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Ask HN: Hybrid/Remote software team rituals
91–100 of 153 posts
Re: Ask HN: Hybrid/Remote software team rituals
#92Helpful ritual: not having zoom meetings half of every work day. Went from a remote company that did this to one that didn’t and I am way more productive and less burnt out.
Also helpful: no forced online hangouts and discussion of current events as if it’s necessary to do at work.
Re: Ask HN: Hybrid/Remote software team rituals
#93I have daily standups with 2 teams. Weekly status reports writing. BiWeekly sprint planning with weekly sprint retro. Weekly 1-1 with manager and one coworker (I don’t know why I). Weekly knowledge sharing session. Daily project statuses (besides the standups, of course). And last, ladies and gentlemen, weekly virtual happy hour on Friday in which everybody feels awkward and just talks more about work. I’m getting out of here.
Re: Ask HN: Hybrid/Remote software team rituals
#94Having 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 tha…
counter rant: I get great joy at socialization by working with people. It is something I've come to discover about myself, and I am not alone. And "work" doesn't have to include a job, but "working" with people on a sports team, or doing renovation at home or any other thing where we are working together to do something. Many other social things people like to do just doesn't do it much for me, although I've gotten b…
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Re: Ask HN: Hybrid/Remote software team rituals
#95> - everyone on the team writing up weekly summaries. What do you write in them that you didn't already mention during the daily standing meetings, the biweekly retrospective, the team meetings, the company meetings, or the Slack channels at the time they were relevant? I've worked with people who wanted more status updates, but all too often those updates just became "No news to report since I've been in status upda…
> What do you write in them that you didn't already mention during the daily standing meetings, the biweekly retrospective, the team meetings, the company meetings, or the Slack channels at the time they were relevant?
Well I would rather write up weekly summaries and cut down on meeting time. Daily standup is not a time for summary. It's a time to check to see if people are blocked. If no one is blocked, you go back to work.
Re: Ask HN: Hybrid/Remote software team rituals
#96> - Posting once a week about what I did for fun over the weekend, usually with photos. Honestly, if I heard about this during the hiring process I'd see it as a red flag. Especially the photos. I once had this terrible VP who was a horrible micromanager and an all around a-hole. For every weekly meeting he'd go around the room forcing people to share what they did on the weekend. It was under the guise of "team buil…
Sharing aspects of your personal life should come naturally and never be forced. I think the role that leadership/management has to play here is to lead by example. A healthy work environment acknowledges that everyone has lives outside of work and encourages people to keep work and life in balance. As a manager, if I share details about my personal life it encourages others on the team to do the same. The opposite e…
>As a manager, if I share details about my personal life it encourages others on the team to do the same.
It works if you are a good manager and the sharing happens naturally. The manager I referred to would always share details of his personal life that were really bragging, which of course created a horrible environment for sharing.
A good manager would share and then see which employees want to share back and which did not. They would shape future discussions accordingly.
As an employee, I've had some managers who like to talk about their personal life and others who do not. As an employee I've never started my 1:1s by sharing my personal life every single time and expecting my manager to do the same when it's clear they don't want to talk about it. But due to power dynamics, bad managers can do that sort of thing and be oblivious to how uncomfortable their employees feel about it.
Re: Ask HN: Hybrid/Remote software team rituals
#97Blood 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 mon…
> Blood 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.
Really suspected this was just a metaphor for showing off your kids on camera. But then I read the rest, and I'm not sure any more.
Re: Ask HN: Hybrid/Remote software team rituals
#98> 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.
> Other team members either don’t read these entirely or just skim them.
I'm a senior who's been here for a while on a team of folks who are less experienced or are comparatively new to the company. My team has started doing a brief (few sentence) drop into Slack every few days and I couldn't be happier because it means I know when people are stuck and need a hand.
Re: Ask HN: Hybrid/Remote software team rituals
#99> 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.
> Don’t do this shit. It’s a great way to have everyone reserved rather than relaxed with free flowing ideas. It’s kind of a shame that this is probably true. My company has some bi-weekly presentations/meetings that are recorded and I get a ton of value out of not attending them, but then pulling them up in my own time and playing them back at 2x speed.
> I get a ton of value out of not attending them, but then pulling them up in my own time and playing them back at 2x speed.
i used to enjoy this too until i realised that not everybody can do it and i am probably beeing a dick for doing it.
idk your specific situation; it might make sense temporarily, but try to be emphatic.
Re: Ask HN: Hybrid/Remote software team rituals
#100Just here for ideas. One of the things i always felt would make my life easier as an employee is if I knew my manager's way of working. Like does she value speed over precision, how early in ideation can i approach her for feedback, and so on. Probably makes her life easier too if we knew what she wanted. You learn that in office through iteration and a lot of casual chats - where you get to know others - but how do…
Have you tried talking to your manager?
Right now I am working on something of my own, so don't have that exact problem. Hence I said "here for ideas". Was just curious if people do have come up with something, because it seems like a recurring and wide ranging problem, solving which can make office work easier. For a manager to tell me how they work, there are better ways than 1 on 1, since it would be same across the team. Same goes for teammates.