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If you're remote, ramble

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Re: If you're remote, ramble

#311

Post by anon84873628 »

oefrha wrote: post #230
serf wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>and they know it's a judgement free zone. that's the thing that's so inorganic about this whole thing : it's not a judgement free zone, it's a zone that tricks people into presuming that. If some underling somewhere says something that exposes their ignorance or naivety to either a policy problem or a technical problem you'd better realize that it's going to trigger a 'review mechanism' somewhere down the road withi…

Yeah, maybe I’m small-minded, but if someone I’m not familiar with, say a new hire asks a question way beneath their presumed experience level I’m absolutely gonna judge, judgement free be damned; and if they’re my report I’m gonna question the hiring (in my mind). There’s no shortage of imposters in the industry, most of them who’re capable of landing jobs above them are probably also smart enough to scoff at pure f…

There's no such thing as a judgment free zone when humans are involved :-)

I tell new hires that they shouldn't be scared of asking questions, and that if they're not asking questions they're probably not pushing themselves enough. But also caution to make sure that they check available resources first, and then ask the right audience.

Re: If you're remote, ramble

#312

Post by quietbritishjim »

Aurornis wrote: post #155
codingdave wrote: post #143

I'm with the other commenters who agree in spirit, but would hate the details in the post. Assigned channels where you are expected to post your random thoughts feels utterly dystopian to me. In my experience, "rambling" channels build up organically... as you have a thought, you share it with someone relevant, not just drop it into a channel and see who reads it. Over time, small group chats evolve naturally, and as…

> I'm with the other commenters who agree in spirit, but would hate the details in the post This seems to happen a lot: Someone writes some highly exaggerated career advice that has good intent at the core but turns into overly weird suggestions by the end. They might be trying to be memorable or to make an impact by exaggerating the advice. Then some people, often juniors, take it literally and start practicing it.…

Or maybe they know that saying something wrong gets more comments / "engagement" than something more reasonable.

Re: If you're remote, ramble

#313

Post by jama211 »

marcosdumay wrote: post #310
bee_rider wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe Agile was one of these things, but then a bunch of people started doing it literally.

> but then a bunch of people started doing it literally Most people doing "agile" do literally the opposite of what is on the manifesto.

Lol yep. Our company decided “sprints” were now to last 4 weeks, but there’s also no task scheduling, no retro, no sprint planning… just tasks get given whenever they come up based on what they feel like.

So… what’s the point of a “sprint”? We don’t even do monthly releases. It’s hilarious.

I suspect we do “agile” in name only so they can pretend to the board that there is a system at all.

Re: If you're remote, ramble

#314

Post by jama211 »

kiitos wrote: post #275
codingdave wrote: post #143

I'm with the other commenters who agree in spirit, but would hate the details in the post. Assigned channels where you are expected to post your random thoughts feels utterly dystopian to me. In my experience, "rambling" channels build up organically... as you have a thought, you share it with someone relevant, not just drop it into a channel and see who reads it. Over time, small group chats evolve naturally, and as…

Nothing in this post suggests any kind of expectation, mandate, or obligation to post anything in any kind of channel. The problem that this post is trying to address, is that these kinds of informal rambling channels -- which have enormous value -- almost never happen organically.

They say something about posting 3 times a week. Even if it’s not a formal obligation, it’ll certainly feel like one if they notice you never post whilst other people do.

Re: If you're remote, ramble

#315

Post by AtlasBarfed »

oefrha wrote: post #230
serf wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>and they know it's a judgement free zone. that's the thing that's so inorganic about this whole thing : it's not a judgement free zone, it's a zone that tricks people into presuming that. If some underling somewhere says something that exposes their ignorance or naivety to either a policy problem or a technical problem you'd better realize that it's going to trigger a 'review mechanism' somewhere down the road withi…

Yeah, maybe I’m small-minded, but if someone I’m not familiar with, say a new hire asks a question way beneath their presumed experience level I’m absolutely gonna judge, judgement free be damned; and if they’re my report I’m gonna question the hiring (in my mind). There’s no shortage of imposters in the industry, most of them who’re capable of landing jobs above them are probably also smart enough to scoff at pure f…

In work and job markets like this.

You got to be really careful.

If there's a lot of jobs and a lot of market opportunity and a lot of demand for talent, then workplaces can be like this.

I'm afraid that with AI, one of these types of things are simply gone.

Re: If you're remote, ramble

#316

Post by geoka9 »

SoftTalker wrote: post #216
mjevans wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ref: Office Space (Movie) Flare at the restaurant (I believe it's a spoof on TGI Fridays / Chillis etc) If you have not seen Office Space ... It has a couple raunchy things and it's general political correctness calibration is circa ~2000 USA so go in with about that level of culture expectations. Having said that, it's a GREAT movie which is practically a comedic documentary of US office politics and tropes. Though…

It’s so much like real work I can’t watch it. Same with The Office series.

I don't know, I kind of like those cubicles.

Re: If you're remote, ramble

#317

Post by jama211 »

sgt wrote: post #130
bagacrap wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do tend to be a bit suspicious of the one-day "under the weather" events. However I do think we need to make extra room for parents (I am not one, yet). I'm going to need a doctor who's younger than me when I'm 80+ Folks could always just disappear instead of announcing these things, but is that better? And as a senior on my team, I over announce certain stuff to let the other team members know that WLB is ok.

If someone you work with and you otherwise trust e.g. with your code, servers, and business, says they are feeling under the weather, why should you not assume they are not telling the truth?

Especially as it’s obviously not a lie. A lie would be like, their 7th grandma to die or something. Saying you just feel under the weather is… exactly what someone who was just feeling under the weather and didn’t want to lie about it would say.

Re: If you're remote, ramble

#318

Post by ponector »

scarface_74 wrote: post #180
parpfish wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even worse is the situation our hybrid half-remote/half-inperson company runs into during meetings: The in-person group will go into the conference room and naturally start multiple rambling side conversations. But the remote people just have to sit there and watch. Usually they can’t really hear each of these conversations and you can’t casually join a room-based side conversation from the remote because any audio t…

There are two rules about any job I take these days. 1. I will not work at in office job. 2. I won’t work for a company that is not “remote only”.

Hard to follow this rules unless you are living in a low cost of living area.

Remote people from India/Afrika will be happy to work for a fraction of western salary.

Re: If you're remote, ramble

#319

Post by jama211 »

count wrote: post #41
siva7 wrote: post #10

> We have no scheduled meetings, so ramblings are our equivalent of water cooler talk. This is the difference. Most teams have scheduled daily (!) meetings, so such rambling channels often times feel more like another chore and therefore fail because they haven't emerged of a natural need from the team.

We schedule a 2x a week 15-30 minute no-project-talk socialization meeting for our fully distributed team. It helps a LOT. We also have dedicated rambling channels in slack, active much of the day.

I would honestly hate that so much. A meeting at the wrong time throws out half the day’s momentum and work is hard to get done. A _socially draining_ meeting? Forget it.

If you did this at my company, I would turn up with a smile every time, and then get hours less practical work done that day, because I would be drained and also because I know I would be shut down if I tried to say that these social meetings don’t work well for me, so you wouldn’t even know.

Just remember, just because nobody has complained doesn’t mean something doesn’t impact people.

Re: If you're remote, ramble

#320

Post by jama211 »

ogou wrote: post #208
mjevans wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a distinction between random (probably not for work, 'water cooler chat') and 'obviously divisive' topics like politics. Particularly in the US, those are the sort of things you avoid.

Those distinctions evaporated in 2020 and never returned.

Not in any company I’ve been in, but I don’t live in America
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