I spent the first half of 2024 talking to a lot of people about work, especially email overload, Slack anxiety, and staying on top of things in a deluge of digital communications.

That led to an idea on how to help. After a lot of iterations, prototypes, and false starts, things are almost ready.

In a few days, I’ll be officially launching a new software product that helps with wrangling the overwhelm and dread. It doesn’t take much snooping online to find out more, but stay tuned here or my LinkedIn feed for the official announcements.

In the meantime, some good links (including two new episodes of the Debugging Work podcast):

🤔 Jamar Parris on quitting his job in tech to take a sabbatical: Jamar Parris started his career on the technical side, working as a full stack engineer and systems architect. About 10 years ago, he switched from engineering to product management and has worked in companies like PayPal and Braintree. The pandemic led to some reevaluations for Jamar and his husband, which led them to quitting their jobs at the end of 2022 and taking a sabbatical.

🎧 Lynn Osler on building a strong remote first culture: Lynn Osler is an HR and Culture Specialist. She has worked in a variety of sectors from retail startups to large health care organizations. She is currently a human resources generalist at Pagefreezer, a remote-first software company. In this episode, Lynn shares some of the tools and practices they use to create a strong remote culture and safeguard the well-being of team members.

🤾🏽 Seeking perfection and fear of failure can hold us back: Charly Haversat challenges our obsession with perfection and challenges us to think more and look deeper into why we are after perfection and how “good enough” is actually good enough!

📝 No, You Don’t Get an A for Effort: From the world’s favourite organizational psychologist, professor Adam Grant’s opinion piece in the NYT: “High marks are for excellence, not grit.”

Every teacher should be rooting for students to succeed. In my classes, students are assessed on the quality of their written essays, class participation, group presentations and final papers or exams. I make it clear that my goal is to give as many A’s as possible. But they’re not granted for effort itself; they’re earned through mastery of the material. The true measure of learning is not the time and energy you put in. It’s the knowledge and skills you take out.

- Derek

In the first episode, I asked remote-work advocate Sergio Pereira for his advice to people who are working from home in an async culture and then end up feeling like they don't have enough human connection

at work because they're never talking to anybody and everything is written and asynchronous:

I think that happens a lot. I also feel historically people have overindexed to extract all of their social life from work, which I think is a bug, not a feature. It's a byproduct of a messed up work culture, which I think employers have incentivized over the years because the more ties you build with your workspace, the less likely you are to leave, even if you are not promoted or you don't get the raise or your manager doesn't treat you well. You have those bonds sort of tying you to that workplace. I think in remote work, it's more difficult to foster those types of ties. So it's very common for people to feel more detached, which I think for a great part is actually pretty good because people are kind of free to seek socialization outside of work.

This has been true for me. I’ve poured a lot of myself into work/career-related activities through the years and relied on professional relationships to do double duty as social connections.

When I worked remotely earlier in my career, my kids were young so my social life was interwoven with their social lives. Then I had quite a few years with office mates.

Since March 2020, though, I’ve worked from home full time and my kids are emerging adults with independent social lives.

Since January 2024, I’ve been a solopreneur with a minimal meeting load, which has made me more cognizant than ever of the importance of maintaining social connections. You might remember that the World Health Organization launched a commission on loneliness and social connection in 2023, calling it a pressing health concern.

So look after your health. Invite some friends out for lunch. Take a walk with your partner. Volunteer for something. Join a team or club. It’s important.

Would you mind replying? I’d love to know: What are you doing to safeguard your social health? What’s been most rewarding? What’s been a dud?

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- Derek Hatchard (👋 from my home office)

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😁 🥳 🎧 🤘

- Derek

You can subscribe in your favourite podcast player now so you get the first three episodes as soon as they drop: https://podcast.debuggingwork.com/subscribe

- Derek

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In part one, I shared there are several ingredients we must intentionally mix together to create the right conditions for effective and fulfilling long-term success with distributed teams and remote workers: trust, connection, and a sense of urgent intensity.

I believe that a missing sense of urgent intensity leads to reduced or inconsistent productivity that causes executives to mandate returning to the office because they don’t know what else to do. Teams are much more effective if they can operate with appropriate levels of urgent intensity regardless of geographic location. You don’t want this intensity all the time - that is unsustainable. But you need it some of the time, even if you have to manufacture it.

I’m sure you know the feeling of scrambling to close things out before going away on vacation. In 2012, my dad and I spent 10 days canoeing the Nahanni River in northern Canada. No laptop, no phone, and no contact except a satellite phone for emergencies. My work days leading up to that trip required an intense focus to ensure everything was decided or delegated before I went off the grid for two weeks.

I know a team that sets a goal to finish their planned work by a deadline and when they hit it, the whole team gets a day off. Because no one wants to let down everyone else, there’s a vibrant sense of urgency in hitting the deadline. People lean in a bit and get it done.

Another team was going to be putting things on screen during a live event. Being ready for that was an immovable deadline and they still talked about the intensity of that experience years later.

If you’ve ever had to troubleshoot a production outage or a security breach, I’m willing to bet you have a strong bond with the colleagues who fought those fires with you.

There’s a phenomenon known as crisis bonding in which strangers develop intense bonds in the face of unplanned crises. Obviously we don’t want dangerous crises at work but I’m convinced that we experience a micro version of it when we have these small crises at our jobs, and they cause us to rally together and achieve a goal under pressure.

When everyone is working from home, it’s challenging to mimic the level of urgent intensity that comes from working shoulder-to-shoulder on time-sensitive projects. Things slip to the next day or the next week. Simple decisions take a long time because we have to find a common 30 minute slot on everyone’s calendars. If you find yourself getting stuck in this trap, take action. For example, I find that having working meetings with someone sharing their screen is a simple way to create a galvanizing experience.

Make a point of celebrating accomplishments afterward, even in small ways. Sometimes it only takes an acknowledgement from a leader for a team to realize that they just accomplished something meaningful and the recognition can retroactively strengthen their team bond.

Companies that fail to find ways to capture periodic moments of urgent intensity will be at a competitive disadvantage as each month marked by mediocre execution ticks by. This is an existential challenge to our businesses and we need to tackle the right problem. When you see large companies rolling out Return to Office mandates, know that they are searching for the connection and urgency that is lost with poorly run remote teams.

Caveat Lector 

Reader beware! This series is my perspective based on my experience and the reading I’ve done. I also haven’t touched on several important tactical issues for remote work such as ergonomics in a home office, using productivity tools appropriately, or replacing collaborative spaces like physical whiteboards. I will be discussing these concerns (and more) in the future.

I also want to recommend a couple additional resources. I’ve already pitched Brené Brown to you - I suggest reading at least one of her books. Daring Greatly and Dare to Lead are good choices. I also highly recommend The Culture Code by Daniel Coyle. It has some amazing stories about highly successful groups including some examples of urgent intensity that I have found extremely insightful. The impossible landing of United flight 232 in 1989 is an especially fascinating story.

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In part three, I proposed we must find analogs to compensate for our physical aloneness and this requires three things:

1. Making time

2. Being intentional

3. Being vulnerable

To build authentic connections, you’re going to have to risk being vulnerable.

While I was ruminating on this piece, a podcast episode showed up in my queue (I’m “only” subscribed to 38 podcasts right now…) about leading with vulnerability. I was excited. “Great,” I thought, “I’ll get some extra inspiration on this topic.”

Then I listened in horror as the guest admitted they committed to a project about vulnerability when they didn’t really believe in vulnerability. They interviewed CEOs for insights while also saying that only 16% of employees report working for leaders who display qualities of vulnerable leadership.

There’s research from the past fifteen years that CEOs are far more likely than the general population to exhibit psychopathic or narcissistic tendencies. Characteristics of narcissism include an inflated sense of self-importance, an excessive need for attention and admiration, and lack of empathy. These might actually be some of the worst people to hear from on vulnerability.

I am married to a wise and patient social worker so I have spent a lot of time reading and listening to Dr. Brené Brown, the undisputed thought leader on vulnerability, and something about this podcast guest wasn’t sitting right with me. I think it was an implied conflation of vulnerability with weakness, mistakes, and failures. Despite having quoted from Dr. Brown, it felt like this person was working from dictionary definitions of vulnerability (“a specific weakness in the protections or defences surrounding someone or something” / “susceptibility to attack or injury; the state or condition of being weak or poorly defended”).

The language Brené Brown has given the world for talking about vulnerability in relationships has a bit more nuance to it. Brown defines vulnerability as “the emotion that we experience during times of uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure.”

While vulnerability is not weakness, it is also not oversharing (this is one of six vulnerability myths that Dr. Brown has extracted from her research data). We are not seeking out opportunities to bear our souls or erode our credibility. Rather, we have the courage to lean in with our whole hearts for difficult conversations instead of self-protecting with what Brené calls armor.

I am a work in progress with vulnerability. Strong academic performance was part of my core identity when I was younger and years of being a consultant fooled me into thinking I should always have all the answers. It’s been a slow process of taking off the armor of perfectionism and being a knower instead of a learner. I’m also a reasonably private person so I’m not inclined to share a lot of my inner thoughts and feelings (despite writing about some of them on the Internet - but make no mistake, I’m in control of what I choose to write and curate so it’s not impressively courageous).

So stop listening to me on this topic and listen to the expert. I suggest starting with the Netflix special Brené Brown: The Call to Courage and then reading Dare to Lead. If you’re crunched for time, Brene Brown’s TEDx talk on the power of vulnerability is great but doesn’t reflect her last thirteen years of research.

In part three, I proposed we must find analogs to compensate for our physical aloneness and this requires three things:

1. Making time

2. Being intentional

3. Being vulnerable

A distressing pattern that seems to have gotten much worse during and after the pandemic is a trend toward transactional interactions even in the workplace. Everything is scheduled into multiples of 30 minutes with packed agendas to make the most of our synchronous time. In the pursuit of efficiency, we lose out on serendipity and the casual conversation that is the foundation for human connection.

Consider what happens when a 30 or 60 minute slot isn’t the best one-size-fits-all option? What happens in your team when you get through your scheduled agenda early in a virtual meeting? I’m guessing either someone will prompt the group for new topics or the organizer will say, “Well, I guess we all get 12 minutes back.” I propose that you instead think of this as bonus connection time and that using it for that purpose will be more valuable for the organization than everyone rushing away to finish up one more small task.

I suggest a few simple tactics for sprinkling in connection time:

1. Facilitate buffer time in meetings for casual conversation. One argument for return-to-office mandates is to restore the serendipitous hallway and lunchroom interactions that strengthen relational bonds. For hybrid teams, it is absolutely worthwhile to create space for comparable conversations to happen. This might require you to prompt people with questions or prime conversations with personal anecdotes. It means not falling into the trap of making your video calls completely transactional. Yes, there is important work to do right now, but relationship-building time is worth it in the long run, even if it takes a few extra minutes to get to the “real agenda” of a meeting.

2. Ask a colleague to stay on a call after the agenda concludes. This one can be dicey if it risks some team members feeling excluded, so be mindful before doing this, but asking someone to hang behind for a question is a great replacement for post-meeting hallway conversations. (A text or DM is a less conspicuous option to make the request.)

3. Call someone after the meeting ends. When a meeting wraps up a few minutes early, this is my preferred way of replacing hallway chats with people I already have good relationships with. I’ll call just to debrief, express exacerbation, or hear the other person’s reaction to the meeting outcome.

I’m always happy to try out new tactics so if you have some approaches that work for you, please share!

Regardless of the techniques you choose, you have to be intentional about fostering connection in a remote world. No matter your role, you can take action. Do not wait for company mandates and do not limit yourself to just your direct coworkers. Be a mentor or find a mentor. Join a mastermind group. Go to a local meetup related to your job. Please please please do something other than sitting at home numbing yourself by scrolling through Instagram or TikTok.

Last time, we talked about building trust. From a foundation of trust, we now turn to connection. It’s hard (maybe impossible?) to foster meaningful connection without trust, and trust reinforces connection.

While trust is necessary for remote teams to work effectively, connection is what gives us the sense of belonging that elevates work beyond a transactional exchange of time for money. Without strong connections, we struggle to weather the ups and downs of our professional lives. We get lonely, we get cynical, and we burn out. This is bad for the company and bad for us.

In November 2023, the World Health Organization launched a commission on loneliness and social connection, calling it a pressing health concern. Loneliness at work is a constant risk for remote workers.

When teams go into the same physical location, our biology rewards us. Every friendly nod, handshake, pat on the back, and face-to-face conversation makes our brains light up. We are a social species. We crave togetherness and belonging. Your workmates form one of your most important communities.

Consider this quote from author Octavia Goredema about her own experience transitioning to remote work: “...as time progressed, I started to feel lonely. I was able to laser-focus on my work, but my interactions with others were driven solely by virtual meeting agendas or email. I noticed I was becoming less enthused and more withdrawn. I spent too much time scrolling social media because I was silently craving connection with others. I was slowly but steadily becoming isolated.”

For remote and hybrid work to be successful long-term, we must find analogs to compensate for our physical aloneness. In my experience, this requires three things:

• Making time

• Being intentional

• Being vulnerable

In part four of the series, we will look at making time and being intentional about connection.

There are several ingredients we must intentionally mix together to create the right conditions for effective and fulfilling long-term success with distributed teams and remote workers: trust, connection, and a sense of urgent intensity.

I’ve written before about the importance of trust. Without trust, we fill precious time with micromanaging or second guessing our coworkers. We stack our calendars with status meetings and check-ins to reassure everyone that activity is happening instead of focusing on achieving outcomes. Leaders who learned the ropes in a traditional office environment may not even realize they’re watching for signs of activity rather than outcomes. In a remote-first environment, observing activity is inefficient and ineffective. We need to focus on outcomes if we’re going to have effective, long-term remote workers.

Demoralization spreads through an org chart as people internalize a lack of trust. That negatively impacts job satisfaction and retention. It also makes people less likely to take risks, express ideas, and innovate.

Trust applies to the relationships between all stakeholders, including peer-to-peer, individual-to-manager, manager-to-individual, everyone-to-executive, and executive-to-everyone. 

Trust has to be built and maintained. According to leadership consultants Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman, trust comes from:

• showing good judgment, 

• following through on commitments, and 

• building good relationships. 

You already know intuitively that it is incredibly difficult to trust if a relationship is damaged or was never formed in the first place. In their 2019 HBR article, Zenger and Folkman share from their research that a good leader needs to demonstrate all three elements of trust but maintaining positive relationships is the most important: “When relationships were low and both judgment and consistency were high, trust went down 33 points.”

Pause for a moment to consider which relationships you need to invest in to increase trust at work.

Although we are seeing concerted efforts in many companies to swing the pendulum back to more in-person office work, all that toothpaste is not going back in the tube. Individual contributors, managers, and executive teams must rumble with the reality of an ever-evolving blend of hybrid teams with varying levels of in-person time. The companies that take this seriously will nurture highly productive cultures and gain an important competitive advantage.

I’ve worn a lot of hats over the years, including software architect, developer, engineering director, trainer, writer, business owner, entrepreneur, and CTO. The majority of that time has been in some form of distributed or hybrid team. I’ve been colocated with my immediate team while other colleagues were in different locations. I’ve also been completely remote without ever seeing my long-time collaborators in person.

Every working arrangement comes with costs and requires processes, structures, and norms to enable people to be effective at their jobs. If a company invests in physical facilities and amenities that get used 40-60% of the time for colocated work (e.g., a two or three day return-to-office mandate) but doesn’t make comparable investments for the times when teams are inevitably working remotely, the company is not equipping its workers to be as effective as possible.

I’m not saying there is simple math here nor that this is obvious and easy. There are a lot of variables such as industry, type of work, average commute times, cost of labor, and long-term liabilities such as real estate commitments. Identifying and considering those variables is the job of a leader.

If you don’t plan for effective remote or hybrid work, you’re leading your team toward mediocrity.

I believe there are several ingredients we must intentionally mix together to create the right conditions for effective and fulfilling long-term success with distributed teams and remote workers. These ingredients are not the exclusive domain of executives nor line managers. Everyone can take relatively simple actions to have a positive impact. And the more people who do, the more awesome things get.

These not-so-secret ingredients are trust, connection, and a sense of urgent intensity. Over the course of this series, we will unpack each of these ingredients.

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I asked ChatGPT to “Write a 500 word essay on work-life balance strategies for remote tech workers.” I wanted to see how much of the generated text I would agree with. ChatGPT is trained on public Internet content and there’s a ton of repetitive drivel out there. My prediction was that the generated text would yield mediocre insightfulness on par with an under-motivated high school essayist.

Let’s see how it did…

[ChatGPT] Work-Life Balance Strategies for Remote Tech Workers

[Derek] Not the most creative title but understandable given the prompt.

[ChatGPT] The rise of remote work has transformed the way we approach our careers, particularly in the tech industry. With the advent of advanced technology and the shifting dynamics of the modern workplace, more tech professionals are embracing the flexibility and autonomy that comes with remote work. However, as enticing as it may seem, achieving work-life balance as a remote tech worker can be challenging. In this essay, we will explore strategies to maintain equilibrium between professional responsibilities and personal life in the world of remote tech work.

[Derek] I don’t disagree with this even if it’s painfully prosaic text.

[Derek] Turns out the rest of the “essay” is actually a listicle. Sigh. Thanks, BuzzFeed. 😕

[ChatGPT] Establish a Dedicated Workspace: One of the key challenges in remote work is the blurring of boundaries between work and personal life. To address this, remote tech workers should create a dedicated workspace. This physical separation helps create a psychological distinction between work and home, making it easier to "leave the office" at the end of the day.

[Derek] This is common advice but it falls flat for people who simply don’t have the physical space to dedicate a desk and chair, never mind an entire room. Maybe they have roommates or family members with equal claim to the space. I’ve definitely talked with a lot of people working from their bedroom. Even using a guest room as a home office isn’t a dedicated space and inevitably there’s a conflict when someone comes to visit.

[Derek] A dedicated space may not even be a worthwhile investment for a hybrid worker who works from home one or two days per week.

[Derek] Instead of worrying about a dedicated space with physical separation that lets you “leave the office,” better to prioritize a spot to do productive work with reasonable ergonomics when you are in work mode. Hunching over a laptop on a hard kitchen chair for eight hours will eventually lead to aches, pains, bad posture, and possible injury. A few simple or creative investments in basic ergonomics can help you make the most out of whatever space you have available.

[Derek] I’ve talked to a lot of writers over the years who make due with the physical space they have available for writing. One helpful tip is to have rituals or dedicated working tools that help put them into “writing mode.” Some examples:

• make coffee/tea in a “work mug” when you start your work day

• light a candle with a scent you only use when starting work

• put on your shoes and make an artificial commute around your building or neighbourhood to transition to “work mode”

• use a keyboard, mouse, and desk pad that are only for work that you pack away at the end of the day

[ChatGPT] Set Clear Boundaries: Define your work hours and stick to them. This means resisting the temptation to constantly check your work email or engage in work-related tasks outside of your designated work time. Communicate these boundaries to your colleagues and supervisors to ensure mutual respect for your personal time.

[Derek] There’s some good advice buried in the middle of this otherwise questionable advice. Some people want well-defined work hours. If that’s you, I celebrate that and encourage you to communicate your hours and boundaries to your stakeholders (bosses, coworkers, clients, etc). Personally, I like some variety in my schedule, which is easier now that my kids are semi-independent young adults without mealtime and bedtime routines. My work spans time zones so I frequently anchor my day around a 10-6 or even 12-8 schedule. The quality of my work outcomes (and my own contentment) would suffer if I was strict about my daily work hours.

[Derek] And as for communicating your boundaries to “ensure mutual respect for your personal time.” Wow, that sounds so simple! In reality, your supervisor and peers either respect boundaries or they don’t. If they don’t, you have to be prepared for the consequences and whether or not they conflict with your career ambitions.

[Derek] I am not advocating for rolling over on boundaries. I am saying to be intentional and ensure your boundaries and your ambitions are aligned. There isn’t one approach that works for everyone and the advice from ChatGPT is just too generic.

[Derek] The good advice is in the middle - resist the temptation to engage in work-related tasks when it isn’t your working time. Without boundaries you will eventually be exhausted and risk burning out.

[ChatGPT] Prioritize Tasks: Effective time management is essential for remote tech workers. Prioritize your tasks based on importance and deadlines. Use techniques like the Eisenhower Matrix to categorize tasks as urgent, important, or neither, helping you allocate your time efficiently.

[Derek] Straight out of a middle school Life Skills class. It’s not wrong but you can replace “remote tech workers” with basically any role and the same advice holds true. You might as well tell me to get enough sleep and drink lots of water (oh, wait, that’s coming later).

[ChatGPT] Time Blocking: Consider time-blocking your day. Allocate specific time slots for different tasks, ensuring that you dedicate time to work, breaks, and personal activities. This approach can help you maintain focus and prevent overworking.

[Derek] We’re still in middle school Life Skills class here. More generic advice without nuance and not specific to remote tech workers.

[ChatGPT] Take Regular Breaks: Remote work can be isolating and sedentary. Schedule regular breaks to step away from your desk, stretch, and recharge. These short breaks can improve productivity and mental well-being.

[Derek] It’s basic, again, but at least it’s tackling a struggle commonly reported by remote workers. I should be more intentional about following this advice myself.

[ChatGPT] Leverage Technology: There are numerous productivity and time management tools available to remote tech workers. Apps like Trello, Asana, and Slack can help you streamline your work processes and keep track of tasks. Additionally, tools like Pomodoro timers can aid in time management by breaking your work into focused intervals followed by short breaks.

[Derek] Maybe I’m being too harsh on this one but “leverage technology” is appallingly trite in addition to not being about work-life balance.

[ChatGPT] Exercise and Maintain a Healthy Lifestyle: Physical health is closely linked to mental well-being. Incorporate regular exercise into your routine to reduce stress and boost your energy levels. A healthy diet and proper sleep are equally important for maintaining work-life balance.

[Derek] Despite the listicle vibe and my earlier snark, this is important advice and should have been included first or last to give it more prominence.

[ChatGPT] Mindfulness and Meditation: Practicing mindfulness and meditation can help you manage stress and improve your concentration. Take a few minutes each day to clear your mind and center yourself, allowing you to approach work with a fresh perspective.

[Derek] I mean, yes, this is good advice even if it feels like more generic pablum. If a human was writing this, I’d recommend a broader self-care section that covers physical and mental health plus a separate discussion on recognizing and managing stress.

[ChatGPT] Social Interaction: Remote work can lead to isolation. Make an effort to stay connected with colleagues and friends through virtual meetings, social gatherings, or chat groups. Social interactions are vital for emotional well-being.

[Derek] This topic is the other candidate to place first or last to increase its prominence. However, it irks me that virtual meetings and chat groups are listed. Those are useful for increasing trust and rapport with coworkers but the advice remote workers need to hear is this: get out and interact with other humans in real life. Our biology craves it. 

[ChatGPT] Learn to Say No: Avoid overcommitting to work projects or taking on more tasks than you can handle. Learning to say no when necessary is crucial for preserving your work-life balance.

[Derek] This should just be combined with Set Clear Boundaries.

[ChatGPT] Regularly Review and Adjust: Work-life balance is a dynamic process. Periodically review your strategies and make adjustments as needed. What works for you one month may need tweaking the next.

[Derek] This is spot on.

[ChatGPT] Seek Support and Guidance: Don't hesitate to seek support from mentors, coaches, or mental health professionals if you're struggling to find balance. They can provide guidance tailored to your unique situation.

[Derek] Also spot on.

[ChatGPT] In conclusion, achieving work-life balance as a remote tech worker requires a proactive approach. It involves setting clear boundaries, managing your time effectively, and prioritizing self-care. The strategies mentioned here can help you strike that delicate balance between your professional and personal life, ensuring that remote work enhances your quality of life rather than encroaching on it. Remote work, when approached with a focus on work-life balance, can be a rewarding and sustainable career choice in the tech industry.

[Derek] This is a great conclusion. ChatGPT was pretty wobbly overall but finished strong.

What do you think?

- Derek Hatchard

🎯 The Radical Promise of Truly Flexible Work: By embracing comprehensive flexibility, organizations support stronger engagement and performance, not just on a case-by-case basis but at scale… When organizations center the design of work on humans, values, and long-term success in this way, they become productive, resilient, inclusive, and equitable…. Despite the clear benefits of flexibility, many managers still resist offering flexible arrangements because they worry about diminished productivity, culture, and collaboration.

- Derek Hatchard

There’s nothing you have to do (unless you have personal email rules to update).

- Derek Hatchard

🎰 Prezi CEO Is Betting Remote Meetings Will Be Better Than In-Person: “The on-screen office — the evolution of content on the screen during video meetings — is here to stay. We’re going to need to work better over video.” 💯

🙋‍♀️ How to get people to actually speak up in meetings: Make yourself a fresh cup of coffee and follow the links in this slideshow for a plethora of insights.

📑 How to have great meetings, according to 200 scientific studies: “[A]ttendees rate as many as half of the meetings they attend as ‘poor,’ and organizations in the US waste an estimated $213 billion on ineffective meetings annually.” There are some great tips in this pre-pandemic article. With meeting volume having increased in remote and hybrid workplaces, a very real problem is too many meetings that consume the time and energy for good before and after actions. And it’s a self-reinforcing cycle. I’m doing some reflection on my own patterns after reading this.

- Derek

🫥 Companies Requiring Full-Time In-Office Are Struggling to Recruit New Employees: “Companies with flexible work policies are growing more quickly than those that require people to be in the office full-time, according to The Flex Index, released July 18, which collects office requirements on more than 4,500 companies with 30,000 locations and that employ more than 100 million people globally.”

🫙🫙 The Redemption of Jar Jar Binks: This has nothing to do with distributed teams or remote work but I’m finding super interesting even though I don’t have strong feelings about Jar Jar. Good road trip / commute listen.

(Darth Jar Jar theorists can come comment on this LinkedIn thread.)

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Have a great week wherever you are.

- Derek

I’ve been doing some re-evaluating of task tracking / “second brain” approaches for collaborative work in a remote world. If you have resources or are open to sharing your own approach, I’d love to hear from you!

And now for some links:

✈️ Software company Hotjar has a “working together” travel budget for every employee. “We gave everyone in the company a budget of 2,000 EUR to use how they saw fit to travel and work with other Hotjarians… [W]e decided to make it a permanent budget beginning in 2019…”

🏢 In nine global cities, remote work is poised to wipe out up to $800 billion of office value by 2030. “It’s tempting to pull out a tiny violin for the real estate titans watching their profits shrink. But the financial shake-up, the report adds, threatens the economies of cities more broadly. Empty cities will struggle to combat housing crises, care for its most vulnerable people, or build sustainable public transport systems.”

🙋‍♀️ How to find the time to connect with colleagues when you’re very, very busy. I’ve written about some of these same techniques already (e.g., in Hybrid work is the new baseline) but, you know, this one is from HBR and has ideas for both in-person and remote.

- Derek

I hate virtual backgrounds on video calls.

The technology is amazing but it’s so incredibly distracting for me. The little glitches, the weird blurry edges around people’s heads. It makes me uneasy, like an inverted uncanny valley problem.

(If you’re not familiar with the term, the uncanny valley refers to a feeling of uneasiness or repulsion that some people have when seeing objects that almost look like actual human beings but something is off, like zombies, corpses, or humanoid robots.)

Many companies encourage or require virtual / blurred backgrounds, and I understand the intent. You’re less likely to inadvertently leak sensitive information if your surroundings are blurred or obscured. But that doesn’t mean I have to like it. And there’s some evidence that I’m not alone.

When I meet with people working from home or more exotic locations, I appreciate getting little glimpses into their physical context. It creates more opportunity for connection. Earlier this year, I learned that someone had a 100 pound dog because they turned off their virtual background and I spotted an enormous kennel. It created a nice moment for us to connect as dog owners.

Obviously, everyone’s situation is different and I would never insist that someone turn off their virtual background. Some people prefer the extra privacy or just don’t want to advertise that they’re working from a bedroom with an unmade bed. Others thoughtfully select a virtual background as a form of self-expression, which I applaud. (If you make The Sanctum Sanctorum your virtual background, it’ll eventually spark some conversation.)

I’m fortunate to have a room in our house to use as a dedicated workspace, and I’ve filled it with things to which I have a personal for connection. If you’ve been on a video call with me in the last year, you’ve seen this behind me:

The photos in the top right were taken by my friend Mark. The photos in the bottom left were taken by photographer Matthew Cook on the exceedingly picturesque island of Grand Manan. I took the large photo on a canoe trip down the Nahanni River (zoom in to see our guides taking a look at the next section of the river).

The felt hexagons are intended to absorb sound waves so they don’t bounce off the wall behind me and create echo in my mic. I’m not sure they’re doing much. 🤷‍♂️

The circular shelving display is the real conversation starter, and I feel the minimal effort I’ve put into it has paid dividends in creating small moments to strengthen relationships. I change the message board periodically, which draws requests for specific types of messages and creates opportunities for people to ask about intentionally odd or slightly cryptic messages. It adds some levity and creates opportunities for connection that I sincerely value as a full-time remote worker.

I’m not going to win any Room Rater awards, but it’s unique and personal and I like it.

The other items on those shelves:

• “LEGO Derek,” built at a LEGO store by a colleague and former desk neighbour

• a droid with Mickey ears built by my daughter years ago at Disney World

• a Camino de Santiago way marker from when my wife and I did a 100km segment

• a stone figure in the style of an inunnguaq made from rocks collected on the Nahanni canoe trip

• a blue felt whale my daughter made

• a Krispy Kreme bus generously gifted to me by @wightman because of my child-like obsession with Krispy Kreme

• a recently added Darth Vader that my brother just gave me several years (and two moves!) after he bought it for me

If you’ve curated a video call background (real or virtual!) that you’re proud of, share it in the LinkedIn thread here: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/derekhat_i-am-not-a-fan-of-virtual-backgrounds-during-activity-7077624337666621440-CI8t/

 - Derek

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See also:

https://www.signs.com/zoom-backgrounds/

https://hbr.org/2020/06/dress-for-the-remote-job-you-want

https://twitter.com/ratemyskyperoom

🤼 Silicon Valley escalates the battle over returning to the office: “But it might take more than temporary charitable contributions to convince some workers it’s worthwhile to return. Schmidt, the software engineer at Google, said that even if you go into the office, there’s no guarantee you’ll have people on your team to work with or even a desk to sit at.”

😳 It’s not just conversation—Gen Z is missing some essential nonverbal skills, too: “When you’ve come up entirely in virtual spaces, York says, you don’t have the indicators that help you read people (or the room) in the same way. But with just a bit of guidance, becoming a better nonverbal communicator is a skill that can be learned—and quickly”

😢 Is Your Remote Job Making You Lonely? (alt link): “It’s not easy to strike the right balance for our work environments, but don’t ignore a situation that makes you feel perpetually sad, stressed, or anxious. Your work matters, and how you work is important, but your health and well-being are priceless.”

- Derek

I felt exposed all the time and I hated it, but it was my first real programming job and I was NOT going to complain.

I’m not sure where we draw the line between cubicle seas and open plan offices. In that early job, one side of the cubicle was tall while the others were low enough to yield no visual privacy, but compared to the open offices I would encounter later, it was actually not that bad. Unfortunately, I can only appreciate that in hindsight.

A lot of pixels have been dedicated to the history of office layouts and I won’t rehash it here. (Carry on to the end for an appendix of good resources if you’re interested.) The TL;DR is this: a few visionaries have shown us glimpses of what offices could be, only to see the inspiration stripped away in the implementation, leaving us with a glut of workspaces that maximize workers-per-square-foot without creating the conditions for stronger communication, better collaboration, or extended deep work.

Open offices 👎

Open bullpens and low-walled cubicles are not my favourite places. They are terrible for getting productive deep work done. The conversations and constant movement in the periphery knock me out of flow. At the same time, there’s social pressure to not talk lest you disrupt others, leading to knowledge workers sitting in the same large space donning noise-cancelling headphones and communicating over Slack/email/Teams/etc., negating the purported collaboration benefit.

In fact, a study of two Fortune 500 companies that moved from cubicles to open office found “face-to-face interactions dropped by roughly 70% after the firms transitioned to open offices, while electronic interactions increased to compensate.”

Open office layouts are not without virtue, depending on the type of work you’re doing. While they can cruelly situate noisy phone talkers next to quiet deep workers, they also provide an environment conducive to low-friction, high-bandwidth conversation that is hard to replicate in a remote world.

Reinventing our offices

As I’ve talked to people wrestling with permanent hybrid arrangements and return-to-office mandates, I’ve come to believe we need to seize the opportunity to innovate in ways that let us capture the value of in-person time without losing all the productivity and lifestyle benefits of working from home.

Obviously, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. It depends on the team, the type of work they do, their commuting situations, and their home arrangements. I believe that’s part of the opportunity - use the newfound flexibility of underused office space and hybrid work to empower teams to adapt physical spaces to best achieve their outcomes, taking into account the specific needs of the team.

For software development, I like:

• clusters of four to six people in a common space,

• whiteboards,

• desks arranged to allow discussion and prevent others from spying on your screen (or being in the background of your video calls), and

• nearby private space for calls and small meetings (preferably dedicated to the team).

It would be easy enough to arrange for two teams to share the same space on a rotating schedule, addressing a common complaint with hybrid work that expensive office space is underutilized.

I’ve described a layout that I like and if you’re thinking it sounds awful or ill-suited to your team, great! My entire point is that we should embrace adaptation rather than uniformity. Robert Propst tried to give us that in the 1960s when he designed the Action Office for Herman Miller:

In 1997, Robert Propst said that he had hoped that his idea would "give knowledge workers a more flexible, fluid environment than the rat-maze boxes of offices," but regretted that his idea had evolved to some extent into just that, saying that "the cubicle-izing of people in modern corporations is monolithic insanity." - Wikipedia

If you find yourself in a hybrid arrangement with underused offices, I challenge you to be brave and experiment. With some intentionality, empathy, and creativity, you just might be able to discover some of the flexibility and fluidity that Propst wanted us to have.

 - Derek

P.S. If you’ve found something that works, please don’t keep it to yourself! Share a comment on LinkedIn or send me an email if you don’t want to post publicly.

The Promised Appendix

Redesigning How We Work (HBR)

This Is Why So Many Companies Insist on Open Offices Now (The Muse)

Action Office (Wikipedia)

Workplace Woes: The ‘Open’ Office Is a Hotbed of Stress (Time)

Office Space Time Loop: From Open Plans to Cubicle Farms and Back Again (99% Invisible)

Yes, the Open Office Is Terrible — But It Doesn’t Have to Be (Freakonomics podcast)

Open offices are overrated (Vox on YouTube)

😡 Why Employees Hate Hot-Desking. I’ve only experienced hot-desking as a guest visiting an office, in which case it’s quite convenient to be on equal footing with the locals when seeking a spot to work. If it was my regular daily experience, though, I’d be practicing what David Courpasson calls “objectal resistance.”

🤼 “Remote work likely affecting our ability to learn, focus and innovate” versus “I did not like this article. I will tell you why…” I recommend reading the article and then the Twitter thread that critiques the citations.

- Derek