Remote Work Q&A, Part 2

This is the second part of a two-hour live Q&A on remote work that Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson held last week. Part 2 covers questions about interruptions, mental health, hardware and software tools, and building culture as a remote company. You can find Part 1 on our feed in your podcast app or on our website. If you'd like to watch the Q&A session in its entirety, you can do that on Periscope. You can also check out Basecamp's Guide to Internal Communication.

Show Notes

Question 1: How do we get aligned with coworkers without interrupting them through chat/phone calls and while respecting their time? - 4:03

Pings (direct messages) in Basecamp - 6:34

Hey is Basecamp's upcoming email product - 7:23

"Interruption Is Not Collaboration," our episode where we discuss Office Hours - 8:45

It Doesn’t Have to be Crazy At Work - 10:48

Question 2: How would you encourage leaders to prepare (or how has Basecamp prepared) for an eventuality where large numbers of workers will be sick for extended periods of time? Adding more buffers to time estimates? - 14:15

Question 3: How can we best nudge our bosses in the right direction with this stuff? - 18:39

The Guardian published an article that mentions DHH's efforts to shame companies whose employees aren't allowed to work from home - 18:57

David's tweet asking for stories of companies - 19:08

Denver Post article about Charter Communications' remote work policy - 19:41

REMOTE: Office Not Required - 21:23

Question 4: Where do you put ideas that are mostly about code? Do you have discussions in GitHub for that? - 25:06

Tuple - 26:58

Question 5: What can you do for taking care of the emotional well-being of the work community that’s going to be remote for weeks in the middle of such unprecedented crises? - 27:32

You can send reports of companies to [email protected] - 30:36

Question 6: How do you each spend your typical days at Basecamp? How do you balance team collaboration and meetings with more solo, “deep” work? - 34:33

"Wait, other people can take your time?" (Signal v. Noise) - 41:36

Question 7: How do you set up a culture and understand cultural fit when building a fully remote organization? - 41:54

"Introducing the 5x12" (Signal v. Noise) - 43:48

"The books I read in 2019" (Signal v. Noise) - 45:10

The Basecamp Employee Handbook - 46:51

Question 8: How do you help first-time WFH employees to ensure we are getting the most out of them? - 48:38

Question 9: How do you manage boredom, anxiety, and isolation while working remote alone? - 51:25

Question 10: What technologies (hardware included) are you excited about (outside of Basecamp) to help support remote? - 55:45

A photo gallery of Basecamp employees' work-from-home setups -