> Healthy distributed teams blend synchronous and asynchronous styles. Because what doesn’t have to be synchronous is better done asynchronously, default to asynchronous communication for nonblocking items and help team members review them on a cadence.
I've managed distributed teams for several years now. One of the biggest and most unexpected challenges has been orienting new hires to healthy expectations about remote work. A lot of people are drawn to remote and distributed teams for the wrong reasons. You need to be careful to identify and correct bad behavior or misaligned expectations as early as possible, for the sake of the employee and the rest of the team. Specifically:
- Some people are drawn to remote work because they want to be as isolated as possible. They don't like interacting with, communicating with, or coordinating with other team members. These lone wolf employees can work in very narrow, specific job roles, but most tasks require teamwork and cooperation. Don't try to cater to individual's isolationist tendencies if it's not a good fit for your workload.
- Distributed teams can attract bad actors who see remote work as an opportunity to escape supervision and get as little work done as possible. You need to find a healthy way to follow individual's productivity without being overbearing or nagging them frequently. Address performance issues early and often.
- Watch out for the side hustler. Remote listings attract a lot of wantrepreneurs who want benefits and a paycheck while they prioritize their energy toward their own startup, contracting gigs, or other side hustles. I make it very clear that our hires need to prioritize company business as their full time job. In theory, I don't care if someone is taking on side work on the weekends or in their spare time, but in practice most people can't juggle competing priorities effectively.
- If employees are in similar time zones, I encourage a "core working hours" policy where everyone is expected to be online and working. 3-4 hours of overlap is enough to cover any synchronous discussion needs while still leaving plenty of schedule flexibility for most people. I've had night owl employees try to work opposite schedules from everyone else, but this quickly turns into the isolationist problem I mentioned above. Set the expectation of some work hours overlap, then let people decide when/where/how they do the rest of their work. It's a small price to pay for the increased communication efficiency.
- Group chat is fun, but don't let it become a constant distraction. The article mentions memes, gifs, and humor as a plus, which is fine, but be careful not to let the culture degrade into all-day distractions. If people feel like they need to read your #random channel all day long to avoid missing something important, consider gently reshaping the chat culture with dedicated focus hours or other expectation setting.
- Watch the private vs. public message ratio of your group chat. There is no magic number, but it can hint at communication problems. If you have 95% private messages and 5% public messages, you might be at risk of cliques and silos. On the other hand, if you have 95% public messages and 5% private messages where everyone is in every channel, your group chat might be too distracting. Lead by example with "Let's take this offline" when conversations get too chatty in shared channels, and also by following DM conversations up with summaries and decision announcements in shared channels.
- The article mentions budgeting for in-person meetings, which I strongly encourage. Meeting someone in person creates a much healthier bond. However, keep the in-person trips short and focused. A 2-day off-site retreat once a year is reasonable for most people. However, asking everyone to fly out for a week-long off-site from Sunday night through Saturday morning twice a year is likely to generate resentment from people with children. Find a healthy balance and keep it short and sweet. Don't burn your remote workers out on travel.
- Finally: Distributed and remote work is great when it works out, but it's not for everyone. Practice healthy expectation setting, performance management, 1:1s, routine feedback, training, and other guidance. However, if someone can't handle distributed work then it's not helpful to try to force it indefinitely. At scale, you need to be prepared to let some otherwise excellent people go if they can't handle the distributed environment. It's always sad to let them go, but it's better for everyone if they're allowed to find a better fit elsewhere.