Unless people sync up socially, it is unlikely the team will gel.
Some places let a lone developer do everything. More power to them. I think there's a better chance for the team to problem solve together and be able to have continuity as people join and leave the team.
You can have planning meetings but those are relatively short (<1hr) bi-weekly or monthly meetings.
And you can have an open coworking VC. I've not seen this formally in a corporate environment personally but I've sat in calls with friends at work for hours doing mostly the same thing (just informally). And in a formal capacity it's fairly common in open source project spaces. Their discords will have an open VC channel for "co-working" or working while on VC so they can occasionally chat, ask questions, or otherwise interact socially in a way you could while in an office setting.
The best part of coworking spaces is that they are optional. You join when you want and you deafen yourself or leave/DND when you don't want to be there and need to be undisturbed.
If you want to build a social fabric and get the team integrated, the way you do that is culture. Enforcing socialization isn't a good thing.
Don't make "Mandatory Fun". The only thing it breeds is a toxic work environment where people don't want to be there.
You can go for tgif for socially gelling. We go to lunch together, often dinner en also drinks. No need for standups for any social contact. Especially when talking about work things.
That sounds like there is something to unpack there. I think it is beneficial but others do not. Why is it?
Maybe it is because I've largely worked on remote-first teams, even before COVID. There are no TGIF, unless people make an effort to zoom together while drinking or something.
Sure, I work mostly with remote teams for the past 30 years. My point stands in that yes, Zoom is nice for socialising; I see no point in daily standups and voice meetings. We do have drinks/gaming for social; just no one wants to 'socialise' while working on something; it's simply not effective.
This. Virtual coworking spaces are a great solution for people who work well that way and you can host virtual game nights or movie nights outside of working hours for people who want to participate but you can't make people socialize by wasting their time with pointless mandatory meetings.
Socialization isn’t about doing things like pizza night or having games. It’s more about establishing connection and rapport, the basis of trust and communication. Most people are not going to be doing that asynchronously.
Some places let a lone developer do everything. More power to them. I think there's a better chance for the team to problem solve together and be able to have continuity as people join and leave the team.