Lessons learned: five years of remote work
Five years, three companies. None of this was obvious in the first month.
Write it down before you say it
A meeting that becomes a document scales; the reverse is a failure upstream.
Build a fake commute
A walk around the block does what the train used to: it draws the line.
Meet in person twice a year
Three days together buys six months of benefit of the doubt in writing.
Give work its own room
A door beats a corner, and a corner beats the sofa you also rest on.
Default to async, escalate fast
Two written round-trips, then a call; a thread on round four is already a meeting.
Guard the overlap hours
Distributed teams run on three shared hours; spend them on people, not solo work.
Take sick days properly
Working through a cold from home is still working sick; a near laptop is no reason.
Broadcast status before anyone asks
The Friday summary nobody requested is why nobody schedules a check-in call.