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I totally agree. I was super productive in the first month of WFH, but that spike is going away, and I think a large part of it is meeting fatigue. The project

by allenu 6y ago

I totally agree. I was super productive in the first month of WFH, but that spike is going away, and I think a large part of it is meeting fatigue. The projects we are working on require coordinating with lots of devs within our team and then devs and PMs on other teams. That means lots of meetings here and there to make sure we're all on the same page. There are days where I have 30 min or 1 hr breaks between meetings, and I just cannot get productive in that short window, knowing I have another meeting coming up (which sometimes I need to prep for). My team does have lunches together remotely, but having to be tied to the computer the whole day, I often want to drop out of those and just be outside in the sun. But to your point about burnout, I find that that's the other extreme as well. In those afternoons or days that I don't have meetings, there's a sense that, okay, I have to go hard now because everyone else is working hard. While at the office, you'd have occasionally breaks and conversations in the hall when you were getting up for coffee and you could see people's rhythms. At home, I don't see that, so my natural, irrational belief is everyone must be working hard, so I should too.

foobarian 6y ago
For me I don't think it's meeting fatigue, I have about the same amount of meetings as before. But I also noticed a similar productivity spike. Unfortunately what I think is happening is that we are using up a built-up "social capital" from when we were in the office together. Many of the people I know to ask for quick questions/favors I know because of hallway/lunch conversations. As new remote devs rotate onto my team I feel the team is becoming more impersonal and I am more reluctant to ask them things or help them. And likewise I think they are less likely to ask for help to get unblocked, than they would be in office. But FB people ops (or beyond) aren't stupid and hopefully they can come up with ways to intentionally replace this. Won't be the same but something is needed and will be better than nothing or ad-hoc.
cosmodisk 6y ago
This doesn't sound right to me and reads like 20 people in the team trying to decide on things at the same time. I sometimes had days where it's a meeting after meeting ( I'm in management) but to be honest most of those meetings aren't necessary. Since we all moved to remote work, the number of meetings dropped by 80% and everyone is fine with it.
- allenu 6y ago
  Yeah, I don't necessarily think the meetings thing is something everyone's experiencing. For my team, the challenge is that the projects we are working on at the moment do span multiple teams, so it's kind of the worst time to have to coordinate remotely. We previously were considering flying people down to meet in person and work together for a week to get up to speed on things (i.e. high bandwidth communication).
  - cosmodisk 6y ago
    How many teams and what's the average team size? Wouldn't having one representative from each team going to these meetings be better? Meetings with large number of people dilute individual contribution,focus,and deprive those attending from time to do the actual work.
Lammy 6y ago
> There are days where I have 30 min or 1 hr breaks between meetings, and I just cannot get productive in that short window, knowing I have another meeting coming up (which sometimes I need to prep for). This sounds like a normal day in the office for me pre-lockdown :/
TranquilMarmot 6y ago
I feel this pretty hard. I'm an engineering manager and there are multiple days a week where I will spend _six hours_ in video calls with an hour for lunch and MAYBE a 30 minute break somewhere in the day. It's a nightmare and the days feel like complete throwaways. It's made worse because we try and do "No Meeting Thursdays" which means meetings tend to pile up on Tuesday and Wednesday (nobody wants to meet on Monday or Friday, either). The feeling of "I have to go hard now because everyone else is working hard" can also be pretty hard to shake. Especially if most people are heads-down and there's no chatter on Slack or email or anything going on.

by allenu 6y ago

foobarian 6y ago

For me I don't think it's meeting fatigue, I have about the same amount of meetings as before. But I also noticed a similar productivity spike. Unfortunately what I think is happening is that we are using up a built-up "social capital" from when we were in the office together. Many of the people I know to ask for quick questions/favors I know because of hallway/lunch conversations. As new remote devs rotate onto my team I feel the team is becoming more impersonal and I am more reluctant to ask them things or help them. And likewise I think they are less likely to ask for help to get unblocked, than they would be in office. But FB people ops (or beyond) aren't stupid and hopefully they can come up with ways to intentionally replace this. Won't be the same but something is needed and will be better than nothing or ad-hoc.

cosmodisk 6y ago

This doesn't sound right to me and reads like 20 people in the team trying to decide on things at the same time. I sometimes had days where it's a meeting after meeting ( I'm in management) but to be honest most of those meetings aren't necessary. Since we all moved to remote work, the number of meetings dropped by 80% and everyone is fine with it.

allenu 6y ago
Yeah, I don't necessarily think the meetings thing is something everyone's experiencing. For my team, the challenge is that the projects we are working on at the moment do span multiple teams, so it's kind of the worst time to have to coordinate remotely. We previously were considering flying people down to meet in person and work together for a week to get up to speed on things (i.e. high bandwidth communication).
- cosmodisk 6y ago
  How many teams and what's the average team size? Wouldn't having one representative from each team going to these meetings be better? Meetings with large number of people dilute individual contribution,focus,and deprive those attending from time to do the actual work.

Lammy 6y ago

> There are days where I have 30 min or 1 hr breaks between meetings, and I just cannot get productive in that short window, knowing I have another meeting coming up (which sometimes I need to prep for). This sounds like a normal day in the office for me pre-lockdown :/

TranquilMarmot 6y ago

I feel this pretty hard. I'm an engineering manager and there are multiple days a week where I will spend _six hours_ in video calls with an hour for lunch and MAYBE a 30 minute break somewhere in the day. It's a nightmare and the days feel like complete throwaways. It's made worse because we try and do "No Meeting Thursdays" which means meetings tend to pile up on Tuesday and Wednesday (nobody wants to meet on Monday or Friday, either). The feeling of "I have to go hard now because everyone else is working hard" can also be pretty hard to shake. Especially if most people are heads-down and there's no chatter on Slack or email or anything going on.