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To add two points to that. First, people here always point out about the boss looking over the peons in their open space office. That may be true for a lot of

by jq-r 5y ago

To add two points to that. First, people here always point out about the boss looking over the peons in their open space office. That may be true for a lot of situations, but what is also depressing is that even if there is no boss/manager/whatever overlooking the employees, those will watch each other. Second, I can second the hallway conversations, those never happened at the places I've worked. If anything, it was more akin to "send me an e-mail/message" about it.

simonh 5y ago
At most of my employers useful conversations in hallways, at the kitchen, or just dropping by someone’s desk happened all the time. It’s an incredibly valuable opportunity. In the last year there are many people I used to talk to regularly I’ve either not talked to, or only talked to once or twice that otherwise I’d have checked in with on an almost weekly basis. I really miss those chats and I know I’m poorer for not having them. Having said that, I used to work for a big international bank and apart from a few people in my direct team, most if the other people I worked with were in other countries, let alone other offices. They had outstanding collaboration and communications software and infrastructure though. By far the best of any company I’d worked for. They were very well set up for remote collaboration and I learned lessons there I’ve found very useful in the last year. You work with what you have.
- bregma 5y ago
  I used to work for an all-remote company in which hallway conversations happened all the time over chat. In fact, people would often hold several hallway conversations at the same time using separate chat windows for each. The organization was set up for remote work and had chosen appropriate technology. Where I work currently, we had a no-remote policy although our team is spread across two continents. The rationale for in-person-only-sort-of was that the organization could extract greater value from employees through the benefits of hallway conversations (except between team members in different offices). Hallway conversations just didn't happen; neither in-team or between teams. They happened in formal meetings where half the attendees just looked down at their phones. When we went temporarily remote-only in March of 2020, we were not given any adequate technology (and in fact the required VPN technology prevented many from doing their jobs so it was often hacked). Eventually, many of the employees discovered there was a chat service and people who had never spoken before started communicating. Hallway conversations were had (initially mostly focused on hacking the VPN). Formal meetings were still run by the same people with similar output, but over-all productivity began to climb and we pushed out releases on time and on budget. It turns out at least our segment of the larger organization worked better remotely despite the lack of support and the official policies. Recently it was announced that the entire organization would be returning to in-office only, 100% of the time. The errant chat service would be shut down. We would return to exactly the way it was two years ago because that is the only way that works, according to the CEO. We will return in the fall to no hallway conversations, head down at our desks focused on our assigned tasks, communication trickled down from the top as it should be.
  - bluGill 5y ago
    I think we just learned more about you than about our company. My personal choice would be to avoid those conversations in the hall and just use chat. However I've learned over the years not everyone is like me and most people do talk to people in the halls, the water coolers... One useful bit of advice I got years ago was when in person instead of reaching for chat when you need someone walk over to their desk and talk to them. For the vast majority of people talking to them face to face is more meaningful than the chat even if to you it seems that chat is more efficient.

by jq-r 5y ago

simonh 5y ago

At most of my employers useful conversations in hallways, at the kitchen, or just dropping by someone’s desk happened all the time. It’s an incredibly valuable opportunity. In the last year there are many people I used to talk to regularly I’ve either not talked to, or only talked to once or twice that otherwise I’d have checked in with on an almost weekly basis. I really miss those chats and I know I’m poorer for not having them. Having said that, I used to work for a big international bank and apart from a few people in my direct team, most if the other people I worked with were in other countries, let alone other offices. They had outstanding collaboration and communications software and infrastructure though. By far the best of any company I’d worked for. They were very well set up for remote collaboration and I learned lessons there I’ve found very useful in the last year. You work with what you have.

bregma 5y ago
I used to work for an all-remote company in which hallway conversations happened all the time over chat. In fact, people would often hold several hallway conversations at the same time using separate chat windows for each. The organization was set up for remote work and had chosen appropriate technology. Where I work currently, we had a no-remote policy although our team is spread across two continents. The rationale for in-person-only-sort-of was that the organization could extract greater value from employees through the benefits of hallway conversations (except between team members in different offices). Hallway conversations just didn't happen; neither in-team or between teams. They happened in formal meetings where half the attendees just looked down at their phones. When we went temporarily remote-only in March of 2020, we were not given any adequate technology (and in fact the required VPN technology prevented many from doing their jobs so it was often hacked). Eventually, many of the employees discovered there was a chat service and people who had never spoken before started communicating. Hallway conversations were had (initially mostly focused on hacking the VPN). Formal meetings were still run by the same people with similar output, but over-all productivity began to climb and we pushed out releases on time and on budget. It turns out at least our segment of the larger organization worked better remotely despite the lack of support and the official policies. Recently it was announced that the entire organization would be returning to in-office only, 100% of the time. The errant chat service would be shut down. We would return to exactly the way it was two years ago because that is the only way that works, according to the CEO. We will return in the fall to no hallway conversations, head down at our desks focused on our assigned tasks, communication trickled down from the top as it should be.
- bluGill 5y ago
  I think we just learned more about you than about our company. My personal choice would be to avoid those conversations in the hall and just use chat. However I've learned over the years not everyone is like me and most people do talk to people in the halls, the water coolers... One useful bit of advice I got years ago was when in person instead of reaching for chat when you need someone walk over to their desk and talk to them. For the vast majority of people talking to them face to face is more meaningful than the chat even if to you it seems that chat is more efficient.