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People collaborate easier in person. Travel is a downside.
by paulddraper 3y ago
People collaborate easier in person.
Travel is a downside.
- OtomotO 3y agoOther downside: way more coffee breaks and private discussions.
- robertbalent 3y ago> way more coffee breaks That’s upside.
- kamilafsar 3y agoThat’s not a downside. That’s part of building and being a team. We’re human, not machines. If you hire the right people, they’ll know when to have a laugh and when to work their ass off.
- passwordoops 3y agoPrivate discussions happen way more often remote in my experience
- Aurornis 3y ago> and private discussions. I joined a company that went from in-person to remote and the number of private discussions and politics exploded. Something about going remote and exchanging faces for screen names was like pouring gasoline on the fire for company politics. The number of private Slack channels exploded and one group even moved to their own private (unofficial) Slack because they wanted a private space where other people couldn't accidentally be invited to their discussions. It was wild.
- 29athrowaway 3y agoMany of the largest software projects in history have been implemented by remote workers. Like the Linux kernel. But if you require to read people's reactions and body language and try to figure out if they are telling the truth, or brag about your socioeconomic status or appearance, or if you need to assert dominance over others, or do social engineering like mirroring other's movements, then face to face is perhaps useful. To me, when someone says "there is no replacement for face to face communication", what that usually means is "we distrust people here". I dislike offices, they are cesspools of misery, dominance and fake smiles. Long live remote work.
- worewood 3y agoI agree with you, except the last sentence, which may vary from place to place. My office is very friendly and people have very good humour. Which is good for socializing but for work, it's tough because so many interruptions and we waste a lot of time "talking about the weather". I am way more productive working at home.
- 29athrowaway 3y agoThey have good humor, always want to have coffee and lunch, and are your best friends forever. Until you change jobs and you never hear from them again.
- azemetre 3y agoI mean that’s just life. Why is this a bad thing? You go through periods of time and when that chapter ends you move onto the next chapter. Expecting a band of misfits to stick together for 40 years is what is atypical. When I was in college I had a great group of friends but after we all graduated we went in completely different directions, industries, and live vastly different lives. The friendship was perfect in the moment but now I’m in a new one.
- 29athrowaway 3y agoBetter cultivate meaningful relationships instead of reinforcing a sick institution like the fake office friendship. Your family, friends, neighbors.
- pacomerh 3y agoI don't collaborate better in person.
- NegativeK 3y agoI do, probably because of my particular flavor of strong introversion. What's the solution to different people benefiting from different work styles?
- tobyjsullivan 3y agoPeople should find company cultures that match their work styles. That's the best way to allow people with similar work styles to work together. There can never be one true corporate policy to rule them all. That said, I agree with most of the comments here. Hybrid is just bad. A company needs to pick on-site or remote.
- irrational 3y agoExcept, some jobs really really don't require much if any collaboration. We've been having to come back into the office since last September. In all that time, I've only spoken to another person a single time. Literally one hour in one day in the past 5 months. All meetings are still over zoom and when I'm not in a meeting, I just find some place in the building to sit and work. Except many people still weren't coming in since september and now they have cracked down on it and said people must be in the office and they are checking badge check-ins and the ip address of where our work laptops are being used to see if they are on the campus network or not. The result is tons of people are here now, but there isn't room for them. Before the pandemic, the company started getting rid of cubicles and moving to rooms full of desks and you just find somewhere to sit. But they don't have enough places to sit for everyone so if you don't get here early, you just end up sitting on the floor or wandering around. It is crazy how much lost productivity we are experiencing.
- mike_hock 3y ago> sitting on the floor What the fuck?!
- irrational 3y agoHR frowns on that.
- QuiDortDine 3y agoYeah I'm about to be harmed by my working conditions
- gverrilla 3y agoI had a friend reporting a similar situation in the big consultancy firm he works for. There would be more workers than available seats. He said they would do it to make people get to the office BEFORE their working hours. Dark patterns all around.
- coldpie 3y agoBuddy, why on Earth are you still working there?
- Salgat 3y agoDepends on the work being done. In my experience in-person collaboration just means the loudest most stubborn person gets their way and it's difficult to pause things to fact-check and research while decisions are being made. And honestly, fighting with this behavior is above my pay grade.