Working Day Etiquette

Ease the communication between your team by helping your team understand where you are.

• Out of the office? Keep a shared team calendar and ensure you update it, so your team knows when you are not working and for how long. It’s easy to maintain and provides a level of transparency about availability.

• In the zone - Sometimes, you need to get your head down and code, or sometimes, you need to disappear for a bit. Make sure you let people know you are unavailable by setting your Slack status (or similar) with the reason and expiry time. Usually, people are happy to wait if they have some context.

• @name around? - Have a simple way to check if a teammate is around but in a way that it doesn’t matter if they can’t answer.

• Be Responsive - **If you are not in the zone (but inside your working hours), then be responsive to other team members’ questions. If people need help and you have the skills, then jump right in.

• Be Available - This is a step more than being responsive. Create a Zoom room where you always share your desktop. Then, if someone wants to reach you, he/she can jump in!

• Clock-in, clock-out - Make your teammates aware when you have started work, and finished for the day. A simple “Hi, I’m around” and “Signing off for the day”in Slack is all you need.

• Seek & Give feedback - Seek and give feedback. You have to take a more active role in seeking and giving feedback. Do not wait for the next retro to address concerns.

Remember - It can be hard for people to develop the same level of empathy when the relationship isn’t face to face. When the conversation is via a video screen avoid making assumptions about your co-workers intentions.