> There’s a lot of collaboration and spontaneous connection that happens in hallways and kitchenettes. I agree, but not with the hallways and kitchenettes part

> There’s a lot of collaboration and spontaneous connection that happens in hallways and kitchenettes. I agree, but not with the hallways and kitchenettes part. Sorry, never have I ever seen anything productive done in a hallway. But I wholeheartedly agree with the "spontaneous communication" part, but *in the office, at the desk*. There are many things that are much easier when you can just come to a desk of your colleague (someone on the team, or your manager, or your direct report) and discuss instantly, then maybe grab another person into this discussion, make a decision, etc. Yes, I see that happening all the time in the office. Just not in a kitchenette indeed. Now, I agree that maybe not every team needs it. Consider the two extremes. One is when your daily work is mostly "executing tasks”. In this case, whatever is more *comfortable* is the best: for some it would be working from home, for some it may be working from the office. Or, on the other end, if the team is in the early stages of making some important decisions. In this case, I truly believe this team needs to be able to communicate spontaneously. If this team is Okay with Discord - fine. Or if this team prefers being in the same physical place - fine as well. Bottom line: being in *the office* is *one of the ways* to create an environment for spontaneous communications, which works wonders for making a series of small decisions fast. P.S. I currently work in a flexible hybrid environment: we just agree with colleagues when we go to the office, if we want to.