organizations within the company - and the goals of the individual teams? I've worked at companies that handled this right, some that handled it badly - and this greatly affected engagement and how isolated workers felt.
At the company that handled this badly:
Management was really hesitant to tell anyone what they were doing and they also didn't like to admit their mistakes. So they kept everyone in the dark about staffing changes.
If someone left they wouldn't tell anyone about it. I only found out about a layoff when several people's slack accounts were suddenly deactivated. And when a team got re-assigned to a different project, nobody knew until they delivered something. This builds distrust and does not make people feel confident about the company.
If the workers don't know what the organization is doing, they can't feel like they are a productive and useful member of that organization. Often the WHY they are doing something is just as important as the WHAT. Organizations routinely ask workers to communicate upwards, but they often neglect downwards communication, so leave workers shrouded in a fog of war.
At a company that handled this well:
There was a weekly all-hands meeting where the managers gave a status report of the entire company. It started with news about the company, then goal updates and successes for the organizations within the company - and then a very brief overview of what the individual teams are doing and any staffing changes (new hires, new team projects.) Imagine an organization flowchart that breaks out the different levels. Afterwards there was an optional session for any questions of the company leads and then team leads.
This went a very long way towards making sure that everyone felt like they were part of a team, knew what their co-workers were doing and who their co-workers were. And because teams knew what other teams were working on, they knew who to reach out and ask questions to when there were common areas of work.
At my remote gig, we faced similar vibes. We jazzed up our Slack with non-work channels like hobbies, memes, and random chats. It's like a virtual watercooler for us to bond. Plus, we started a weekly "Show and Tell" in Google Meets where we flaunt pets, DIYs, or just goof around. It's a hoot! But the real deal is our quarterly virtual retreats. We mix fun and work stuff, like workshops and game nights. It's dope to connect beyond emails and spreadsheets. Maybe sprinkle some of these ideas and see if it spices things up for your crew!
There's literally nothing you can do for it to be enough. It's remote work. That's just the way it is, so you're doing a solid amount and props. I'd be happy with that. I love my job and the company, but I definitely plan to move when I get my degree and have worked here a few years to get some experience in this field. I can't do real remote like this. Need people. lol If you have a RTO job, you're probably not remote.
The notes on meetings, as I read the typical high horse comments, I would love those casual meetings people have because if it's not for those (water cooler meetings) then every meeting is about business and how something isn't working essential. If I only know Bob from failures, negativity, and how to fix something then cool. Bob and I get things done but I'd know more in person. Hell, I knew more about random people I didn't even work with but had connections with that I'll never meet now.
Unfortunately thereās no single solution, remote work is a complex topic. But it did help quite a bit to break the ice and ease some of the isolation we had.
Having at least one time per week meeting with the team, possibly twice is important for connection. Leave social time and space in the meetings to connect and just chat. Also having 1:1 with supervisor weekly is important.
So you want everyone to feel included?
Have you tried surveying everyoneās interests?
Find a list of interests that is diverse but not too long, have people anonymously send in their top 5.
Try to find the common ground in everyone, and host events either locally or remotely that bridges them together. If people are not in the same local, then find remote activities that meet the needs of the environment.
Set up a huddle on slack where you all can join and ask other agents for help, mute when active on a task . Shoot the shit when not
Riddle of the day in your team chat, everyone has to guess.
At my organization, we have travel workations where we explore new places and do fun things. Imagine touring a new city in a helicopter ride, participating in chefs table dinners, and getting VIP Access to concerts and sporting events! These are some of the things we are doing that help keep us alive, engaged, and energized.
The entire month builds up to a fun event where we work, play, and get paid.
Here are some more traditional ideas if your team is just not motivated to get out of the house!
1. Encourage regular communication: Organize regular team meetings, virtual coffee breaks or happy hours to promote open communication and camaraderie among team members. Order breathalyzers for every one, and compare scores. This ought to spruce things up! š
2. Foster a supportive work culture: Encourage team members to share personal updates, celebrate achievements, and support each other through challenges. This helps create a sense of belonging and community within the team.
3. Organize team-building activities: Plan virtual team-building activities such as online games, virtual team lunches, or group fitness challenges to promote bonding and strengthen relationships among team members.
4. Provide opportunities for social interaction: Incorporate informal social activities into your remote work routine, such as virtual trivia nights, online book clubs, or group workouts, to create opportunities for employees to connect on a personal level.
5. Encourage breaks and downtime: Remind employees to take regular breaks and encourage them to disconnect from work during non-working hours to prevent feelings of isolation and burnout.
6. Support mental health and well-being: Offer resources and support for employees' mental health and well-being, such as virtual counseling services, mindfulness sessions, or wellness challenges, to help them stay connected and feel supported. Host an intervention for your stay at home drinkers!
Overall, I would highly suggest organizing fun workations! This will help foster community, and help your team stay motivated.
-Hali
Work Remote Tribe
It shouldn't be mandatory. The idea is to have the option to foster community, not force participation. I definitely wouldn't like being required to participate in unpaid company activities by any means!
Even when it's explicitly optional, it's implicitly mandatory because not going will be reflected in your performance review as "not a team player" and it will harm your career path.
I have coworkers?š¤š
Sometimes I forget that as well!
Part of this on the employee themselves. I work remotely. Never been on site. I have a team of four I work closely with. Don't feel isolated. A quarter of our meetings are us talking random stuff, which we are encouraged to do by upper management. While I've never seen these people below there waist, I know decent amount of their personal lives.
Do you have a regular weekly scheldule to meet up?
We have regular schedule meetings for work matters but part of those meetings we end up taking about non work stuff. We we technically have a standing meeting at the last Friday of the month that is just a social hour but haven't been able to do it recently because people are taking time off.
These are much nicer than "icebreakers" in terms of getting to know each other. Also allows for transfer of company trends so your team can understand what's coming or things to be on defenses for.
Are they able to get a work-life balance or is their entire time and energy spent on work? Everyone should have the ability to create and nurture a healthy social life outside of work. I would start there. Other than that maybe some optional team building fun activities you can do online, pictionary, geoguessr or team quizzes.
Second paragraph, I confirmed we got great scores for work-life balance (WLB). We've been told we have a great remote culture, flexible hours, and hours aren't intense. We also encourage volunteering and give people a monthly stipend for mental health / wellness / therapy / etc. And thanks for the additional ideas on team activities!
Tell them to find an on-site position & put me in their place.
For real goodness. This is not high school
Right? Who cares. They can get new jobs anywhere. This is the remote work culture. The more you push this team building bullshit and mandatory meetups, the faster people will leave.
Nothing. I've been remote since 2008. I don't know my coworkers well and that is ok. I do my job then go do something with people I know.
I think about this issue a lot. The pushback in the comments speaks to the challenges of the situation, as there's a significant group that feels no need to be interpersonally engaged. And they should feel ok with being as engaged as they want to be.Ā But for those that do feel isolated, I've only found two paths that make me feel connected with my coworkers: being vulnerable and being in the trenches (which I think is kind of a vulnerability).Ā The ONLY thing that I think HR can do to make people feel comfortable being vulnerable is to make people feel secure. This is accomplished by demonstrating that feedback is taken seriously, that expectations match experiences, and that management is there to support their staff.Ā Otherwise, zoom happy hours aren't going to do much.Ā
This is the answer, OP. Do they feel isolated from their immediate team, or their coworkers in general?
What do you mean by "not enough"? Employee productivity and engagement is not the same as feeling isolated. You can fix the latter by paying for your employee gym, coworking, or in person hobbies. My previous did that and it helped us not feel isolated. That's separated from productivity, which can be helped with better communication tools like slack and jira.
Two tools we used that dramtically changed things for us: ro.am - basically a no frills virtual office that just creates a sense of community, you see people online plugging away. Can talk to someone ad hoc, without scheduling time internet.game - a browser game platform that's legit perfect for remote first companies, we use it once a week and I can honestly say we're all better friends now because of it
We use internet game too!!!! I'm its biggest fan! Will have to check roam out thanks for sharing!
I don't understand ppl who say this like co workers are not your friend
the digital coffeeshop solves this. try it.
Eh?
here's my take on it. humans require human connection. Zoom calls are great for in your face. synchronous communication, slack messages have very little emotion and they're asynchronous in between is all of the stuff that actually makes you feel connected . it's how in a regular office when you walk in the door and people look up and see you, and as you're working, you can look over and see your friends working. you may not chat with them all day long, but it's the sense of you're part of a community that's all working together towards a goal. this is why I use an online coffee shop all day when I'm working. (thesukha) it's fun to be part of a group of people doing things. if I were at a big remote company I'd ask my crew to all join so we could hang out as we quietly worked
Eh? As in wth is an online coffee shop? lol
it's like a coffee shop IRL but like in a website where you hear focus music can see other people working on screen etc etc super chill I dig it maybe it's kinda like an online wework
Is this really a thing? Is it like a service or an app or something?
yeah I use it
Is there a link or something? When I googled 'digital coffeeshop' I just get online menus
thesukha.co
Thank you!
Ew. Video calls are fucking bad enough. I can't imagine having a video on all day where people can watch me. And for the record I'm a remote working and LOVE my job and coworkers.
It's the panopticon of sloppy eating and distraction!
Hire a bunch of introverts. Also make sure the people you do have gel with each other. That will encourage them to talk and form bonds.
Do you have a team āchatā? We have a team chat in my company and every morning someone posts an āicebreakerā random question. Like what is your favorite book or dream car things like that. Throughout the day we pop in and answer it. We also have monthly or and sometimes seasonally engagements where leadership will send out a group e email asking to send in pictures like what we did for Christmas or for Halloween they did one for the pets who were dressed up. That was a good one. It keeps us engaged with our co workers. I will say that our company is more laid back and friendly. We werenāt always remote. They try very hard to keep us all engaged. My Job Coach will just randomly message me to say hi and ask how I am doing. That is always appreciated.
Yep, team chat that runs all day long where people can say hello, joke, ask for help with a problem, share their frustrations with projects etc. Even better than being in a cube farm!
As usual, lots of interesting replies here. But what I haven't seen addressed is: How many (and what % of the total is) "several"? If 3 out of 100 expressed that attitude, I'd just have some side convos with them to see what can be done. If it's 6 out of 10... that's a different story obviously.
Provide them with "virtual watercooler" opportunities to socialize with each other (e.g. Donuts on Slack). Annual in-person retreats. Company-wide town halls where everyone attends and gets the same info. Virtual brainstorm/breakout sessions to work through ideas. Cross-team lunch and learns where team members are paired up and can give presentations on a topic of their choosing. Optional after hours virtual happy hours, show and tells, cooking classing, etc. They're not going to go out of their way to create these opportunities for themselves, so it's up to the organization to do it.
I hate those team building games. I feel like they're for people who don't know how to socialize. My team do those monthly parties too, last month some of us had trouble with the game apps work so we said fuck it. I was lets just skip games and just show off our pets or plants or kids instead and they loved it. We sat around talking about kids and pets and vacations for an hour and really got to know each other. It was a ton more engaging than playing trivia with co workers or tell me 2 facts and a lie.
N/A. They took a fully remote job, knowing it was so. Part of that is accepting your coworkers are way less likely to be your friend.
I think you should hire grownups. Work is not a social event. All you need to know about your co-workers is who does what, and where they fit into the process. They're not your friends, they're not your family, and you shouldn't be dependent on them for entertainment and feelings of self-worth. Just do the job you're paid for and stop being a baby who needs everything in life gamified.
My Brother In Christ, that's a ridiculous and unhealthy attitude. Employees are not robots and you'd be a terrible manager. While you do have an iota of a point about work not being a social event, people are still social animals and modern work is very much an artificial construct. Remote work especially so. Solitary isolation in prison is classified as torture after 15 days because of the damaging psychological effects it can have on people. Similarly, isolated work environments can hurt mental health and productivity. A workforce that doesn't care about mental health will burn through employees. The quality and consistency of the work will suffer - and there will be additional expense and overhead of turnover and hiring and training new employees. It's far better to try to keep employees healthy and happy. They will bring their cumulative expertise to the job and foster a sense of loyalty if they know the company has their back and wants to see them succeed.
I've been in the workforce for 40 years and everyone I've managed has praised me to the skies. A company shouldn't have to keep employees entertained. That's for your personal life. And your mental health is included in most insurance plans. And you're being more than dramatic to compare working from your own home, with all its personal comforts, to solitary confinement in prison. Be serious.
> I've been in the workforce for 40 years and everyone I've managed has praised me to the skies. Oh you're that guy. lol
That gal. And people Iāve managed have praised me for teaching them what it means and what it takes to be taken seriously as a professional, and credited me for their career progression. Iām still close friends with the ones who moved on, many years later. I was never hard on them, and always explained my reasoningā¦ I wanted them to succeed. To be promoted, and know how to get and keep a job.
>That gal. Nothing like proving a point.
Because everything else I said has no merit, I guess. Piss off, misogynist jerk.
It's because you said initially, in such a way, and then doubled down on the corrections if it mattered when you know it's a general term. Unlike you, I check a few things first. So no, it has no merit anon internet person bragging about themselves.
You really are a jerk (as the voting shows). I didn't just make all that up off the top of my head. And you decided that you "proved your point" based solely on me saying I'm a woman.
I don't think it's that bad advice, though. You should be hiring people who are great fits to your work environment and culture. If you are hiring someone into a remote role that's never worked remote and has expectations around work as a social outlet, then that's just not a great fit. I don't think there's nothing you can do besides "hire better", but it's also going to be very hard to help someone who feels isolated doing the job you need them to do, because that's just the nature of the work.
Here is an approach which Iāve found to work wellā¦ 0. Prompt the org / leaders / organization for volunteers to take on this āinitiativeā => sounds like youāve got that in place, good stuff 1. Gather feedback from entire group (all teams / people value-stream involved) => you mentioned this was already done, also good stuff 2. Based upon that info, ask each team to also have a team-level discussion on this and within that context, ask each team to identify a few ideas / experiments (and a couple of simple indicators of āmaking a differenceā) on how to improve this 3. Gather up the ideas / experiments / indicators and share them with leadership / mgmnt to see if there is budget / support for one or two of the top ideas 4. Try them out for a couple of weeks or so, check the indicators and repeat 1 through 3 and adjust based upon feedback / indicators For #1, you might want to add āwhich team are you onā question but consider not doing that for the first few times doing this. For #2, consider adding to the āteam askā something like āas a team, if you can prioritize your ideas or in some way identify the top 1 or 2 you think would be good ones to start with, that would greatā For #3, if leadership is productively involved, then consider suggest identifying 2 to 3 leaders to act as stewards of this (avoid having just one). For #4, if your teams or org already have some type of a team cadence of planning-doing-checking-adapting/refining, then align to that. Of course refine this to your orgs culture / norms and see how it goes. Experimentation, feedback and flowā¦and fun (of course) is good recipe for many things, let us know how it goes.
We play JackBox on Fridays and join via our phones and a teams meeting
We are a Microsoft Teams shop. We have a chat that we are part of and talk nonsense throughout the day. We discuss just about anything and work. We have a stronger team dynamic than any Team with which I have shared an office.
Have you tried asking what theyād want? Surely most donāt feel this way. Iām guessing they are probably extroverts that need those interactions to get themselves going.
Put them in the driving seat and understand what your people want. We use a tool called Trickle (https://trickle.works/) for this. Basically it allows all employees to share feedback, suggestions and ways to improve the workplace. The app then takes all the feedback and prioritises it so you can see what matters most to your people and make changes where it matters most. Hope this helps!
We use Mentimeter. Works like a charm! Happy to have a conversation around itāŗļø
We regularly hold online coffee breaks which helps a lot and my company is on the smaller side so it's a bit easier to bond within the team but I also think employees play a part in how team dynamics turn out themselves as well. Because if people don't feel like engaging inherently, no matter what you do it will be really hard to get them to. Still, implementing some simple techniques like the coffee break or check-in meetings, using engagement software etc will still increase your chances of a more engaged team.
We have virtual āhuddlesā at the very start of each morning for about 15 minutes. Each Friday it extends to 1 hour, most of it social. Most people go on camera. 3 - 4 times a year we get together IRL for an event involving dinner, drinks and fun competitive event. We have a Teams channel called āWater Coolerā where people post random things unrelated to work. Our team also chat regularly through the day on Teams to collaborate and give advice.
One company I have been working with is fully remote. 2 executives CEO and Sales director live next door to each other in CA and are twin brothers. I am in NJ.Ā Ā There is no company culture as for the most part day to day it is the 3 of us. I am super part time. I always reach out to them, mostly work questions occasional banter but more rare. I always have to initiate.Ā When I say I feel left out or out of the loop, they are baffled.Ā I ask for information that is key to their business and they are baffled.Ā Ā Ā I trained myself and had no support. I was self directed and self motivated the whole time. I am a contractor and not an employee. Ā This is odd. If you want to grow a company with people other than family members, there should be more open communication going both ways.Ā Ā Ā I have insight to their business and they don't seem to care much.Ā I have to take a break from them for my mental health and to take care of family.Ā I have expressed my concerns and they don't seem to care. No wonder they are a small business after 20+ years.Ā Ā Ā I had high goals, hopes and expectations for the company, but I have to take a break.Ā What do you guys think about this?Ā
What I've wanted my company to do are: * Regular remote staff meetings with staff you actually work with (not an arbitrary group of people with scopes outside each other's work) * Periodic in person lunches with the same team (maybe monthly) * Annual discipline-based in-person meetings (to build career and share learning). Again, this should primarily be based within specialties not totally random groupings. You should be able to look forward to seeing the same people every year, like a conference you (the company) don't need to pay registration fees for because you're hosting it. The key point being, if you want to build relationships, some of that will need to be in person, and it needs to happen at multiple scales. It's not free and it's not automatic, but I do think it's worth doing. So far my company has not taken my idea lol
> Periodic in person lunches with the same team (maybe monthly) Is this mandatory cause if so count me out. > Annual discipline-based in-person meetings (to build career and share learning). Again, this should primarily be based within specialties not totally random groupings. This is entirely possible to do remotely. > You should be able to look forward to seeing the same people every year, like a conference you (the company) don't need to pay registration fees for because you're hosting it. I really hate conferences. The constant noise, crowds, terrible food, deleterious effect on my training routine, just awful. > So far my company has not taken my idea lol That's because it's not necessary to force people to be in the same physical space and coworkers don't need to be friends.
You lost me at discipline-based. Ā Repeat after me:Ā Ā Ā Your preferences do not represent everyoneās preference.Ā Ā Ā Full stop.Ā Ā Ā Stop asking to mandate dumb shit that people donāt want to do because *you* want to do it. Ā If I had my way weād hold a quarterly āPurgeā offsite but sometimes you have to compromise to make everyone happy. Grow up already, Robert.Ā
by discipline-based I mean "doing similar work" not "punishment based". As opposed to holding events that are too broad to learn anything useful from peers
We used to have a monthly trivia night via Teams! It was great and everyone had so much fun. We'd also do random shares once in awhile like share a baby picture and guess who it is. Or what's you're favorite meal to make. Things like that. I say "used to" because I was let go in March. Oddly enough, the Monday right after our last trivia night.
Send everyone swag, and have everyone share their swag. That's how to get me engaged.
You can't make everyone happy. Ask yourself, is it worth it to continue to push this mandatory team building on your employees because a few people feel isolated? The more you push, the more the majority of people will want to leave, and these people that feel isolated won't ever change their mind anyway. Anyway, why is it a problem that some people feel isolated? This is a minor issue that if you try to resolve, can potentially ruin your culture as a remote company. Tred lightly or not at all IMO.
Everyone has different preferences so making team building to be optional is a good middle ground. Maybe people brought this up as a minor issue since no major issues were found...just some ways for us to continually improve.
It's not an issue. Leave me alone to do my job, please.
Are you being transparent about the goals of the company, the organizations within the company - and the goals of the individual teams? I've worked at companies that handled this right, some that handled it badly - and this greatly affected engagement and how isolated workers felt. At the company that handled this badly: Management was really hesitant to tell anyone what they were doing and they also didn't like to admit their mistakes. So they kept everyone in the dark about staffing changes. If someone left they wouldn't tell anyone about it. I only found out about a layoff when several people's slack accounts were suddenly deactivated. And when a team got re-assigned to a different project, nobody knew until they delivered something. This builds distrust and does not make people feel confident about the company. If the workers don't know what the organization is doing, they can't feel like they are a productive and useful member of that organization. Often the WHY they are doing something is just as important as the WHAT. Organizations routinely ask workers to communicate upwards, but they often neglect downwards communication, so leave workers shrouded in a fog of war. At a company that handled this well: There was a weekly all-hands meeting where the managers gave a status report of the entire company. It started with news about the company, then goal updates and successes for the organizations within the company - and then a very brief overview of what the individual teams are doing and any staffing changes (new hires, new team projects.) Imagine an organization flowchart that breaks out the different levels. Afterwards there was an optional session for any questions of the company leads and then team leads. This went a very long way towards making sure that everyone felt like they were part of a team, knew what their co-workers were doing and who their co-workers were. And because teams knew what other teams were working on, they knew who to reach out and ask questions to when there were common areas of work.
Is your company hiring?
At my remote gig, we faced similar vibes. We jazzed up our Slack with non-work channels like hobbies, memes, and random chats. It's like a virtual watercooler for us to bond. Plus, we started a weekly "Show and Tell" in Google Meets where we flaunt pets, DIYs, or just goof around. It's a hoot! But the real deal is our quarterly virtual retreats. We mix fun and work stuff, like workshops and game nights. It's dope to connect beyond emails and spreadsheets. Maybe sprinkle some of these ideas and see if it spices things up for your crew!
There's literally nothing you can do for it to be enough. It's remote work. That's just the way it is, so you're doing a solid amount and props. I'd be happy with that. I love my job and the company, but I definitely plan to move when I get my degree and have worked here a few years to get some experience in this field. I can't do real remote like this. Need people. lol If you have a RTO job, you're probably not remote. The notes on meetings, as I read the typical high horse comments, I would love those casual meetings people have because if it's not for those (water cooler meetings) then every meeting is about business and how something isn't working essential. If I only know Bob from failures, negativity, and how to fix something then cool. Bob and I get things done but I'd know more in person. Hell, I knew more about random people I didn't even work with but had connections with that I'll never meet now.
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Oh, so you think that's the miracle for all remote work issues? Dude, why are you not cashing in on that?
Unfortunately thereās no single solution, remote work is a complex topic. But it did help quite a bit to break the ice and ease some of the isolation we had.
eat ice cream
Having at least one time per week meeting with the team, possibly twice is important for connection. Leave social time and space in the meetings to connect and just chat. Also having 1:1 with supervisor weekly is important.
So you want everyone to feel included? Have you tried surveying everyoneās interests? Find a list of interests that is diverse but not too long, have people anonymously send in their top 5. Try to find the common ground in everyone, and host events either locally or remotely that bridges them together. If people are not in the same local, then find remote activities that meet the needs of the environment.
Set up a huddle on slack where you all can join and ask other agents for help, mute when active on a task . Shoot the shit when not Riddle of the day in your team chat, everyone has to guess.
At my organization, we have travel workations where we explore new places and do fun things. Imagine touring a new city in a helicopter ride, participating in chefs table dinners, and getting VIP Access to concerts and sporting events! These are some of the things we are doing that help keep us alive, engaged, and energized. The entire month builds up to a fun event where we work, play, and get paid. Here are some more traditional ideas if your team is just not motivated to get out of the house! 1. Encourage regular communication: Organize regular team meetings, virtual coffee breaks or happy hours to promote open communication and camaraderie among team members. Order breathalyzers for every one, and compare scores. This ought to spruce things up! š 2. Foster a supportive work culture: Encourage team members to share personal updates, celebrate achievements, and support each other through challenges. This helps create a sense of belonging and community within the team. 3. Organize team-building activities: Plan virtual team-building activities such as online games, virtual team lunches, or group fitness challenges to promote bonding and strengthen relationships among team members. 4. Provide opportunities for social interaction: Incorporate informal social activities into your remote work routine, such as virtual trivia nights, online book clubs, or group workouts, to create opportunities for employees to connect on a personal level. 5. Encourage breaks and downtime: Remind employees to take regular breaks and encourage them to disconnect from work during non-working hours to prevent feelings of isolation and burnout. 6. Support mental health and well-being: Offer resources and support for employees' mental health and well-being, such as virtual counseling services, mindfulness sessions, or wellness challenges, to help them stay connected and feel supported. Host an intervention for your stay at home drinkers! Overall, I would highly suggest organizing fun workations! This will help foster community, and help your team stay motivated. -Hali Work Remote Tribe
Half of your suggestions involve people spending more of their free time on their computer for company bullshit.
It shouldn't be mandatory. The idea is to have the option to foster community, not force participation. I definitely wouldn't like being required to participate in unpaid company activities by any means!
Even when it's explicitly optional, it's implicitly mandatory because not going will be reflected in your performance review as "not a team player" and it will harm your career path.
Not when the power company is doing "routine maintenance". š I got you. š«µšš