2 Rules on Remote Work Communication

In this new era of remote work people are creating new habits. And not all of them are good. So I here are a couple tips and pet peeves of digital communication that will help to reduce stress and the overwork from home.

When the topic of Emails Changes. Change the Subject Line

I have email conversations that are 14, 20, 30 messages long. Many of those are back and forths about engineering detail about a certain project. And that is fine. The conversation string leaves a trail of detail that can be accessed later when working on the project.

The problem comes when that conversation string is used for a lazy message. When I get a message in the string with a subject line of "Material Options for Project ABC" and the message is about a quote for a new project, I have a problem.

When creating a new message on a new topic please create a new subject line and don't just reply to the last email you got from the person.

This is not just a pet peeve. It is functionally vital. Now that remote work is more common the inbox almost acts as a todo list. And the subject line is a preview of what is inside. So the subject line might be used to triage the priorities of messages. If the you have an urgent message create a new message with "urgent" in the subject line and the reason why. That means the recipient can evaluate the importance of the email from the notification on their phone without having to open the email until they are prepared to deal with it.

Don't use a Video Chat when a Phone Call will Work

We get it. We all have to use Zoom, and Meetings, and VidCon, and Hangouts, and whatever now. But not all the time. The old ways of communicating over distances still work just fine.

A video call is just like a meeting. It implies preparation and presentation. The meeting must be scheduled and all parties must be in their office at the appropriate time. And then they all have to log in.

But more often than not these meetings are less than 15 minutes, they only have 2 people, and they are both audio to reduce the bandwidth. Sounds like an older technology that just takes more effort.

If you just have a few quick questions that don't need a visual aid make a phone call.

Phone calls do not need to be scheduled or prepared. You dial, and if the other person is available they will pickup. It is fast clean and efficient. And generally the phone call can be completed in the amount of time it took to setup the video meeting.

That's it. Comment below with other problems you have run into with the new video remote work paradigms. Thanks everyone