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I’m not sure I completely buy that in-person conversations are a net positive. Constantly being interrupted with drop-in conversations definitely hurts producti

I’m not sure I completely buy that in-person conversations are a net positive. Constantly being interrupted with drop-in conversations definitely hurts productivity. The vast majority of the time those conversations could have been an email and our two minute chat is going to take me ten minutes to get back in the zone of what I was working on.

benrbray 6y ago
It's a matter of etiquette, and of boundaries. In-person conversations are definitely a net positive if your coworkers are well-mannered. Also, there's this new invention called "doors" that I wish companies would get on board with. I hear that "opening" one's "door" can be used as an invitation to chat. :)
- graerg 6y ago
  In retrospect, having an office was one of the few redeeming perks of academia. They were so far behind the times, they may have been ahead of their time.
  - throwawayboise 6y ago
    I've had a lot of jobs in academia and only had an office once, for about 6 months, because nobody else needed it.
  - tsimionescu 6y ago
    Not a contradiction in any way, but you reminded me of the dark side of academia and offices with a story I heard from my local university. They had a new building constructed, including a very coveted corner office. A student organization was absolutely delighted when they received that corner office, and thought it was a sign of growing appreciation for their work. Turns out, it was actually a way out of a political quagmire: professors had fought for that office so bitterly that it had gotten to a web of "ok, I will accept that you're not giving it to me, as long as X doesn't get it either". The student organization wasn't really hated by anybody enough to be part of this web, so they got it just as a way to avoid pissing anyone off too much.
  - nr2x 5y ago
    Moving from the academy to tech right now and dreading open office.
- Hamuko 6y ago
  >Also, there's this new invention called "doors" Must be very new since our office had none bar for the meeting rooms.
  - rmetzler 6y ago
    Same. Two to four person office where I can commute by bike? Sign me up. Sitting in a 30+ person open office with >1h one way commute vs working from home? Thanks, I‘ll work as long as possible from home.
- plutonorm 6y ago
  You have evidence?
Sophistifunk 6y ago
Indeed. And everything must be documented anyway, before you start building, otherwise all you're getting is n different recollections of the same meeting causing problems, whether it was in meatspace or not.
Zvez 6y ago
The decision-making process much (and by high margin) more effective in-person. Email is too slow, chat is too frustrating (too many back-and-forth messages just to make sure everyone on the same understanding level). The simple questions (how to do smth, where to find smth and so on) are better and less disturbing - via chat. You can always answer later, when you have time. And good co-workers know how to distinguish one from another and use right way to discuss it.
- misterremote 6y ago
  You put this very nicely, thanks. There are different ways of doing things for the different purposes. This reminds me the time I was working at the office. We had an open floor plan, and so no doors (except the CEO). It was sometimes nice to talk to people, but there were times when I was deeply in code, and someone asked a small random question from me. It was clearly because he/she wanted just to talk. This would have been better to ask through Slack as I could then continue my work and answer later. So what I usually did was a) stayed home for deep work hours or b) put on my headset and listened to music to indicate that my "door" was closed. And yes, with the CTO the physical door was an indication: if it was open, we went in and discussed something, and he was always happy to do so. When it was closed, we didn't interrupt him, and when we did, you could feel that he was feeling indeed interrupted.

benrbray 6y ago

It's a matter of etiquette, and of boundaries. In-person conversations are definitely a net positive if your coworkers are well-mannered. Also, there's this new invention called "doors" that I wish companies would get on board with. I hear that "opening" one's "door" can be used as an invitation to chat. :)

graerg 6y ago
In retrospect, having an office was one of the few redeeming perks of academia. They were so far behind the times, they may have been ahead of their time.
- throwawayboise 6y ago
  I've had a lot of jobs in academia and only had an office once, for about 6 months, because nobody else needed it.
- tsimionescu 6y ago
  Not a contradiction in any way, but you reminded me of the dark side of academia and offices with a story I heard from my local university. They had a new building constructed, including a very coveted corner office. A student organization was absolutely delighted when they received that corner office, and thought it was a sign of growing appreciation for their work. Turns out, it was actually a way out of a political quagmire: professors had fought for that office so bitterly that it had gotten to a web of "ok, I will accept that you're not giving it to me, as long as X doesn't get it either". The student organization wasn't really hated by anybody enough to be part of this web, so they got it just as a way to avoid pissing anyone off too much.
- nr2x 5y ago
  Moving from the academy to tech right now and dreading open office.
Hamuko 6y ago
>Also, there's this new invention called "doors" Must be very new since our office had none bar for the meeting rooms.
- rmetzler 6y ago
  Same. Two to four person office where I can commute by bike? Sign me up. Sitting in a 30+ person open office with >1h one way commute vs working from home? Thanks, I‘ll work as long as possible from home.
plutonorm 6y ago
You have evidence?

Sophistifunk 6y ago

Indeed. And everything must be documented anyway, before you start building, otherwise all you're getting is n different recollections of the same meeting causing problems, whether it was in meatspace or not.

Zvez 6y ago

The decision-making process much (and by high margin) more effective in-person. Email is too slow, chat is too frustrating (too many back-and-forth messages just to make sure everyone on the same understanding level). The simple questions (how to do smth, where to find smth and so on) are better and less disturbing - via chat. You can always answer later, when you have time. And good co-workers know how to distinguish one from another and use right way to discuss it.

misterremote 6y ago
You put this very nicely, thanks. There are different ways of doing things for the different purposes. This reminds me the time I was working at the office. We had an open floor plan, and so no doors (except the CEO). It was sometimes nice to talk to people, but there were times when I was deeply in code, and someone asked a small random question from me. It was clearly because he/she wanted just to talk. This would have been better to ask through Slack as I could then continue my work and answer later. So what I usually did was a) stayed home for deep work hours or b) put on my headset and listened to music to indicate that my "door" was closed. And yes, with the CTO the physical door was an indication: if it was open, we went in and discussed something, and he was always happy to do so. When it was closed, we didn't interrupt him, and when we did, you could feel that he was feeling indeed interrupted.