Teams or work groups?

I’m a big fan of remote work because I think it addresses two important downsides in the work culture of IT companies.

The first one is the “modern” office. Most places I’ve worked in have never really been offices, but rather glorified co-working spaces where noise and interruptions are the norm¹.

No matter how many rules, reminders or meeting rooms are put in place, there’s always someone making a call, people coming back from the coffee machine talking loudly, or a discussion going on three desks away over something one doesn’t really care about.

In the absence of a private office, remote work gives employees the opportunity to have a quiet space to think and create in solitude, which often makes us more productive.

The second problem has more to do with the needs and responsibilities of people outside the workplace. You might need to take care of your children or pick them up from kindergarten at a certain time. Or perhaps you might be finishing your studies and need to be around school to attend your classes. Being able to work from anywhere and not having to come to a specific place (and time) simply makes our lives easier.

But these, in principle good, advantages of working remotely come with a risk that shouldn’t be taken lightly: ending up with a work group, rather than a team.

Most people tend to bond easier when they’re physically together. Even if it’s something as simple as having lunch, sharing the same physical space helps create personal connections beyond the actual work and contributes to building a jelled team. And as the authors of Peopleware explain, such teams often perform better than a work group, i.e. a group of people that merely work together to achieve some goal, but don’t necessarily have the same level of camaraderie, if any.

Note that work groups are not bad by themselves. They do have their place and can work well under the right conditions. The downside is that, without a team spirit, it’s easy to feel disconnected from your peers and focus on your own work too much or for too long. This lack of relatedness can then lead to other problems, like feeling increasingly lonely or not having a help-first attitude toward your colleagues.

Building a jelled team in a remote-first environment is definitely possible. I know it because I’ve been there twice. But everyone has to be intentional about it. Overly intentional. Without a shared physical space, spontaneous conversations are mostly gone, and actively looking for opportunities to compensate for that becomes a necessity.

I at least feel like I need to be really disciplined to reach out sooner to my teammates, instead of going down rabbit holes alone for too long.