Building Relationships in a Remote Team 🤗

Principles, tactics and ideas you can apply every day, from successful companies.

When I talk with people about the switch to remote, the #1 drawback they mention is the lack of human connection with co-workers.

Creating meaningful relationships at work is important. Relationships make us happier, create a sense of belonging, and, ultimately, make us more productive too.

While it’s hard to find anyone who disagrees with this, it’s equally hard to find managers who do real, specific work to nurture such relationships in a remote environment.

The result is teams where work turns more into a transactional pursuit. People feel a personal disconnection from their work, turnover increases, and everyone is just less happy.

It doesn’t have to be like this.

The best managers I know design processes to help people create better relationships with their co-workers. They are intentional about it, just like they are about productivity and company goals.

This article collects the best strategies and processes I know to make your remote engineering team better by fostering human connection.

I will cover:

• 🔍 Why serendipitous encounters at the office aren’t really serendipitous.

• 🤝 Why you need to provide structure and permission for personal moments to happen.

• 💡 Practical ideas you can apply every day, week, and quarter.

It includes strategies from managers at great companies like Netflix, Netlify, Amazon, Microsoft, and insights from conversations we had in the Refactoring Community.

Let’s dive in 👇