[seltzered]

Derek, you've been a huge inspiration for me, but I remember hearing you say at a conference that your employees started to hate you a while after working remotely -- to the point that you shutoff the website for a few hours to realize you needed to sell the company.

Do you have any thoughts on what can be done to keep rappore up amongst employees in the office while still working remotely?

NOTE: sorry I don't remember where you said it, might've been towards the end of your lessconf presentation http://b.lesseverything.com/2010/2/3/derek-sivers-speaks-at-...

[sivers]

Yeah, that's a different story I'll figure out how to properly tell some day as a lesson in what NOT to do. I'm still trying to extract some lessons from that and think what should have been done differently.

But if an employee has low morale, (whether working remotely or not), I'd only suggest this:

Is there another job inside the company they'd rather be doing? If so, help them do that. If not, let them know it's time to go!

Many people will need a push out the door, for their own good, if they're in a rut. Give them clear warning, of course, in case they're in a temporary rut, let them know that this low-morale rut may cost them their job.

But if they're still in a funk after months, you've tried to help but it's not helping, and it's hurting business, then let them go.

I had to fire a few people in this situation, including my VP!, and most told me a year later that it was the best thing for them. That they really were in a rut and needed to be pushed.

[JayNeely]

I'm not Derek, but as a remote-working team member for a business that has many other remote-working team members, this is a similar problem I've been trying to solve by encouraging use of a private twitter-like network through Status.net (free) or Yammer (paid).

It provides that ambient awareness of what coworkers are up to / thinking about, gives you an easy way of soliciting helpful but non-essential feedback without adding to email overload, and allows for realtime information sharing. It's potentially a good substitute for in-office community when that's not an option.

[seltzered]

Good to know. I know some other companies (e.g. Facebook) use IRC as another way to keep folks communicating.

I've been in a position where I've practically been a one-man software team for half a decade, but my boss has basically told me I can't work remotely even though a couple other senior folks do. I've tried helping ease the fear of me not being there by creating canned responses for other coworkers to follow, and getting a support system in place. New plan now though is to bleed a little, find a new job, and opt to not work remotely ONLY if I'm going to gain a good mentoring/apprenticeship experience from the people I work with.