The article has a lot of reflection about how impersonal their workplace is but it stops short of discussing the impersonal nature of working with people you don't even see or share the same physical space with. The neglected mental health aspects of that sort of environment are obvious for anyone who cares to look.
Mourning loss as a remote team
211–220 of 408 posts
Re: Mourning loss as a remote team
#212Pete would ask to work more hours. He claimed he could use the money. He was a contractor remember Amidst the loss here, this line stood out to me and brings to mind all the terrible ways contractors are taken advantage of, or at least, treated and compensated vastly different than their "staff"/"full-time" peers who are often doing the exact same work . For fun, google the phrase "permatemp". E.g. I had a past job a…
I was a contractor in corporate America for a while and experienced the same thing. The way it was explained to me was that you cannot give contractors the same "benefits" is a regular employee. If you do, then you have to treat them as employees, which means you have to offer the same healthcare, PTO structure, etc.
I don't think the rules around the "benefits" were especially clear from a legal standpoint. Therefor the company would always err on the side of caution. If some auditor somewhere could perceive an action or event as employee specific and a contractor took part then the company could be penalized for it. In my case, it was pretty standard things like in-office birthday parties and monthly staff meetings.
It's not right, but I can understand why it happens. The legal team in a big corporation is extremely risk averse.
Re: Mourning loss as a remote team
#213> Pay attention to your team. Build closeness. Get to know about everyone’s family and private life. Take mental health seriously and talk openly about it. It may seem like prying, but you might catch a wobbler with a team member that you can address early. While I think it's important for workplaces to take care of their employees, I feel like Pete's issue was that he was too close to work. And on top of that, he wa…
> I feel like Pete's issue was that he was too close to work
The article is about a coworker. This isn’t about the company, it’s about the people you work with.
Building relationships with your peers is a healthy activity. Mourning the loss of a coworker is normal and expected.
If anything, going out of your way to avoid building relationships with peers would be a toxic behavior. Working at such a place where everyone avoided caring about each other beyond the minimum necessary transactions to get their job done would be miserable.
Re: Mourning loss as a remote team
#214Pete would ask to work more hours. He claimed he could use the money. He was a contractor remember Amidst the loss here, this line stood out to me and brings to mind all the terrible ways contractors are taken advantage of, or at least, treated and compensated vastly different than their "staff"/"full-time" peers who are often doing the exact same work . For fun, google the phrase "permatemp". E.g. I had a past job a…
The argument is that it's a legal risk. Look up the Microsoft co-employment lawsuit for the kinds of things they're scared of. As parent accurately describes, the contractors are doing the same kinds of work as full time folks... So to avoid the appearance of them being the same (and possibly suing for benefits), basically they get treated as second class citizens.
I know of companies where referring to vendors by name is frowned upon.
Re: Mourning loss as a remote team
#215Having lost a loved one recently, I can say that never ever underestimate the effect of sharing grief with the family in-person. Just drop into Pete's home in Scotland and spend an evening with his family & loved ones. They must all be deeply in grief and your physical presence to talk to them about Pete would mean the world to them.
Re: Mourning loss as a remote team
#216Ive been on fmla since first week of jan. i'm trading self harm for more time. the thoughts are killing me slowly until i lose the battle. i'm desperatly trying to bring myself to call EAP and get in a hospital but that scares me even more. I tried to resign my remote job and they refused to accept it and sent the cops. i don't know why i'm sharing this here. The entire company went on holiday and i volunteered for t…
Hey, you matter.
The world is pretty fucking broken and you have every reason to feel how you do. I don't have pithy advice, I'm just another guy on the internet.
But things can change. I promise they can. I don't know how or when, but they can. And you're not alone. I promise there are so many people fighting the same battle.
Don't give up.
Re: Mourning loss as a remote team
#217Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is this the norm? I don't see why they wouldn't at least announce it an email. It's a bit of a weird topic for a work email, but it's certainly better than doing absolutely nothing.
Not acknowledging a death is wild, but a lot of organizations normalize only discussing positive project-related accomplishments. When the day-to-day doesn't address the simple human aspects of work, it becomes even harder to address the difficult aspects.
This is an interesting take. I strongly suspect you’re right about this, but would like to find more data to support it.
Re: Mourning loss as a remote team
#218Not to diminish the seriousness of this post but I'm a little curious why this site is named 'so fucking agile'. If it's just for shits and gigs then it would have been great if they called it 'sofa king agile'.
Re: Mourning loss as a remote team
#219While I do not always put my camera on... (sometimes I like wearing a raggedy old t shirt and taking a call from my sofa chair) I think this shows one major advantage to face to face communication which is human connection.
Re: Mourning loss as a remote team
#220If you work remote, I encourage you to turn on your cameras, and encourage icebreakers and social chatting. Have face-to-face meetings if possible, but take time out to hang out with your remote colleagues. Do this daily. It is important for mental health, and will also help with team trust and productivity.
My sincerest, heart-broken condolences to @sofuckingagile.