Ask HN: How do you celebrate wins with virtual teams/members?

[cryptozeus]

We have many remote teams & everyone works great in collaboration. One thing missing from our company culture is that we have not figured out how to celebrate small/big wins with remote folks. Does anyone have any ideas ? Something like having a video call with everyone and playing a game or enjoying tea/coffee/beer and talk non work related topics ?

[znq]

At Mobile Jazz and Bugfender (two remote companies that I started) we have:

* Weekly meetings (every Wednesday for 1h) where everyone can just share what they're doing in life. Can also be about work, but it's mostly about general life stuff. That is where we connect.

* 1-2 per month we have an educational talk similar like TED talks where we talk about topics like GTD, personal finance, investing, health, hobbies, training, etc.

* 1 time per year we have a mandatory "University" event where we spend a week in a remote location teaching each other mostly technical skills (but can also be management and design skills). All paid.

* 1 time per year we rent a huge house over an extended weekend and fly everyone in. Including partners and children. All paid.

* Multiple times per year we offer skiing, surfing, and hiking trips. We pay for the accommodation. Team members have to pay for their own food and travel expenses.

More details in our company handbook: https://mobilejazz.com/company-handbook-pdf/ (free to download, no email required, just click the download link)

[cryptozeus → znq]

Thanks for sharing, some good ideas here

[magduf]

Fly everyone to a nice vacation spot for a week, all expenses paid (and not counting against PTO).

It's probably much cheaper than the yearly cost of having a corporate office.

[WnZ39p0Dgydaz1 → magduf]

For a lot of people the reason to work remotely is to spend time with family/etc, so that's something they probably wouldn't want. Personally, I definitely wouldn't enjoy that.

And if someone cannot attend due to personal reasons he or she would feel left out. You don't want to create a situation where remote workers feel like they absolutely need to attend something in person. That's just the same as going to an office.

[dpeck → WnZ39p0Dgydaz1]

If it’s only once a year, and it’s planned it works out fairly well.

I previously worked for a fully remote company for 3 years and we hosted a conference for our customers every year in January in south Florida. The team all came in a few days early, usually brought spouses, kids, and we generally had a great time building social bonds and doing some light planning for the year during those days.

It’s a balance. Remote doesn’t necessarily, and in my opinion shouldn’t, mean never being in the same physical space as coworkers.

[WnZ39p0Dgydaz1 → dpeck]

It also depends on how distributed you are. Traveling to Florida from Texas is a very different experience than traveling to Florida from Europe or India.

I've spent several years traveling, and right now I'm at a point in my career/life where I try to avoid traveling abroad as much as I can. I enjoy having my routine. That was my reason for working remotely in the first place. Of course, everyone has different reasons, and I am sure there are a lot of people who would enjoy such a trip.

I believe there are probably quite a few people like me who don't enjoy traveling, and "celebrating" by forcing those to travel seems unfair. Traveling for business reasons when it's a necessity to meet in person is a different story - I can understand that and I'm willing to do that. Like you said, having some in-person time can be very productive. But it sounded like the OP was looking to give a reward/gift to remote workers - to me traveling would be the opposite.

TLDR; If you want me to travel say it's part of the job to have a once-a-year meeting. That's fine. Don't say it's a "celebration" or "reward" - because to a lot of people it's not

[deeblering4 → WnZ39p0Dgydaz1]

Remote companies will often understand and accomodate family travel and lodging. Couldnt really hurt to bring up with your boss or travel coordinator. May get a subsidized family trip out of the deal

[twunde]

Something you can do is send them beer/wine prior to the celebration so they can join in remotely. Other options is sending them cookies/candy or potentially gift cards to something nice in their area.

[PouyaL]

Why don't you give them a week off to have a trip around on their own with family (company paid with a certain budget) and share their pictures live to make a wall of family virtually on a landing page. Leaving comments would be beneficiary too

[kohanz]

While I didn't initially build it for this purpose, remote teams have started using VidHug (https://vidhug.com) for not just celebrating, but also welcoming new team members and wishing old ones farewell. I'm working on some b2b specific features and hope to have an offering out soon. Would love any feedback from remote teams and happy to give interested parties a trial run.

[cryptozeus → kohanz]

This is nice ! I dont think it works for my req but saving for other personal occasions.

[kohanz → cryptozeus]

Thanks! Would love to chat about what could make it work for the b2b side, as I'm working on that currently. Feel free to email me at hello at vidhug.

[xfitm3]

Expense a 6 pack