How to work with me
a remote work user guide 2026-01-20 #collaboration
Remote work risks the meeting trap – trying to do too much of the work synchronously, in meetings. Successful remote teams avoid this by working asynchronously, and writing things down. For example, team members can support diversity and flexibility by making their working preferences and approach explicit. To do this, they document How to work with me, as follows.
Schedule & availability
Flexibility over a fixed routine: I generally work between 09:00 and 18:00, with either a long lunch break, or a short lunch break and small breaks in the morning and afternoon. When I work 4½ days a week, I usually take Friday afternoon off, but sometimes take longer breaks earlier in the week instead.
Fast response over protected time: I prefer remaining responsive to messages, over turning off notifications, with the ideal of a two-minute product manager. I often choose to respond to messages out of hours, and prefer to have the option to unblock someone, than have them wait until the next day to ask.
Communication
Async-first: I prefer text chat for asynchronous information sharing, questions and discussion. I welcome camera-on video calls, within limits, to avoid meeting-fatigue. Never telephone.
Group-first: I use group chat more than private messages, to include more people asynchronously, and reduce demand for meetings. I enjoy a busy team chat, and moving ‘too much chat’ to more-specific named public channels, to avoid the alternative (just as many ‘channels’, in the form of private group messages).
Emoji-positive: I like working in a team that develops a reaction emoji vocabulary, and uses it to express emotion in group chat, without needing lots of text. I like memes too, although I generally don’t share my own, to avoid getting distracted.
Conversations
Human-first: I want conversations to start by checking in, as humans, instead of cosplaying corporate robots, so we can accommodate and get to know each other.
Free-association: unlike meetings’ disciplined focus, I value informal conversations that follow our (lack of) attention to surprising places we didn’t plan for. For my part, I will do my best not to let my enthusiasm lead me interrupting inappropriately.
Meetings
Calendar management: my calendar accurately tracks my meetings, which should not exceed half of my working hours. I will occasionally block my calendar, to make sure I have time for certain work (and breaks), but I am usually flexible about moving them.
Meeting purpose: I expect every meeting invitation’s description to explicitly state the meeting’s purpose, if not already documented elsewhere for common meeting types, to avoid aimless meetings. Bonus points for including the URL to the meeting’s document or online whiteboard.
Goal focus: I prefer meetings to focus on a single purpose, and finish as soon as the meeting achieves it, to avoid wasting the ‘available’ time on whatever else emerges. This should usually take 30 minutes, or less. A good meeting can have a goal of unstructured exploration, but only on purpose.
