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> remote managers have to communicate more explicitly

Can you provide an example of this and whatever the implicit alternative is?



Explicit:

"Ok, so action items from this meeting are:

* Bob, you were going to investigate bug foo and circle back tomorrow.

* Alice, you had an idea that you were going to explore, please let us know when you can deliver that."

Implicit:

"Great meeting folks, see you tomorrow".

[Next week]: "Bob, did you investigate bug foo yet? What do you mean you thought Alice was going to do it, I asked you to!"


What you don't get on remote work is the manager going around to your cube and saying "work on this" with no record of it happening. Since they have to communicate via things which leave logs, and you have to communicate what you're doing and why more often, all that stuff is above board. In ideal places it would always be above board.


And also less ambiguous.

Often in person communication can be rushed if it’s between meetings when someone has a few min to drop something on you. If you don’t have time to write it down or ask follow up questions, the ability to deliver the right thing is going to be limited.

When we’re remote, almost all delegation is either conducted or followed up in async text. This means you have something to refer back to as well as a thread to ask questions without having to find free time from the other party.




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