Communication is crucial in every aspect of life and work. In a remote work setup, we don’t see each other in person. Hence every form of interaction, casual or formal, boils down to visual communication (video, audio) or message based communication (slack, email). It is necessary to have effective communication in the workplace to build positive work relationships, help teams stay connected and maximise productivity.

Communication best practices

Tone of voice

Do not simply ask a question but also the reason behind it when it is a slack message.

• Example: “Did you do this, I am asking because I am looking into the same thing now and have some follow up questions” This helps in reducing the receiver’s stress rather than “Hey, did you do this?” and the receiver having to wonder what the message could be about until they get to talk to the sender.

Use emojis to have a pleasant feel for any conversation.

• Example #1: “I don’t understand this” vs “I don’t understand this 🙈”. The former can appear to be yelling at a person while the latter is a milder version of saying that you do not understand something.
• Example #2: You might be in between meetings or in deep focus work mode. Due to the workload you might be too tired to realize that you are sending a negative tone. During this context, an emoji or a smile can greatly reduce the level of stress in your messages.

Use generic terms to include everyone when talking to the team.

Remember to address teamwork and not take credit onto yourself or highlight your individual approach to someone.

• Example #1: “We prefer to use a code linter” instead of “I like to use a code linter”. Or “In this component we have used this logic and it works great” instead of “I was the one to write this logic and it works great”.
• Example #2: When reviewing pull requests or APEs, use “Let’s do it like this” or “Can you please do this instead?” rather than “Do it like this”. Use of emojis also is highly encouraged to maintain a calm tone while reviewing difficult or lengthy pull requests.

Not everyone is a native English speaker.

Keep your writing/talking clear and concise. Not everyone is a native English speaker and there can be misunderstandings. Do not hesitate to ask questions or follow up when something is unclear.

• Example: Be mindful of the cultural differences across the different nationalities of your colleagues.

Sharing knowledge

Keep others informed on what you are doing. Use public channels on slack and avoid 1:1 conversations when discussing important things, so that others too can follow along.

• Example #1: The best way to update others is by documenting tasks. This also helps in sharing knowledge and enabling more than one person, other than yourself, to do what you can do. 
• Example #2: If you solved an issue differently or encountered problems while addressing an issue, write a comment on the ticket or code so that others don’t run into the same problem. 
• Example #3: Document your processes. If you realise you are repeating something twice then see if you can document to avoid repeating again. This will save effort for yourself and also helps others to learn something faster without you having to explain.

Appreciating each other

We are all humans and can always crave appreciation in one form or the other. An exhausting workload can encourage you to complain about the bad things and often overlook some of the good things that your colleagues do. Having a work culture of respect and appreciation leads to increased motivation in our daily work.

• Example #1: Call out positive aspects of work in pull requests, etc. “ I really like this refactoring that you did to use an abstract base class! 🎉”
• Example #2: Use the high-fives channel to give shoutouts to your colleagues and practice the appreciation culture effectively.

Questions to Explore:

• Let’s say your colleague creates a code pull request. It’s easy to point out the obvious mistakes, but how often do you try to appreciate the same person in their code pull requests? 
• Are you mindful of your virtual body language and tone of voice?
• What is stopping you from communicating effectively?
• Whom did you appreciate this day/week/month?
• What is your favorite communication practice?