Virtual Office Hours

Talking with our intern today, we decided to try something new.

I don't remember if I mentioned this, but our intern is working remotely. She visited our Cebu location this past Friday and Saturday, but aside from that, she's been working from her home. I've been trying to do different things to compensate for working at a distance and the lack of interaction with other people in the company. Today I had what I think is a brilliant idea.

I had our intern send me some hours when she knows she will be working. I will have a tech support guy in our office setup a computer for "Intern Office Hours." We'll set it up so it doesn't fall asleep (i.e., the monitor doesn't go dark when the computer isn't being used. We'll connect a headset to the computer. On that computer, we'll initiate a Google Hangout with the intern. For that hour, she'll have her camera pointed at her and anyone walking by that computer will see her sitting there. Anyone who wants to can then stop by, put on the headphones, and sit down and chat for a moment.

I'll let you know how this works. She agreed to try it for three hours: two hours this week and one hour next week.