Social tools for distributed teams using Slack

Chances are high that you are working from home. Either because of Covid-19, or because you work for a modern company. Most likely you, or your colleagues, feel a bit lonely as a result.

There are steps you should take to make your team happier and more productive.

The WaterCooler is the first of these steps.

Try the WaterCooler for free

The WaterCooler

The WaterCooler is a Slack bot that encourages your team to get to know each other. It pairs up those that are online and encourages you to take 5 minutes to talk about something not related to work.

It is a simple, low ceremony, way of replicating the chance encounters that naturally occur in a physical office.

The benefits are immediate:

increased well-being and a reduced sense of isolation
improved communication within the team
higher retention of team members and lower chances of burn-out

The WaterCooler APP 12:00

Hello! Today's social pairings are:

@andrei and @paul
@benjamin and @lisa
@bryan and @jonathan
@caroline and @thea
@felix and @qingling
@manuela, sorry I couldn't pair you today.

If you have run out of ideas about what to talk about you could talk about whether you play any musical instruments?

The WaterCooler bot is especially useful when on-boarding new team members. Knowing how their colleagues tick takes the edge off work related conversations.

Portrait photo of Felix Bauer, the founder and CEO of Aircloak

Felix Bauer CEO, Aircloak GmbH

Loneliness is one of the biggest problems of remote workers – that is a well known fact. Contrary to my first five years as a remote worker I now work on a team that uses the WaterCooler. The effect it has on morale and building good relations is obvious!

Andrei Bozantan / Developer

I can’t believe there are still distributed teams without a WaterCooler bot!

Daniel Lennon / Open Source Developer

The positive effects of the WaterCooler are many. It has made me feel a lot more comfortable with my team members. As a bonus it also helps me develop my communication skills!

Edon Gashi / Developer and Teacher

My team has been using the the WaterCooler bot (and it’s predecessor) for well over four years now. It has become a part of my workday that I would not want to be without.

Cristian Berneanu / Developer

Prices

The WaterCooler bot comes at four different price points. They are meant to be affordable for organizations of any size.
They are meant to be humane prices for humane teams.

free

0/mo

The free version allows you to get started and explore the WaterCooler.