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Donut Information and Guidelines#

Donut connects us as a globally remote team, and keeps those great team vibes flowing through our veins (smile)

The purpose of Donut calls#

Being a fully remote, global team, there’s always a risk of losing connection with colleagues outside of our immediate daily work and interactions. Donut allows us to remain connected on a personal and familiar level, by randomly selecting small groups to get together for a social coffee chat every 3 weeks. Consider it our version of having those random chats with colleagues around the coffee machine.

We believe in creating a dedicated space within your work hours just to be able to socialise and temporarily switch off from your immediate task. This space can help us manage stress and feelings of isolation in a remote team. And it let’s us have some fun (smile)

How it works#

  • Donut is a Slack-based tool, which connects members of the same Donut Slack channels
  • We operate Donut on an “opt-out, rather than opt-in” basis. Every team member and new joiner is automatically added to the Donut channels. You can opt-out at any time by leaving the slack channel
  • Donut will randomly select attendees for a donut call, every 3 weeks
  • Donut calls take place on Zoom, and can be booked via the slack channel. The calls are scheduled to last for 30 minutes each time
  • Donut calls are a completely open forum, there is no agenda. It’s really just a space for you and your colleagues to discuss whatever you want. If you’re struggling for conversations starters, Donut can help you with that!

Note

We currently have 2 Donut channels which alternate every 3 weeks

Tips and Tricks for Donut#

  • Make sure Donut has access to your Google calendar. This will allow Donut to automatically sync the calendars of attendees, and suggest available times automatically.
  • Also make sure Donut has access to your Zoom. This will allow Donut to automatically add a Zoom call to any meeting that’s booked
  • Ensure your working hours are set in your Google Calendar to avoid being invited to a Donut call at an inconvenient time. Donut will suggest call times based on your calendar, so it’s important you do this.
  • You can also set the working hours in the Donut App in Slack under it’s Settings section, to further help more accurate time suggestions
  • Also in the Donut App Settings, you can fill in your Favourite Things, which will be visible to the people you get matched with, this can help kick off conversations
  • You can use the “Don’t Pair Me With” to further refine who you get paired with - especially to not get paired with people you talk with regularly anyway
  • If you are taking leave, or going through a particularly busy time, you can Snooze intros for a period of time - which might be better than leaving a channel (and forgetting to come back!
  • Struggling for conversation starters? - Donut has you covered. In the top right of the first Slack message for each Donut call, you can select “conversation starters”. You can shuffle through these until you find one you like to kick off the donut with.