Hacker News Reader

Comment by mattcdrake | Hacker News Reader

I've noticed that it's hard to build rapport with coworkers when working remotely (especially if they are in an office and you're remote). In my experience, remote communication is mostly transactional and doesn't facilitate building relationships with people.

I'm not saying I need my coworkers to be my best friends or anything, but I think that you are more likely to have a well functioning work relationship with people that you're comfortable around. In my experience, those relationships are usually built through informal conversations.

If any of you have this figured out, I'd love to hear tips. Most of the other aspects of remote work are fantastic.

View on HN

> If any of you have this figured out, I'd love to hear tips. Most of the other aspects of remote work are fantastic.

overcommunicate. Share like you do IRL. Kvetch. Cheer. Share interesting finds. Say good morning. Ask team-mates how they're doing.

I find I build pretty good rapport with my team mates because I _don't_ limit communications to required transactions.

You build relationships by communicating about life and sharing feelings. So, communicate about life and share feelings.

This is fantastic advice, thanks mattcdrake and masukomi!

Personally I think much of the benefits of remote work comes from the ability to close out the noise of the office, which includes thing like someone tapping me on the shoulder or grabbing my attention when Im deep in some mental exercise.

So what I wonder is how you couple the great things about (actively chosen) isolation with the need for social interaction and banter over time?

Perhaps it's a non-issue and remote work will never reach the level of distraction you face in an office. Still would be interested to hear your thoughts.

Wonder if having some games in Slack would help, like one round of Mafia per day or other team building games?

When most of us worked in the office, we did the cliché foosball table. Since our team has become more and more distributed, we've been playing TagPro (https://tagpro.koalabeast.com) a time or two per day.

We typically hop into a video conference while we play to make it more personal. It's better than foosball in that more than 4 people can play (we generally play with 8-12) and it's got a much shorter path to proficiency.

Rookies always suck at foosball for their first few months, so getting them involved with something less intimidating has been helpful.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com