I've always worked remotely and it has always been the case. We always have random conversation out of nowhere.
Ask HN: Do you have inspiring spontaneous conversations while remote working?
21–30 of 98 posts
Re: Ask HN: Do you have inspiring spontaneous conversations while remote working?
#22Interestingly enough, I find were having more of these conversations working remotely than we did in the office. I think part of it is that using MS Teams other people are a lot more accessible, just drop into the chat and leave a message. If they are busy no probs, if they aren't then they will reply and we talk about whatever. Sick of typing, drop into a voice or video chat. Want to talk work, then it's easy to share a screen. A lot easier than looking at a screen over somebodies shoulder.
Whilst I do miss going out for a coffee or some such, I'm finding that I'm actually enjoying the social side of working remotely a lot more than the forced socialisation that was occurring physically in the office.
Re: Ask HN: Do you have inspiring spontaneous conversations while remote working?
#23Interestingly enough, I find were having more of these conversations working remotely than we did in the office. I think part of it is that using MS Teams other people are a lot more accessible, just drop into the chat and leave a message. If they are busy no probs, if they aren't then they will reply and we talk about whatever. Sick of typing, drop into a voice or video chat. Want to talk work, then it's easy to sha…
Interesting point. Thx
Re: Ask HN: Do you have inspiring spontaneous conversations while remote working?
#24Re: Ask HN: Do you have inspiring spontaneous conversations while remote working?
#25Get used to async chatting in the general channel... in text . That will solve your problem.
No, it won't ... maybe you meant this as a joke?
I have been a professional developer for 20 years, 10 of those remote. He is right. If people learn how to work and communicate through async text, you can come up with ideas, exchange thoughts quite easily. Problem is, most people love to hear themselves talk so dismiss ways where they aren't the 'center of attention'. I would say in 20 years, less than 5% of the 'meetings' or 'coffee chats' couldn't have been done through slack/irc/whatever.
Re: Ask HN: Do you have inspiring spontaneous conversations while remote working?
#26I was sharing an office with my co-worker; we work together on the same topic and that was ok. But interesting conversations? Not happening at all. In the end, we're no friends or no particularly good team. Moving to remote work allows us to cut that bullshit quite effectively.
I'm now working remotely, but sharing an office together with friends (we're hanging out together anyways, so still makes sense in terms of isolating). We have lots of conversations, help each other and give spontaneous lightning talks on how to use $tool better.
I think having people around you is important, people that encourage and help you develop yourself.
Re: Ask HN: Do you have inspiring spontaneous conversations while remote working?
#27Our Friday stand-up is pretty much an opportunity to share a song from a year and why it's meaningful to you personally. The idea was suggested by our scrum master last June and it has gone down well. It's been good for maintaining the bonds while remote working and also learn a bit more about colleagues. That and having an understanding that everyone has ups and downs especially as we will face into winter and the u…
Can I ask if it has gone down well because it actually did or because as in most of these things, people are 'afraid to speak up' and just go along with it?
I can't even imagine being in one of those calls. I prefer my personal life to have a good buffer from my work life (thus I speak about it as little as possible) and same for my co-workers personal lives.
I've seen these kinds of 'calls/meetings' to improve relationships in the work place, but whenever I talk off the record with folks (usually over drinks) most of them hate it and just go with it not to raise waves.
Re: Ask HN: Do you have inspiring spontaneous conversations while remote working?
#28No.
We tried having daily "tea break" calls and weekly "Friday drinks" calls, but attendance was so low that we just cancelled them.
Amongst people who were already friendly we still have private group chats in our work Slack, but the number of conversations is obviously far lower than when you're all in the kitchen making breakfast or tea in the morning.
We had a conversation about why the daily and weekly open conversation calls weren't working, and the resounding answer was they they felt like enforced fun. It's just not the same as meeting someone in a corridor or on a smoke break or in the kitchen.
Re: Ask HN: Do you have inspiring spontaneous conversations while remote working?
#29> 1. Do you miss these conversations?
I worked as a contractor in the office and never really thought about it. Like I had conversations with people in the break roomwhere they know me maybe because they see me talking to my boss but I don't know who they are or what they do. Or I overhear people talking about their work and I got to catch a glimpse of what they do (I wrote internal web applications they used so this was useful information to me).
I'll never admit this, of course. I don't like being in the office. I'd rather work from home forever. I think all I'm missing is a decent fiber gigabit (symmetric up and down) connection (for me and everyone else) and I should be good.
Re: Ask HN: Do you have inspiring spontaneous conversations while remote working?
#30Get used to async chatting in the general channel... in text . That will solve your problem.
No, it won't ... maybe you meant this as a joke?
Remember when email was the internet's killer app?
& all those open source mailing list threads have done plenty of work. Not to forget their IRC channels