Managing Remotely

When working, our remote workers must always be in chat and respond as soon as they are able to (not interrupt their engaged call). We…

No, we don’t have any rules or communication norms. Certain teams like to do regular calls while others do not. Personally, I dislike scheduled meetings…

We don’t place strict rules, but there’s a common understanding that everyone is usually on from the hours of 9 am to at least 6…

TIP 1: think about the most important thing you want to accomplish and let that lead your decisions about who attends, what you talk about,…

Yes! The events count as one form, and they love to meet up for potlucks and meet and greets. We’ve also sponsored two successful trips for…

We had our first company retreat less than a year ago in the Catskills when we were 12 people. I wouldn’t want to have a…

We don’t require it, but we do have hubs of team members in New York and Florida, and try to get together and cowork as…

Yes, twice a year we pull every corporate team member together for a few days where we are inspired by guest speakers, encouraged by our…

Yes, they meet in pods on their own, but we meet as a group at least twice a year for some bonding time and project…

Our main tool for managing work effort is Basecamp.  We use that both to schedule out the work that needs to be done as well…

We also define goals for each of our employees. These goals are company goals as well as their personal goals. We review these goals on…

Depends on the roll, but in most cases it becomes very clear who is productive and who isn’t.  For engineers github is key.  

Weekly calls are important, as is setting and communicating realistic and exciting goals.

Clear tasks, responsibilities, and deliverables.

Agree on communication channels and style of communication.

Knowing what to do with all the awesome.

You don’t develop such close relationships as you do with people whom you see every day. This can be a positive too though, as productivity…

The most difficult part is helping your team stay motivated and feel part of a team when they have never met. In the office, a…

Most importantly, we have a mission that everyone believes in and is working towards. Each quarter, we set a “theme” for the company that everyone…

Every week I put out in our General (all company) Slack channel the “NodeSource Executive Brief To Everyone at The Company™”.  The title is a…

Our weekly video standups really help here. However, we also do company-wide retreats twice a year to get everyone together face to face.

We buy people computers but expect them to use their own phones and make sure they have a quiet, comfortable space in which to work…

This varies based on roles.  For our customer consultants, they need to provide their own high speed Internet service, headset, and a personal computer for…

We provide all equipment people need to do their jobs. If someone wants to use their own device, that’s fine too.

First of all, we have a flexible schedule and the only condition for the remote team members is to have at least some overlapping time…

Unlimited.  Take what you need – we don’t count your sick or vacation days.

As you need. Minimum 25 days/year. Get your work done, and if you don’t, it’s a problem.

My biggest fear was probably that everyone was just going to goof off and not get any work done with little oversight. This has been…

Accountability. The fear that people would simply flake, walk off into the distance, play video games instead of work. Sure they came true. And then…

Not many fears that I can think of. Really just accountability and showing up, but I don’t feel that’s any more of an issue than…