Distributed Teams That Work! (with Laavanya Kathiresen and Jerome Chan)

Remote work is here to stay – but distributed teams are a whole different game. In this episode of SEEK Bytes, Elliott, William Lark, Laavanya Kathiresen and Jerome Chan unpack how SEEK runs truly APAC-wide tech teams across Australia, New Zealand and Malaysia – without falling into “us vs them”. This episode's special guests: Laavanya Kathiresen (SEEK Engineering Director, Candidate) and Jerome Chan (SEEK Head of Engineering, Profile & Apply) In this episode, we explore: • Remote vs distributed: what’s the real difference? – why “remote” is about how individuals work, while “distributed” is an organisational discipline around ways of working, agreements and processes across locations. • How SEEK makes distributed teams actually work – setting core hours, protecting “sacred” lunch time, keeping calendars and Slack statuses up to date, using Zoom-only meetings with cameras on, and designing async done right so people stay in flow instead of drowning in Slack. • The upside: careers, diversity and global coverage – how distributed ways of working unlock roles across Melbourne, KL, Auckland and beyond, widen the talent pool, bring richer cultural perspectives into problem-solving, and even keep the lights on when one country’s on a public holiday. Whether you’re a software engineer, SRE, BA, PM, people leader or IT manager trying to make hybrid/distributed work actually work, this episode is packed with real tactics from teams who ship across time zones every day – without losing culture, connection or careers. 🔔 Follow the SEEK Bytes podcast so you never miss a new episode