On Fri, Dec 19, 2014 at 4:10 PM, Nicholas Stewart <[email protected]>
wrote:
>
> I apologize if I shouldn't send this email because it's not related to
> Linux.
>
> I know many of you have IT and software jobs and I'm wondering if you
> periodically work from home. If you do, how do you to stay in
> communication with members of your team and department
>
Do you send an email in the morning about what you're going to work on?
>
we are doing stand-ups, some daily, some multiple times during the week,
depending on the topic and team you are in
Work is managed in bug tracking tools or other tools such as Asana, trello,
leankit, google docs (mostly larger chunks, as architectures, etc)
> Are you expected to be available on IRC or some other chat platform?
>
IRC is the common denominator for our developers, it serves multiple
purposes:
- real time communication as a broadcast (conversations in channels)
- 1:1 discussions in /query
- history of previous discussions/states (not as eternal history, but the
scrollback will help when you have to step away for Lunch or the day)
> Do you phone in for standup or some scrum-like meeting?
>
that depends on the team, meeting size and occurrence of the meeting
Hangouts are the default (mumble used to be the default some time ago) for
meetings that require voice (or video)
HOs are restricted to 10 (15 for business accounts) participants and once
every 2w Hangouts seem to have a bad time
Next would be a plain phone conference which are more reliable
Do you spend a lot of time on Skype?
>
not since there are Hangouts
> In short, how do you maintain the lines of communication while working
> from home?
>
mostly via Google collaboration tools, i.e. Google HO & Docs (Doc,
spreadsheets, presentations), and our SW build/defect mgmt tools which
allow for some collaboration
this only works if your company or at least your team is dialed in to using
these tools.
If you are wondering about how to successfully migrate from an office job
to a home based job then I'd like to point out following key items to keep
in mind:
- overcommunicate! your communication channels are reduced (a "yeah right"
on IRC is different then a "yeah right" in the kitchen with a smile on your
face). Use communication techniques as active listening and paraphrasing to
make sure you and your peer are on the same page
- stay social! when working from your home office, it is tempting to reduce
your communication to work things as your communication bandwidth is
reduced and you tend to focus on (perceived) important. I am doing a TGIF
meeting with my teams on Fridays, where we deliberately don't discuss work
topics (exception: need to vent or rant)
- prepare for conflict! someone will get upset at one point (you or a peer)
about something that was or wasn't said ("yeah right..."). This will
typically surface in changed behaviour (sarcasm, retreat from known
channels). Don't be shy to ask one too many times how someone is doing.
Help solve conflict by opening up communication, using or providing
facilitation and staying objective.
these are the 3 key items that I find myself seeing in a remote working
setup.
hth,
Olli
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