Working remotely comes with its benefits and challenges. These challenges in particular can become more pronounced when you work in a global team with a 24/7 setup.

Noise can seem constant, and it can be tricky to stay in touch and aligned with your team members across the globe and in different time zones. Building on from ‣ page, here are some practical tips for making remote, global working, a little more comfortable for all

Staying connected

Working online as opposed to in an office environment can be isolating. These are some things we can do to feel more connected:

Slack tips

• Say hello👋 on Slack when you start your day, and goodbye when you end it, so people know when you’re around, potentially available
• Join social Slack channels to get an understanding of your colleagues outside of their work, and participate in them to share interests. There are lots of them!
• Default to open conversation in channels everyone can see regarding topics in and outside of work. This helps create a community vibe, in the case of work, gives us a trail to track updates and decisions to.

Zoom

• Donut 🍩 calls help us stay connected with team members we might not ordinarily bump into in our daily work, and dedicate a space to take time away from work
• Try not to jump straight into work topics each Zoom meeting you have. Take some time to ask your colleague how they’re doing, and what they’ve been up to. We would do this in office meetings, so Zoom need be no less human.
• Each region (EMEA / AMER / APAC) will have a dedicated social call, at least twice a week, with some regions having them daily. Join them to get some downtime away from tasks and interact with your colleagues on a social level

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We are by default a “video on” company. There is no obligation, however by seeing everyone’s faces and body language, we develop deeper understanding with our colleagues, so we encourage a “video on” approach

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Working across timezones

Working globally brings further considerations for how we interact and work with each other. Crossover between each other’s work days becomes more limited, and blockers and frustrations can be created if we don’t work well, and considerately, asynchronously.

Meetings

• Always check the working hours of someone you are booking a meeting with, and where they are based
• Try to always schedule meetings in the work hours of all attendees. Given our setup, this isn’t always possible however so…