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Tools We Use for Remote Work

5 years ago
business
10 Comments

A reader emailed in to ask:

We are in the process of trying to move to working remotely more often. I know that your team for the most part are all pretty remote and also work remotely with a lot of your customers. Just wondering if you could give me a list of what technologies you use for conferencing, team meetings, etc.  Also maybe some pros and cons and\or issues you have run into.

Here’s my favorite apps:

  • Slack for chat – we used to use Stride (formerly Hipchat), and it was alright, but Slack gained more traction
  • WebEx for client meetings – because we need something that allows copy/paste between machines, support for Windows and OS X, and both computer audio and phone support
  • Dropbox for file storage
  • Github for source code control
  • Expensify for expense reporting & approval

And that’s pretty much it. We try to run as lean as possible.

Remote work issues we’ve run into

Working by yourself can be draining. If you’re a people person, you may miss being surrounded by other folks and having water cooler chats. Slack mitigates that for me today, but years ago, I preferred coworking spaces.

Get face-to-face online weekly. Every week, we get together on video during our Office Hours podcast and talk shop. We accidentally learned that it keeps us on the same page, lets us have fun conversations, and reminds us that our coworkers are humans.

Get together in meatspace too. Once a year, we go on a week-long company retreat with no client work involved at all. We look forward to planning it and doing it, and we get excited to hang out with each other. (This might not work for every company because after all, the bigger you get, sometimes there’s folks you don’t actually want to hang out with for long periods of time.)

Your Internet will fail, and usually at the time you least expect it. Be armed with a phone, tablet, or hotspot so you can pair your computer to it for brief periods of time.

2017 company retreat in Alaska

De-prioritize your communications. Whenever possible, stick to asynchronous, non-personal communication methods that don’t require specific people at specific times. Here’s my preferred order:

  • Slack message (not direct message) just saying something that anyone could answer or fix.
  • Email message directly to a person – so they can get to it whenever.
  • Direct message or name mention in Slack – because someone gets an immediate, interrupting notification. This is bad form – don’t do this unless it’s urgent.
  • Text – because this interrupts someone no matter where they are.

Set expectations for at-work hours. Employees pick their default working hours (mine’s 8AM-4PM Central), and they’re expected to be around Slack during those times. If you won’t be around, just let the rest of the team know.

When management wonders what remote people are doing, have them swing into Slack and watch. They’ll be able to see what’s happening, and see that work really does get done. (Although also, just like in-person offices, a lot of friendly goofing off happens too!)

Set expectations for off-work hours. When you work remotely, it’s really easy to just keep going for just another 10 minutes, just another 10 minutes, and next thing you know, you’re divorced and your children refer to you as “my DNA relative.”

business
Previous Post
How I Manage Email and Tasks, 2017 Edition
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10 Comments. Leave new

  • Martin Sjöberg
    September 12, 2017 8:40 am

    Excellent post as usual and the timing is perfect since I am setting up a remote office in an office hotel the coming few weeks. I understand that you focused on the IT of remote working but you did forget one piece of equipment that keeps (almost) all IT offices running. The Coffey Machine!

    Reply
    • Brent Ozar
      September 12, 2017 8:44 am

      Ha! I use a Technivorm Grand:

      https://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/technivorm-grand-glass-carafe/

      Reply
  • RossNWirth (@RossNWirth)
    September 12, 2017 10:19 pm

    He you explored office 365 at all feels like a no-brainer of a business case to me, especially with Teams for “free”

    Reply
    • Brent
      September 12, 2017 11:53 pm

      Ross – nah, we’ve been using these services for quite some time. O365’s new Teams functionality might be interesting when it starts developing the kind of community following you see today around Slack – take https://SQLSlack.com for example, where thousands of community folks are active.

      Reply
  • greglow
    September 13, 2017 3:01 am

    Serious coffee like: http://www.coffee-a-roma.com.au/store/p28/Rocket_Espresso_Giotto_Tipo_V_or_Evoluzione_R.html

    Reply
    • Brent
      September 13, 2017 10:24 am

      WOW, that’s a work of art. I even love the little rocket-shaped feet. That’s beautiful.

      Reply
  • Del
    September 21, 2017 5:12 am

    Having had to use Skype for business for the past year (UK, USA) I would rather use a tin can and string!

    Reply
    • Brent
      September 22, 2017 5:43 am

      Del – yeah, I’m with you, it’s pretty bad.

      Reply
  • Vartika
    October 11, 2017 6:33 am

    Have you tried [Redacted]? It is online project management and collaboration software that teams can use to run their day, their projects and their work-life. With [Redacted] it becomes effortlessly easy to collaborate, and manage remote teams without breaking a sweat.

    Reply
    • Brent
      October 11, 2017 6:41 am

      Vartika – you just magically found that, huh?

      Your email address is the same company you were promoting.

      That’s called astroturfing, and it’s a great way to get a really bad reputation. Reconsider what you’re doing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astroturfing

      Reply

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Hi. I’m Brent.

That's me, Brent.

I live in Las Vegas, Nevada. I'm on an epic life quest to have fun and make a difference.

I co-founded Brent Ozar Unlimited to help make your SQL Server go faster. I also maintain sp_Blitz® and the open source First Responder Kit repo.

My current car collection includes a Jaguar XKR-S, Porsche 944 Turbo, Porsche 356 Speedster replica, and a Ferrari 328 GTS.

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