I'm on the west coast, and working with colleagues mostly in NYC and Europe. Any "fun" online team activities are scheduled so they usually impact on my core working hours. As a result I tend to avoid movie nights, quiz nights etc. It's a pity, but I'm here to work, not hang out with friends.
Ask HN: Hybrid/Remote software team rituals
11–20 of 153 posts
Re: Ask HN: Hybrid/Remote software team rituals
#12> Posting once a week about what I did for fun over the weekend, usually with photos. > Setting up longer phone call 1:1s where both attendees are walking. Please god no.
>> Setting up longer phone call 1:1s where both attendees are walking.
> Please god no.
when both parties explicitly are not setup to do buerocratic work, it gives room for other important things and can reduce the bs burden dramatically.
Re: Ask HN: Hybrid/Remote software team rituals
#13Having worked remote for more than 10 years I feel most of these rituals as imposed after the pandemic by the managing layers and people obsessed with work culture. I accept any non mandatory activity and might participate sometimes. But boy, I hate that my week is filled with meetings.
At previous full remote positions meetings were the exception and all communication happened either on IRC or hipchat/slack. And that was enough for us to be productive. It wasn't until I started working remotely for companies that define themselves as hybrid (aka we hire contractors too) or that were forced to go remote after the pandemic that my agenda has been being filled with zoom meetings.
I do not define myself as either introvert or extrovert, but I prefer to fill my social needs outside of work and some companies obsession with cult do really take a toll on my energy. It sometimes really feels self-catering to some people that seem to either always be connected or just slack off and sit their asses on meetings for the entire day while what I enjoy is getting shit done.
Re: Ask HN: Hybrid/Remote software team rituals
#14> everyone on the team writing up weekly summaries.
Waste of time unless you’re an obsessive micromanager. Other team members either don’t read these entirely or just skim them.
> record every video conference
Don’t do this shit. It’s a great way to have everyone reserved rather than relaxed with free flowing ideas.
Re: Ask HN: Hybrid/Remote software team rituals
#15Blood sacrifices and invocations to see who can summon the cutest and fiercest beast. You show your demon to the camera and get votes on it and on the chants you did to bring it from the depths. At the end of each sprint.
Remote orgies to appease the gods of nature and ensure a good deployment. Everyone wears traditional handmade masks for anonymity and we only do it if all tests are green, obviously. Every three months or so; depends a bit on the moon.
Previously we tried more traditional stuff like fire walking but we had to stop doing that one because a guy in another team wasn't careful setting up the coal, ended up burning the company laptop, and then HR banned it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
----
Edit (for constructive commenting):
I guess I don't like rituals. I much rather prefer a less forced environment for more spontaneous and relaxed communication.
That's not to say you can't have some habits or whatever, but I feel most of those "cool ideas" always end up feeling tiresome to some part of the group if they don't grow from the people themselves.
Re: Ask HN: Hybrid/Remote software team rituals
#16> everyone on the team writing up weekly summaries Borderline micromanagement and something to be padded and gamed.
I’ve really seen this go both ways. As an individual contributor working remotely with a mostly in person team sending a weekly summary was one of my most effective tools for getting my work seen and getting people to address issues that were impacting me. As an individual contributor on a fully remote team I saw many of my peers treat the weekly summary as a chore and put minimal effort in, which meant the content wasn’t very useful, which meant no one bothered to read it and the whole exercise just became a waste of time. This type of thing can be incredibly valuable, but it really depends on team culture and buy in from the participants.
Re: Ask HN: Hybrid/Remote software team rituals
#17My team is distributed (1 us west coast, 1 us central, 1 us east, 1 Europe - me) and we have had the same set of rituals pre/post pandemic.
- weekly 1:1 with our line manager
- weekly Team meeting (15 minutes of status updates, rest of the time talking over project ideas or other LoB)
- shared team chat room on Webex teams.
Both meetings are video optional but most folks choose to hop on video.
That’s it. It works well, and there is minimal bureaucracy.
Re: Ask HN: Hybrid/Remote software team rituals
#18> everyone on the team writing up weekly summaries Borderline micromanagement and something to be padded and gamed.
We do this. Some people write "I made the X", others go into detail about what they're doing. It lets everyone on the team have a _very_ rough idea of what other people are working on.
Re: Ask HN: Hybrid/Remote software team rituals
#19what size?
we have daily coffe slot, but we are too few (10) and the chance to meet someone is rather low.
any idea on how to have more sociality (not strictly related to work) is appreciated here
Re: Ask HN: Hybrid/Remote software team rituals
#20Team of 6 in UK, 1 in Italy, 2 in India, 1 in Japan
- 3 daily standups per week (15 minute video calls for team alignment),
- weekly 1:1 with line manager (30 minute call or face to face if in UK office)
We do record some of the video conferences when our Indian and Japanese colleagues cannot attend.