I've been wondering how to move past the "Slack and occasionally Zoom/Google Meet for meetings" phase of remote work we've been stuck in since Covid hit.

Some teams tried to set up optional social hours but they feel forced. The two managers always show up and it becomes really sweaty.

Maybe set up personal office hours once a week? It would be nice if some new pattern emerged that providers like Slack or Google could build into their remote work products.

Something that replicates the vibe of sitting in an area where you can overhear coworkers. Like an always-on proximity chat, but with a way to mask your sweatpants/picking your nose/getting up to flip laundry.

Personally I try to chat before meetings. Say hi to people I know or have worked with in the past. Recent management told us to not do this during our standup and I expressed that was a bad idea. Got shot down though, so I make sure to go to the office despite it being three hours away at least once a quarter so people recognize my face, like the captain of some far off lord that has sworn fealty to the King making sure to show up and pay tribute every once in awhile.

One thing I’ve noticed is some people are very chatty over text and some people really aren’t. So I make good friends with people who like to make a little small talk on text, tell me about their weekend.

Never underestimate the power of a banter chat room that people just … talk… in. About anything, everything. Random protesting, etc.

One of my previous companies talked so much in the random channel we had a second one made with our name on it (literally).

And I feel like our team had better cohesion and got a whole lot of work done, in part due to it.

Being okay with talking to your coworkers about nothing makes it easier to talk to them about something, at least in my experience, and every company I’ve worked at that had that.

Further, at companies that DIDN’T behave that way (sample size one), talking to coworkers about anything and or nothing was a HUGE, stressful chore that always felt like a problem and like I was stepping on people’s time.