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Josephine Employee Handbook
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Remote Work Expectations #15

Open MattJorgensen opened 8 years ago

MattJorgensen commented 8 years ago

There are definitely benefits to colocation-- collaboration, team bonding and keeping everyone informed are just easier. That said, working from home occasionally can be really good for personal health, focus, etc.

How do we want to think about remote work (outside of what's necessitated by meetings, taste tests, etc. outside the office)? Do we want to set formal guidelines for how sparingly these should be used?

@zeke -- Can you help us put together some best practices for remote work? How do you structure check-ins, stay abreast of what's going on, etc.?

zeke commented 8 years ago

Expectations of remote workers:

Considerations for remote workers:

chawang90 commented 8 years ago

This is great @zeke

joyjding commented 8 years ago

My opinion with most of these things is that we'll adjust as happens, and that when we need a policy, we'll implement one. I think as a group, we adjust and learn pretty quickly.

That said, so far, I don't think anyone has abused the work at home option. Some interesting things to try if we want to try more remote work could be:

1) core hours (one way to implement this would be if everyone is at work between 11-4 for instance) allowing people to have flexibility around when they are most productive, doctors appointments, exercise, etc. 2) an afternoon each week when anyone can wfh.

For long term remote work (someone is out of the office for more than a couple of days), it helps to set good expectations beforehand. For instance, one expectation to set would be when the person will be available online (especially important for time zone differences).

sike13 commented 8 years ago

From the handbook, it's unclear if this is referring to when an employee is in town and needs some personal time or if an employee is working remotely because they're out of town. We should make this distinction and call them different things.

egustafson5 commented 8 years ago

@sike13 agreed. v important. @joyjding I love the core hours idea, and 11-4 makes sense to me. that's when most of our meetings happen anyway

WFH afternoon every week sounds like a bit much (though it is optional); half day doesn't make much sense to me, personally. the best part of wfh is not having to put on real clothes, so I'd rather have a full wfh day 2x/month.

terrybetts24 commented 8 years ago

@joyjding I love the idea of the core hours, as well. This being the point of view from someone who is not working full time. For me, this might help me to be more engaged, meaning I could come in 5 days a week for the core hours to keep in touch with the team.

@sike13 I also see value in differentiating WFH from working remotely out of the area.

talsafran commented 8 years ago

Chiming in here:

We can separate "Working From Home" and "Working While Traveling"

Like the idea of core hours, though in some cases they'll still be hard to maintain (Brian's Rwanda time, for example)

Agree with Emily that both 1 WFH a week is too much, and that a half day doesn't really make sense (too much time spent traveling in addition to Emily's remarks). If we were to set a benchmark, I'd say that 1x a month would be the right amount (with exceptions for exceptional circumstances). We really benefit from having everyone in the office together.

joyjding commented 8 years ago

I agree that 1 WFH a week is too much. How about one official WFH day every two weeks? I was able to be much more productive today away from the office distractions. It allowed me to focus and move the most important work.

On Wed, Feb 24, 2016 at 7:34 PM, Tal Safran notifications@github.com wrote:

Chiming in here:

We can separate "Working From Home" and "Working While Traveling"

Like the idea of core hours, though in some cases they'll still be hard to maintain (Brian's Rwanda time, for example)

Agree with Emily that both 1 WFH a week is too much, and that a half day doesn't really make sense (too much time spent traveling in addition to Emily's remarks). If we were to set a benchmark, I'd say that 1x a month would be the right amount (with exceptions for exceptional circumstances). We really benefit from having everyone in the office together.

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub https://github.com/josephine/handbook/issues/15#issuecomment-188588674.

talsafran commented 8 years ago

I see that. 1x or 2x a month are both cool with me.

I still think that there should be some structure about this –– notice to team and permission from manager 24 hours in advance will help everyone be on the same page and ensure folks are still in the office when needed.

On Wed, Feb 24, 2016 at 7:51 PM, joyjding notifications@github.com wrote:

I agree that 1 WFH a week is too much. How about one official WFH day every two weeks? I was able to be much more productive today away from the office distractions. It allowed me to focus and move the most important work.

On Wed, Feb 24, 2016 at 7:34 PM, Tal Safran notifications@github.com wrote:

Chiming in here:

We can separate "Working From Home" and "Working While Traveling"

Like the idea of core hours, though in some cases they'll still be hard to maintain (Brian's Rwanda time, for example)

Agree with Emily that both 1 WFH a week is too much, and that a half day doesn't really make sense (too much time spent traveling in addition to Emily's remarks). If we were to set a benchmark, I'd say that 1x a month would be the right amount (with exceptions for exceptional circumstances). We really benefit from having everyone in the office together.

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub <https://github.com/josephine/handbook/issues/15#issuecomment-188588674 .

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub https://github.com/josephine/handbook/issues/15#issuecomment-188593688.

cto // co-founder josephine.com // @talsafran http://twitter.com/talsafran

joyjding commented 8 years ago

I was thinking of a more coordinated as opposed to sporadic WFH. For instance, let's say that twice a month, we have a team WFH day. Before that day, each person tells the team what the most important thing on his/her plate is the next day, and then we help keep eachother accountable to making substantial progress on that item.

I know that WFH has been framed as more of a "do laundry, take care of yourself time", but it's important to also make time as a team to execute on important projects. Some of the most important projects - the ones that really move the business forward - are the ones that end up getting pushed off, again and again, because they require the most thought and brainspace. I've found that WFH is a good solution to accessing this kind of productivity.

That said, WFH is not the only solution, and I'm interested in other ways we can respect and be protective of each other's time.

On Wed, Feb 24, 2016 at 8:32 PM, Tal Safran notifications@github.com wrote:

I see that. 1x or 2x a month are both cool with me.

I still think that there should be some structure about this –– notice to team and permission from manager 24 hours in advance will help everyone be on the same page and ensure folks are still in the office when needed.

On Wed, Feb 24, 2016 at 7:51 PM, joyjding notifications@github.com wrote:

I agree that 1 WFH a week is too much. How about one official WFH day every two weeks? I was able to be much more productive today away from the office distractions. It allowed me to focus and move the most important work.

On Wed, Feb 24, 2016 at 7:34 PM, Tal Safran notifications@github.com wrote:

Chiming in here:

We can separate "Working From Home" and "Working While Traveling"

Like the idea of core hours, though in some cases they'll still be hard to maintain (Brian's Rwanda time, for example)

Agree with Emily that both 1 WFH a week is too much, and that a half day doesn't really make sense (too much time spent traveling in addition to Emily's remarks). If we were to set a benchmark, I'd say that 1x a month would be the right amount (with exceptions for exceptional circumstances). We really benefit from having everyone in the office together.

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub < https://github.com/josephine/handbook/issues/15#issuecomment-188588674 .

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub <https://github.com/josephine/handbook/issues/15#issuecomment-188593688 .

cto // co-founder josephine.com // @talsafran http://twitter.com/talsafran

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub https://github.com/josephine/handbook/issues/15#issuecomment-188609113.

talsafran commented 8 years ago

Hm. I'm not sure everyone prefers to work from home tho, this would essentially make it mandatory.

On Wed, Feb 24, 2016 at 9:04 PM, joyjding notifications@github.com wrote:

I was thinking of a more coordinated as opposed to sporadic WFH. For instance, let's say that twice a month, we have a team WFH day. Before that day, each person tells the team what the most important thing on his/her plate is the next day, and then we help keep eachother accountable to making substantial progress on that item.

I know that WFH has been framed as more of a "do laundry, take care of yourself time", but it's important to also make time as a team to execute on important projects. Some of the most important projects - the ones that really move the business forward - are the ones that end up getting pushed off, again and again, because they require the most thought and brainspace. I've found that WFH is a good solution to accessing this kind of productivity.

That said, WFH is not the only solution, and I'm interested in other ways we can respect and be protective of each other's time.

On Wed, Feb 24, 2016 at 8:32 PM, Tal Safran notifications@github.com

wrote:

I see that. 1x or 2x a month are both cool with me.

I still think that there should be some structure about this –– notice to team and permission from manager 24 hours in advance will help everyone be on the same page and ensure folks are still in the office when needed.

On Wed, Feb 24, 2016 at 7:51 PM, joyjding notifications@github.com wrote:

I agree that 1 WFH a week is too much. How about one official WFH day every two weeks? I was able to be much more productive today away from the office distractions. It allowed me to focus and move the most important work.

On Wed, Feb 24, 2016 at 7:34 PM, Tal Safran notifications@github.com wrote:

Chiming in here:

We can separate "Working From Home" and "Working While Traveling"

Like the idea of core hours, though in some cases they'll still be hard to maintain (Brian's Rwanda time, for example)

Agree with Emily that both 1 WFH a week is too much, and that a half day doesn't really make sense (too much time spent traveling in addition to Emily's remarks). If we were to set a benchmark, I'd say that 1x a month would be the right amount (with exceptions for exceptional circumstances). We really benefit from having everyone in the office together.

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub < https://github.com/josephine/handbook/issues/15#issuecomment-188588674 .

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub < https://github.com/josephine/handbook/issues/15#issuecomment-188593688 .

cto // co-founder josephine.com // @talsafran http://twitter.com/talsafran

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub <https://github.com/josephine/handbook/issues/15#issuecomment-188609113 .

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub https://github.com/josephine/handbook/issues/15#issuecomment-188616923.

cto // co-founder josephine.com // @talsafran http://twitter.com/talsafran

chawang90 commented 8 years ago

@joyjding @talsafran I'm down to try some sort of team WFH day just to see how it feels and what sort of advantages/difficulties we run into. I definitely see the pros/cons but have no idea how it would actually match up to expectations in reality.

I would propose that we don't have any sort of scheduled WFH expectations right now, but that we test out a few ideas - everything from a planned WFH day to optional WFH days, to 2x a month WFH 'allowance', BUT after our new hires are onboarded and things are feeling smooth.

To be honest, my biggest pushback on WFH in general is that WFH makes it much harder to manage the people on your team. Ie Terry was here this morning and Sika was WFH but I think Terry was more or less just catching up on email and missed messages until Sika was in the office.

chawang90 commented 8 years ago

To be clear, my preference is to punt on this until the new team is feeling solid then to be deliberate about testing different WFH structures and finding the one that works best for our team. Until then I think we should treat WFH as something to be used sparingly and only when necessary.

joyjding commented 8 years ago

I think that sounds good, Charley. And I'm all for testing different structures (that's one of the advantages we have, as a small team!), whether that's with regard to WFH, core hours, any other things we want to try to increase productivity and flexibility.

On Wed, Feb 24, 2016 at 11:31 PM, Charley Wang notifications@github.com wrote:

To be clear, my preference is to punt on this until the new team is feeling solid then to be deliberate about testing different WFH structures and finding the one that works best for our team. Until then I think we should treat WFH as something to be used sparingly and only when necessary.

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub https://github.com/josephine/handbook/issues/15#issuecomment-188651328.