Part of a Team Working Remote... Feeling Isolated...

martaw

Hi all...

I have been working in my current position for about a month. I am part of a new effort at the company and a small team of myself and a couple other people have been assembled for this new LOB. We all work remote 100% from different parts of the country, unless it is to travel for something client related. I have yet to be at coporate or even any of the satellite offices. I pretty much don't know my other teammate (except for a name and a small amount of background) and mostly speak to my manager from time to time. I only sort of know what they are doing. Personally, I have a current assignment which is fine, but I guess I am used to WAY more social interaction like at my previous job. Back then, I was apart of a couple different teams and I only worked from home one day a week. There was a lot of interaction which was great. Now I am like an island getting the work done mostly alone.

Again, I know this is a brand new team and there is a lot going on. I just think team interaction is important. If I had my way, we would all meet up just to have met and get to know each other... maybe even do something "fun" to break the ice. I just feel like I collaborate better with people I feel more comfortable with and have a social connection with. Ultimately, we are supposed to be thinking of all these ideas and strategies. I sort of want to talk to my boss (who btw I have only met in person once for under an hour), but I thought maybe I should just give this more time. Should I say something now and present some ideas (meeting up, being more social, having a fun thing to do to break the ice, etc) or should I give it a few more months?

Ugh... Has anyone else experienced remote team work... particularly from day one, no previous office interaction? What sort of work did you do? Did you feel connected as a team? If so, what was done to foster that? If you did not feel connected, what was your team like and what could have made it better?

Kelkin

This sounds just like me.. I am going through this extact same thing.. My team is based on one side of the country and i am on the other. They all are together and here I am the lone soldier.. So I totally get how you feel.. I am curious to see how people respond..

Mrock4

I've worked remote 100% with my current opportunity. I do some professional services consulting as well as a tiny bit of pre-sales type work. Basically our team (a lot of people) is dispersed across the country. Most of the team we don't meet until we arrive on a customer site for an engagement, which sounds a lot like the OP.

ultimately, since we're all in separate parts of the country, I don't get the impression there's any one "group" of people- we're all the same, so I don't feel isolated at all. I think the key here is regular interaction with your direct teams- whether by email, phone, webex- whatever. This SHOULD be fueled by your lead/manager, but it doesn't have to be. We have a weekly meeting so there is some team interaction on a regular basis.

But for whatever it's worth, your experience sounds pretty typical of a PS type environment. There's nothing wrong with not enjoying it- some people prefer sitting in an office, others at home, etc..no one is better, just different preferences.

lsud00d

Honest question but did you not consider these things before taking the job?

shodown

Thats pretty much how I work now, but we have all the collaboration tools we need. Telepresense, webex, jabber, and so on.

thronetm

My work team is mostly at one end of the country with me on the other and another guy somewhere else, but they fly me and anyone else to their location every few months to work there for a few days/go out one night etc.

In fact, I'm over there tomorrow morning until Friday with a night out on Thursday, we feel we need to do this to keep up a good team relationship.

dave330i

You're a professional. Not interacting with team members shouldn't be a problem unless you need them to finish their task to complete your task.

martaw

lsud00d wrote: »

Honest question but did you not consider these things before taking the job?

Well, I knew it was remote. However, there is no way for me to know how well collaboration will be done... Some remote workers collaborate a lot, others not so much. What I did think was that there would be more travel (I was told it would be a lot) and figured I would have interaction then. So far not so much travel, but again it's early in the game.

I enjoy remote. I don't enjoy the almost nil interaction except with manager and even then it is only business.

Devilry

Well, I currently am in this type of scenario. I am the sole remote worker and the rest of my department (a lot) is 3k miles away. I have never met any of them. However, it is what you make of it. You need to control the situation and use it to your advantage. You have the advantage of being able to standout in a situation where most do not. I did this, interacted non stop taking initiative on everything I could get my hands on. Long story short, I have been here 9 months and I am being promoted to management and moved to the office to take the position. Do you realize how easy, and hard it is to pull that off? Think about it and try it out.

martaw

dave330i wrote: »

You're a professional. Not interacting with team members shouldn't be a problem unless you need them to finish their task to complete your task.

I don't know if you are seeing where I am coming from, but that's ok...

nosoup4u

Been Lonewolfing it for years now and I Love it! No office politics, no people around harassing me about their personal crap, seeing my boss a few times a year...

There's no way I could go back to a normal office environment, but I'm guessing it has to do with my introvert personality.

m3zilla

martaw wrote: »

I enjoy remote. I don't enjoy the almost nil interaction except with manager and even then it is only business.

Do you guys have some sort of instant messaging? Couldn't you just call them or email them?

gunbunnysoulja

I'm the only work at home guy in my company (they created the position for me when I said I was moving across the country to live in awesome Florida).

We have many Google Hangout sessions to keep up with tasks/collaboration (as well as SharePoint, Yammer, Facebook, phone calls, etc).

I think it's crazy not to utilize Skype or Google Hangouts. When I'm working on a project, it works out great having 5 or 6 people using Google Hangouts at once (which is a free service). Even when I'm not working on anything special, I still get constant contact with team members, leadership, etc.

dave330i

martaw wrote: »

I don't know if you are seeing where I am coming from, but that's ok...

You're whining because you feel lonely.

networker050184

No need to be a jerk about it dave330i. Some people enjoy the interaction with their coworkers. If you aren't one of them that doesn't mean other people do not.

martaw

First, thank YOU networker050184. SMH...

gunbunnysoulja wrote: »

We have many Google Hangout sessions to keep up with tasks/collaboration (as well as SharePoint, Yammer, Facebook, phone calls, etc).

I have never used Google Hangouts before... Is that where you basically have an ongoing video session as you work on your various tasks?

I also want to clarify that the whole team is remote... so it's not like everybody else on the team is in the office and I am the lone person out.

Would you guys after being there a month talk about this with your boss or would you give it more time to see what organically evolves?

gunbunnysoulja

Google Hangouts is basically the same thing as Skype (except I like it more). It allows for video chat with multiple people to do status updates, collaboration, etc. If I didn't have any collaboration with at least leadership, I would feel the exact same as you. With that said, each organization functions differently. Do you have overlapping responsibilities/projects?

truckfit

Holly Molly

I was in the exact same position in my last rôle.

I was all alone in our branch office while my team was all in Head office. Trust me and take my advice, you will grow slowly this because you have none to learn from.

ptilsen

Video conferencing is the best bet. Over all other methods, it reminds you that the name behind that email address is a real person whom you've met and worked with.

It's probably not your place to implement this, but the best solution IMO is regular team meetings (once every week or two) over video teleconferencing. Unless you're truly so siloed that you don't need to work with each other at all, this tends to be a good thing to do anyway.

WiseWun

Did they tell you how it's going to be during the interview? Was it included in the job description? I have yet to work remotely, but I would like the privileged to work from home once a week.

truckfit

Bro i was in your position Just jump ship its not Worth it. Its Boring and you Wont grow much Just jump ship when you can trust me i was in your position before.

m3zilla

martaw wrote: »

Would you guys after being there a month talk about this with your boss or would you give it more time to see what organically evolves?

What are your expectations? Are you looking for some sort of weekly team meeting where everyone hops on a call/video conference?

If you feel "isolated", then take the initiative and reach out to the rest of the team.

MentholMoose

m3zilla wrote: »

If you feel "isolated", then take the initiative and reach out to the rest of the team.

Agreed. You can communicate via phone, email, IM, or whatever else is available. Talk to the manager to setup a weekly meeting, and suggest reasons to meet up in person sometime. I work remotely about 95% of the time, but I am in regular contact with coworkers using various means. Every few months someone sets up a "training" or some other reason to get most of us in one place, so we can do some socializing and "team building".

If you really can't stand not seeing your coworkers in person 4-5 days per week, the job might not be for you. Since it's only been a month, though, I'd say give it some more time.

scubagator

For the remote workers....Where do you find these positions? I would love to work remotely.

martaw

Actually, in the beginning I was told that I would do a serious crap load of travelling so I did not think this would be an issue at all. So, we all meet up at the client site, have lunch sometimes, side chats there, etc. I am working on an internal project right now, so no travel at the moment. I did try to reach out to my other teammate who is even newer than me but he seemed pretty aloof. Some people are not very open until they have a lot of interaction with you so I get that. It is just that will take a while to happen as it is right now. Our projects at the moment don't overlap either, but as more things come in the pipeline they eventually will. I think I may suggest to my manager to do a team meeting (preferably weekly) so we can just catch up and know what's going on. We'll see if he would even go for video chat!

As far as my job being boring or little place for growth, it is actually quite the opposite... especially when I do start doing client engagements. Before this I was in operations. Now I get to do more design so you never know what will be thrown at you! This position is definitely very high-level. My team will be responsible for strategy and ideas for a very visible product/LOB in our company.

To answer the question about how to find remote positions... don't know what to tell you. I was just blessed to find this one. I will say that with my skillset being difficult to find, the company was more willing to broaden the search nationwide which means that person would be working remote in my case.

QHalo

martaw wrote: »

Well, I knew it was remote. However, there is no way for me to know how well collaboration will be done... Some remote workers collaborate a lot, others not so much. What I did think was that there would be more travel (I was told it would be a lot) and figured I would have interaction then. So far not so much travel, but again it's early in the game.

I enjoy remote. I don't enjoy the almost nil interaction except with manager and even then it is only business.

You absolutely can know how they collaborate. You ask during the interview. Not trying to be an ass, but you have to do the diligence yourself when it comes to these types of roles. My team is disparate as well but we have IM/Lync Meetings and desk phone forwarding to our cells. Pretty standard stuff.

networker050184

You can ask all you want, but if you don't think they aren't going to paint the picture better than reality you are only fooling yourself.

jibbajabba

I am in the oposite side of the boat - I'd love to work 100% remote. I am more efficient when I work by myself and can just do my job. In fact - my compan(ies)y force me to be in the office (1hr40 each way commute but I knew about that when signing up).

So yea - gimme telework any day of the week

Mrock4

jibbajabba wrote: »

1hr40 each way commute

This is why I left my previous gig, although I really liked it. I was driving 1.5 to 2 hours one way every day. I was spending $1,000/mo in GAS alone! Throw in lunches and tolls..I was spending around $1,300/mo just getting to work (and eating while there).

Now that I work remote..I spend an average of $36 per MONTH! And eat at home, of course.

stiltner

Working remotely is not easy. It takes the dedication to self motivate.

As far as ways to come together with the team. Ummm, you obviously use technology,
so as others have said, USE technology.

Skype, chat, IM, phone, e-mail, whatever you need to. If you've ever had a hard time
making friends, that will play out here too. Basically you have to take initiative here and
offer yourself up to others.

You have to say you need to interact with them more. Eventually that will calm down, you'll
just adjust to the changes, and you'll need less of it to fulfill that need as you'll basically start
to collaborate on things w/o even realizing you're doing so.

I'm approaching a year of doing it now. I never been one for a lot of social interaction though.
At least not the sitting at the bench with a coworker eating lunch type of interaction.

QHalo

networker050184 wrote: »

You can ask all you want, but if you don't think they aren't going to paint the picture better than reality you are only fooling yourself.

The key is asking. If they lie, and it turns out worse, then leave. That simple. There are ways you can ask questions on team collaboration that would give you a good idea if they're painting a better picture. The point is to ask, and ask a lot of questions. I think a real key would be if they were doing an interview and they're all over the place if they have some sort of video conferencing setup so everyone can see each other. If that's not the case or they don't use Lync Live meeting or something where people can see you, I just did an interview and it was video with remote folks, then its probably not a good decision. If a company prides on team collaboration, then they will have these tools in place. If not, run.