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This has been my observation over the last 20 years. I truly enjoy socializing and collaborating in person. I usually worked from home once or twice a week befo

This has been my observation over the last 20 years. I truly enjoy socializing and collaborating in person. I usually worked from home once or twice a week before the pandemic. It was a fantastic convenience as I lived an hour from my office. Once the pandemic hit we were fully remote. At first I thought, "see? we're more productive, this is truly better". As time wore on, I can see why a hybrid approach might be a better solution. I have never seen a more disengaged engineering staff. We gather weekly on Zoom for a general "shoot the breeze talk about tech" conversation and 95% of the cameras are off. Those folks are completely silent. That's their choice of course but it makes the work environment very lonely. I've tried to rile my team up to go into the office once in awhile for whiteboarding sessions/collaboration but they're simply not interested. So, perhaps your assumption is true. Engineers, for the most part, do not want to socialize, they simply want to do their work and get paid. The only problem I have here is, I feel our product suffers due to lack of collaboration.

otoburb 5y ago
>>I feel our product suffers due to lack of collaboration. Is there a way to measure the loss in productivity or product quality? >>I have never seen a more disengaged engineering staff. How does the perceived lack of engagement by your team members (by choice, for the most part) impact the mystical, (un)measurable "collaboration" factor? It might help managers and/or senior leadership to better argue points for hybrid in-office arrangements if data points could be brought to bear to counteract the very real benefits (for some) of WFH combined with varying individual social preferences. The suggestions in the last paragraph of the article are so simple to articulate, yet difficult for (especially lder) managers across most levels to crisply quantify.
- nobleach 5y ago
  This was entirely a commentary on the social aspects of developers. We had an initial surge in productivity and then a lull. Product quality suffered a bit due to mis/non-communication. Not everyone made the transition to WFH in an effective way. The engagement factor is realized with a very terse "yesterday I worked on recommendations, today I'll do the same". At that point the developer disappears for a few hours, never participates in any chat where less senior developers are asking questions. It's very siloed. The hardest part for leaders is to see how this translates into metrics they can understand. I'm absolutely ecstatic our org has adopted a "forever" WFH policy. I'm just cautious in how it'll all play out.
adamsmith143 5y ago
> I've tried to rile my team up to go into the office once in awhile for whiteboarding sessions/collaboration but they're simply not interested. If your team is shipping and hitting deadlines then they realize that all this extra socialization stuff is useless cruft and rightly are rejecting it.
- nobleach 5y ago
  If shipping is the only thing that matters, then we're in great shape. If shipping the right things matters, we're probably going to need to collaborate a bit. Over the past year, we could have killed a few features just by pushing back as a group. Instead we've waited until they've lost an A/B test. But your sentiment is exactly the point I was trying to make. Many (if not most) developers really aren't interested in any social benefit/experience. Your use of the word "rightly" puts you (and forgive me for broadly categorizing, I don't know you at all) in the "I come here to do my work and get the heck out so I can live my real life" group. For others, it's not so binary. It's not Work vs Life. Life bleeds into work, and work bleeds into life (with obvious healthy boundaries). For example, my lunch times with other developers was a high point of my day. I looked forward to talking to those folks. We tried it via Zoom. It was just awkward. My current team seems to fit with your sentiment. I'm the oddball and I'm okay with that.

otoburb 5y ago

>>I feel our product suffers due to lack of collaboration. Is there a way to measure the loss in productivity or product quality? >>I have never seen a more disengaged engineering staff. How does the perceived lack of engagement by your team members (by choice, for the most part) impact the mystical, (un)measurable "collaboration" factor? It might help managers and/or senior leadership to better argue points for hybrid in-office arrangements if data points could be brought to bear to counteract the very real benefits (for some) of WFH combined with varying individual social preferences. The suggestions in the last paragraph of the article are so simple to articulate, yet difficult for (especially lder) managers across most levels to crisply quantify.

nobleach 5y ago
This was entirely a commentary on the social aspects of developers. We had an initial surge in productivity and then a lull. Product quality suffered a bit due to mis/non-communication. Not everyone made the transition to WFH in an effective way. The engagement factor is realized with a very terse "yesterday I worked on recommendations, today I'll do the same". At that point the developer disappears for a few hours, never participates in any chat where less senior developers are asking questions. It's very siloed. The hardest part for leaders is to see how this translates into metrics they can understand. I'm absolutely ecstatic our org has adopted a "forever" WFH policy. I'm just cautious in how it'll all play out.

adamsmith143 5y ago

> I've tried to rile my team up to go into the office once in awhile for whiteboarding sessions/collaboration but they're simply not interested. If your team is shipping and hitting deadlines then they realize that all this extra socialization stuff is useless cruft and rightly are rejecting it.

nobleach 5y ago
If shipping is the only thing that matters, then we're in great shape. If shipping the right things matters, we're probably going to need to collaborate a bit. Over the past year, we could have killed a few features just by pushing back as a group. Instead we've waited until they've lost an A/B test. But your sentiment is exactly the point I was trying to make. Many (if not most) developers really aren't interested in any social benefit/experience. Your use of the word "rightly" puts you (and forgive me for broadly categorizing, I don't know you at all) in the "I come here to do my work and get the heck out so I can live my real life" group. For others, it's not so binary. It's not Work vs Life. Life bleeds into work, and work bleeds into life (with obvious healthy boundaries). For example, my lunch times with other developers was a high point of my day. I looked forward to talking to those folks. We tried it via Zoom. It was just awkward. My current team seems to fit with your sentiment. I'm the oddball and I'm okay with that.