Gmail: We use email to communicate with each other on less time-sensitive matters and to work with people at other companies. For ongoing chat, we prefer to use Slack. You can reach anyone by email, or everyone with a medic.org email address using [email protected].

• External email response time: 24 hours on work days
• Internal email response time: 48 hours on work days
• 🌴 The 'out of office' feature is easy to access in your settings and helpful to use if you are in the field, in meetings, offline for an extended period of time, or on leave. Please also include the contact details of a co-worker in case anything urgent or critical comes into your inbox while you're away.

Hangouts Meet: Our go-to internal video conferencing platform for team calls and meetings. We encourage you to turn on your video whenever connectivity allows for it. Sometimes it’s easier to get a point across when you can see and hear the person you’re speaking with!

• All meetings with more than 3 people should be well-organized, with a specific agenda and materials shared 24 hours in advance. See our meetings page for tips on leading a productive meeting.
• Remember, every meeting doesn't need to include 6-10 people. Make sure you have the right representation and key deciders present and that everyone in the meeting/call has a specific purpose and is prepared to actively contribute (this means no one sitting there doing other work/email).
• Use a headset with a microphone! When possible, avoid using computer speakers, they cause an echo. Do not use your computer microphone, it accentuates background noise. (If you work remotely and need call equipment, contact your manager to approve this purchase).

Drive: Our file storage system. Everything at Medic is where we store files. Once you create a document or upload a file here, these files can be shared by email, through Drive, Slack, Asana, etc.

• Keep it organized. Pay attention to folders and the system in place for knowledge management. Please don't just throw files into random or general places in the shared Google Drives, this makes it harder for others to find and work with the content.

Google Calendar: Our team has a shared calendar to display holidays and teammate availability. Use your personal calendar to set meetings with teammates or partners and clarify time, location, meeting agenda etc.

• Indicating availability. Set your working hours in your GCal settings and put your planned time away including holidays, vacation, travel time, and other leave in the shared team calendar. This public calendar allows everyone to see who is working and who is out for the day.
  • Note that this feature will automatically decline any meeting invitations during the time frame you select.
• Share your calendar! Due to our timezone differences, there are small windows of time where our availabilities overlap. If other members need to schedule a new meeting, seeing the details will allow for more flexibility in scheduling without needing to wait for a confirmation.

<aside> 📌 Add secondary time zones to your calendar!

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