My name is Rachel DiCesare, and I’m a Tier 1 Support Engineer on the MRC team at Recharge. I’m here to share ways to stay connected with your colleagues and why it’s essential. Working remotely has many benefits, but the biggest challenge is staying connected, which can sometimes feel quiet and lonely.

But it doesn’t have to be that way, so let’s get into the details!

Why staying connected is essential:

• Team collaboration plays a significant role when working on daily tasks, and you always learn something new and get to know each other’s learning styles.

           Bonus: Our fellow Rechargers recommend the Rubber Ducky Method

Typically when doing the rubber ducky method, you’d have an actual rubber ducky by your desk and you’d speak to the duck about the current task you’re having trouble with. But the other day, one of my colleagues asked one of us to be his rubber ducky to help him through charging his focus on providing an educational thorough response to our merchants. What’s unique about speaking with our merchants is the opportunity to solve different types of problems.

Here are some more quick tips to connect with your teammates:

• Starting a new role on a new team can be exciting and scary. Take some time to send your new teammate a slack message and say hello! Taking this step can brighten their day and make them feel more welcome.

•  Staying focused on one task for an extended period can lead to burnout. Take some time out of your day, even if it’s 30 minutes, to set up a zoom call with one of your colleagues or even post in your team channel about the most recent show you binge-watched.

• When working with your teammates, it’s essential to maintain a good relationship. Take the time to schedule a zoom call with each other at least once or twice a month. Every time I communicate to some teammates about fears of being a bother, they always say they feel the same way!

Ways to connect with your colleagues

• Donut – Recharge has been using Donut to help colleagues connect 1:1 once a month by sending a slack message to someone with a match! 

   Bonus: You get a chance to connect with someone outside of your team!

• Question of the day – Every morning, a teammate always posts a fun icebreaker question that helps us get to know one another. Doing this always encourages one to take a slight pause from being heads down, and we get to learn something new about one another.

• Virtual team meetups – It’s always a fun time getting together with your colleagues on zoom. It always makes for a good time to introduce new team members, catch up and sometimes play a couple of games like scribble.io

• Meet up with your local Rechargers – One of the coolest things about working for Recharge is that there are many of us in different locations, but there are also some Rechargers in your area. Take the time to look for a slack channel for your city or create one! I always enjoy spending time out with my fellow Texas Rechargers.

Every day I come to work, I always see my colleagues go above and beyond for our merchants with their most incredible talents and grit. We all come from different backgrounds with amazing stories to tell.

I now encourage you to step out into your workspace and get to know your colleagues. They can’t wait to meet you!

Much love and godspeed.

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