Last year until as of this writing, we are experiencing a pandemic.

I am really humbled, even though remote work is possible in this day and age, lots of people still lost their jobs. My younger sister and some of my friends lost theirs. I consider myself lucky because we are already doing remote work, and really lucky because I was not laid off.

The threat of the virus, were reported last December 2019. Lockdowns in the Philippines started March 2020. It went on for months, the uncertainty, the fear, the stress.

Even though we are a fully remote company there are challenges I faced as a manager. Due to lockdowns, mental health of my colleagues were affected, cabin sickness crept-in the quarantine and lockdowns are taking it’s toll. Prior to the lockdowns we managed to avoid this because of our bi-weekly meet ups where we go to Metro Manila to gather to hang out together and do tech talks. But due the pandemic, we stopped the meetings, and the cities and towns were on lockdown.

As the manager of the engineering team, I have to find ways to improve the situation and to care for my colleagues. Here are two simple and relatively easy things I introduced.

Weekly hangouts

After the standup meetings, people tend to focus on their work and just communicate things through slack. There are times people cross team/project communications doesn’t really happen at all. Teams started becoming siloed and fragmented.

To solve this I started organizing end-of-day Friday conference call with the whole team. We play games like krunker.io, skribbl.io, jackbox party, talk about work, how did their week go, and about non-work related topics.

It improves team camaraderie, and sense of belonging. It improves trust with each other by developing relationships.

Weekly 1-on-1

I also organized regular 1-on-1s with each member of the team, as much as possible I tried to have it weekly for about 20-30 minutes. This is where I ask how they are doing, and about their problems and concerns.

1-on-1’s are important because you can make it more personalized to each individual’s needs, and to express things that other people cannot do in a group setting. You will have a better understanding about the struggles or problems they are experiencing, so you can guide and help them out accordingly. This is also a great time to give valuable feedback regarding their work and performance.

It can help build trust, and getting to know more about each person of the team is really great. To make this really effective, try to have a couple or at least one actionable task to go back to the next time you meet.

What’s next?

Culture is important. But a culture is nothing without it’s people. It will take commitment and proper communication with the whole team to make it work.

I am planning on reviving the talks we are doing. Because we did our tech talks face-to-face pre-pandemic, and after lockdowns, the habit just died down. But having the weekly hangout is a great gateway habit to do this again albeit online.

No matter how small, these two things are, it made a difference. We became stronger as a team, my team mates became happier and the morale increased. But one thing is for sure, you have to care for your team, and having an emphatetic approach will go a long way.

I would like to thank all of the frontliners for their sacrifice and hardwork in these dark times. You kept on fighting even though this government doesn’t care enough.