[Klathmon]

That watercooler talk getting lost is absolutely a pain point with remote work, but there are mitigations and benefits that offset it in my opinion.

One option is to re-create that talk. At a past job we would often all fuck around before/after standup calls for a bit, but sometimes that fucking around became work and solved problems. Other times we would just call each other either one-on-one or in small groups just to shoot the shit, and that can recreate that same feeling.

A big part of that is getting over the idea that "calls" are somehow different than walking over to someone's desk, you wouldn't hesitate most of the time to walk over to a coworker and start chatting, but most people hesitate to call someone on slack. At a past job that hesitation wasn't there because the culture embraced it, and suddenly we had our watercooler talk back, just over video calls.

[TarpitCarnivore]

> One option is to re-create that talk

One remote first company I interviewed with told me all their daily calls were video because they wanted to make sure people still felt human. And I think it's such a crucial piece in all this because people have been accustomed to just doing audio only which only further creates a sense of loneliness.

[kbsletten]

Yeah. I'm remote at a mostly collocated company and I'm always trying to get my face on other people's screens whether that's a stand-up or not screen sharing off the bat during demos or even just over-commenting in group chats to get at least my name out there.

It's worth it though, and when I'm on-site I get people talking to me that I've never met who recognize me from somewhere I was on a screen.