Press Reset: Episode Five - "#firstworldproblems"

A note from Justin McElroy, Managing Editor:

Oh no, here comes Vicky from accounting.

You don't know why she keeps coming to your desk to have you ogle her Hunky Firemen with Adorable Cats calendar. You don't even know why they make the thing. She flips it to October, eager to show off the HSD with the DSH (hot, studly dish with the domestic short hair). You tense, preparing whatever gland that secretes your ability to feign interest for the challenge of its life.

Now, imagine a world … without Vickys.

Hello, I'm Justin McElroy, and I'm the managing editor of Polygon and I've been managing teams remotely for nearly five years. As you'll see in today's entry of Press Reset, it presents a unique set of challenges, most noticeably to communication. It's a daily struggle to avoid isolation, build a healthy team dynamic and find clever technical solutions to mundane tasks that are little more than an afterthought at a centralized office.

But as a dyed-in-the-wool introvert I can tell you there's no other way I'd want to work. Every day I get to have smart, capable, wonderful people delivered right to my computer screen. In my sweatpants. And if the day ever comes when they try to show me November's lothario with a calico, I can kick out the modem cord and pretend there was a power outage.

It's really the best of both worlds.

- Justin McElroy, Managing Editor

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