Onboarding 101: Spell Out How Your Team Communicates
When expectations are clear, your new hire can focus on doing great work: Part 3 of 5 in the Onboarding New Hires Challenge
Coming Up
How unspoken communication norms create silent pressure that can lead to burnout
The five essential topics to cover so your new hire stops guessing and starts thriving
Why modeling your expectations matters more than documenting them
Early on in my career, I can remember starting a new remote job and feeling like I had to respond to every Slack message within minutes. I checked email all throughout the evening right up until going to bed. And I said yes to every meeting invite.
No one told me I had to do any of this. But no one told me I didn’t have to, either.
So I filled in the blanks with anxiety and overwork, trying to prove I was reliable and capable. By week three, I was exhausted. And my boss had no idea I was struggling because, from their perspective, everything was fine.
Here’s what I wish someone had told me on day one: Slack could wait. Emails didn’t need responses after 6pm. Half those meetings were actually optional.
When you don’t make communication norms explicit, your new hire will create their own. And those self-created rules almost always involve doing too much, too fast, for too long.
That’s what we’re fixing today, on Day 3 of the Onboarding New Hires Challenge. As a reminder, here’s where we stand:
Day 3: Establish Communication Expectations (You Are Here)
Day 4: Create a First-Win Runway
Day 5: Determine What Success Looks Like (30/60/90)
When Norms Stay Hidden, Stress Shows Up
Unspoken communication expectations can become invisible sources of pressure.
You might know that your team treats Slack as asynchronous. That weekend emails are just for convenience, not urgency. That “optional” meetings are truly optional.
But your new hire doesn’t know any of that.
They see messages sent at 9pm and wonder if they should respond immediately. They get a Saturday email and feel guilty for not replying until Monday. They skip an optional meeting and worry they’re not showing enough commitment.
When communication norms live only in your head, your new hire might fill the silence with worst-case assumptions. They might default to being available all the time because proving themselves feels safer than guessing wrong.
What New Hires Needs to Know
Your new hire needs answers to questions they’re too nervous (or don’t yet know enough) to ask. Depending on your team size and setup, this might be a simple conversation or a one-page written guide.
Either way, here’s what to cover to clarify those (previously unwritten) communication norms:
