> if you (as a lowly IC) were trying to explicitly set up "hallway conversations" with your remote co-workers, your boss would tell you to stop the bullshit and

> if you (as a lowly IC) were trying to explicitly set up "hallway conversations" with your remote co-workers, your boss would tell you to stop the bullshit and get back to work. “Lowly IC” - I don’t think you and I are on the same page, so let me stop you right there. None of the companies I’ve worked at treated people as being “lowly” or ICs as being lowly or inferior. I don’t work in an organization where my manager tries to micromanage me. Nor does anyone here micromanage even the most junior employees. People are responsible for meeting goals, driving initiatives forward, and delivering value. As long as you’re doing that, we don’t really care if you spend half your day on Twitter or watching Netflix — so long as you’re not actively distracting people. And by distracting, I mean intentionally interfering where it’s unwelcome by the other person. Your argument seems to be that managers are trying to squeeze the most value by forcing people to be heads down working. Maybe that formula works at Burger King or where you’re working with your hands - every second or minute lost might mean you produce less “widgets”. This isn’t true in technology jobs, and if that’s how your organization is run, I recommend you start applying elsewhere. This is all tangential to the main topic - some of the best innovative conversations do happen in hallway chats, over lunch, or while people are sitting near each other at their desks. And I recognize you disagree with that but to be clear, the culture you describe isn’t remotely close to my experience. We’re comparing apples and oranges - our experiences are not comparable at all.