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>...whether you know someone in the other team matters a lot... I was kind of hoping the remote work experience would help folks make that sort of inside baseb

>...whether you know someone in the other team matters a lot... I was kind of hoping the remote work experience would help folks make that sort of inside baseball less important. There are real equity concerns to consider, but practically speaking, you end up with narrower and less open decision-making processes in general. It's definitely a complicated subject, but maybe some folks are partly missing some privilege that they need to learn to let go.

azurezyq 6y ago
I have to say it's human nature. When asking for a favor, you always feel more comfortable if the other guy had a nice chat with you yesterday. There are always things cannot be easily rationalized via formal processes.
- hrktb 6y ago
  It goes both ways though. Up until now the nice chat zone was limited to people on the same floor. With WFH we got people in other countries joigning the chats on equal footing. The info density difference also seem to be compensated by everyone being more open and comfortable (not packed in noisy office for the day) There's definitely less random chats, it's more formal and less intense, but also broader and the hurdle is lower. I think for companies above some size it's not better or worse, just different.
- kelnos 6y ago
  The problem is that the person in the office in another city, or perhaps even on another floor of your building, probably doesn't get to have that nice chat, ever, due to the lower likelihood of running into each other. Why should my requests get better prioritization just because I happen to work on the same floor as a person in a key position?
rodgerd 6y ago
This was an area that improved hugely at my workplace, because we're spread across multiple buildings in multiple cities anyway; the pre-COVID dynamic was that people were in the habit of including only those in physical proximity. COVID has made cross-city collab instinctive for people. The comment you're responding to sounds like a team resenting the inability to have the (bad) habit of only talking to people in physical proximity.

azurezyq 6y ago

I have to say it's human nature. When asking for a favor, you always feel more comfortable if the other guy had a nice chat with you yesterday. There are always things cannot be easily rationalized via formal processes.

hrktb 6y ago
It goes both ways though. Up until now the nice chat zone was limited to people on the same floor. With WFH we got people in other countries joigning the chats on equal footing. The info density difference also seem to be compensated by everyone being more open and comfortable (not packed in noisy office for the day) There's definitely less random chats, it's more formal and less intense, but also broader and the hurdle is lower. I think for companies above some size it's not better or worse, just different.
kelnos 6y ago
The problem is that the person in the office in another city, or perhaps even on another floor of your building, probably doesn't get to have that nice chat, ever, due to the lower likelihood of running into each other. Why should my requests get better prioritization just because I happen to work on the same floor as a person in a key position?

rodgerd 6y ago

This was an area that improved hugely at my workplace, because we're spread across multiple buildings in multiple cities anyway; the pre-COVID dynamic was that people were in the habit of including only those in physical proximity. COVID has made cross-city collab instinctive for people. The comment you're responding to sounds like a team resenting the inability to have the (bad) habit of only talking to people in physical proximity.