Spinning the on-call wheel

It was a Tuesday afternoon, and the whole remote team was on the call. The calendar reminder for the rotation was still up on my screen. My job was just to keep things moving, to let the process do the talking.

A quiet consensus in the grid

I shared my screen with the wheel already loaded. The names were there, plain text on a simple background. I didn't ask for opinions or preferences. I just said we were going to spin it.You could see people leaning back in their chairs, a few sips of coffee. There was a collective understanding that this was the fairest way. The alternative was a twenty-minute debate nobody had energy for.

The click that settled it

I clicked the spin button. The virtual wheel whirred silently for a few seconds, a blur of names. Everyone watched their own little square in the grid, waiting for the motion to stop.When it landed, there was a brief pause. Then a couple of 'thumbs-up' emojis popped into the chat. The person it selected simply typed 'Got it' next. That was the entire discussion.The relief was palpable, but quiet. It wasn't about dodging work; it was about trusting a neutral system. We all just moved on to the next agenda item.