I’ve worked remotely, for the most part, since 2009.
Work has been something that’s mostly happened over the internet, which means all those online stressors and wonders are part of collaborative efforts.
The pressure to be online and available has its own gravity even with laidback clients and colleagues. Being able to exchange ideas and jokes spontaneously can be humanizing, sometimes the difference between a great day and a slog.
What’s most interesting to me, with the internet reaching across schedules and rhythms and timezones, is how differently people communicate.
Some people are chatty in messaging apps, while others are aloof.
Some write messages in complete sentences with punctuation, while others string together whatever characters get the job done.
Some randomly capitalize Words they give Special Importance to in a way that defies convention and weirds me out.
Some use words I have to ask Urban Dictionary about.
Some routinely use @everyone, and they will not be forgiven.
But beyond conversation styles and mannerisms, it’s interesting how people communicate when they really have something to say or work out.
Someone may think best on a video call and rambling face to face. Another person may regularly want to get on screen shares to look at things together. Someone else may toil away writing emails or tickets. Another may wait until people are around to run full speed at a topic in Slack. Some synchronous, some asynchronous, some rapid and iterative, some slow and methodical.
Every group of people has had its own way of doing things, and they’re rarely explicit about it. (And often when they are, shared notes or guidelines rarely capture how people truly work.) Part of the job is always figuring out what needs to be an email, a chat message, a DM, a video call, or a ticket. The answer often changes depending on the person.
I’ve been surprised at how miraculously big groups can stay in sync and how small ones can’t, and I have yet to encounter a perfect tool or platform that everybody loves using.
Being online is participation in an elaborate system.
No system will ever be perfect for everyone because people are too varied and interesting.