3 ms·

In my experience forced online water cooler talk has never worked and was always incredibly awkward and boring.

axitanull 2y ago
Surely the C-suites of the company will employ whatever brilliant ideas that we talk over the water cooler. The water cooler is the fountain of innovation after all. Perhaps they should put all the water coolers in the executives' offices, so they can listen to all the brilliant conversations that take place at the water cooler.
- LunaSea 2y ago
  Paid work holiday trips or conferences could simulate this missing social element for remote teams. Ironically enough it would be by bringing them back together (but maybe in a more fun way than a regular office).
- DannyBee 2y ago
  To be fair, when i worked at IBM Research (Watson), there were collaboration areas at the end of each hall. They got used quite often, and there are plenty of times where someone noticed another team or person working on something and discovered it applied to what they were doing and collaborated. One example from an area i know well - if you look at static single assignment form for compilers, which is the basis of all optimizing compilers these days, two people came up with the static single assignment part, but had no idea how to create it fast , and ran into some others whiteboarding control dependence for other reasons, and realized that it solved their problem. This is why the paper (https://www.cs.utexas.edu/~pingali/CS380C/2010/papers/ssaCytron.pdf https://www.cs.utexas.edu/~pingali/CS380C/2010/papers/ssaCyt...) has five authors and reads like one written by two different teams :) I think the better argument is that it's not how newer generations seem to collaborate or operate, not that it never worked at all. It definitely did work in the past.
prepend 2y ago
Forced is horrible. But consensual is great.
- Vinnl 2y ago
  I think they meant "forced" as in "artificial" (as in: "hey, let's start a video call to pretend we're at the watercooler"), rather than "mandated by management".
refurb 2y ago
You've never been in an office and had a productive, random interaction with a coworker? Like, never? I've had it happen on a regular basis. I see someone and suddenly remember to tell them "oh, I did some work on that long ago, I'll share it with you" or you overhear a conversation about a topic you didn't know they were looking at?
- TeMPOraL 2y ago
  IDK, I spent plenty of time around a watercooler and I don't recall something like this happening even once for me or people within my earshot. The one thing I saw that actually works like that metaphorical watercooler is going to a bar and drinking together, or engaging in a similar activity that involves relaxing and unwinding. Of course, that's not something people feel comfortable about, plus it comes with its own set of issues and exclusions around time, family and alcohol, but that's the one type of situation I saw where people actually have those serendipitous productive interactions managers dream about.
- theshrike79 2y ago
  You missed the "online" bit in the comment you replied to.
- LunaSea 2y ago
  > You've never been in an office and had a productive, random interaction with a coworker? I absolutely did have these interactions but simply not online.
  - alex_suzuki 2y ago
    Same. I have fond memories of working in a small team (~8 engineers) in a single room around 2010-ish. We'd often just walk to each other's desks, read the body language and ask each other "what are you working on?" and just engage in these unscripted, natural discussions that may have resulted in a pair programming session, or a cigarette outside accompanied by some good old-fashioned complaining about management. Don't get me wrong, I think working remotely and home office are great. But something was undeniably lost, at least for me.
Vinnl 2y ago
Yeah, I know there's people who are able to make it work, but not me, in general. I can get a fairly similar experience on the org chat, though, and sometimes at the start or ends of meetings. And just meeting up in real life every now and then helps a lot.

Surely the C-suites of the company will employ whatever brilliant ideas that we talk over the water cooler. The water cooler is the fountain of innovation after all. Perhaps they should put all the water coolers in the executives' offices, so they can listen to all the brilliant conversations that take place at the water cooler.

LunaSea 2y ago
Paid work holiday trips or conferences could simulate this missing social element for remote teams. Ironically enough it would be by bringing them back together (but maybe in a more fun way than a regular office).
DannyBee 2y ago
To be fair, when i worked at IBM Research (Watson), there were collaboration areas at the end of each hall. They got used quite often, and there are plenty of times where someone noticed another team or person working on something and discovered it applied to what they were doing and collaborated. One example from an area i know well - if you look at static single assignment form for compilers, which is the basis of all optimizing compilers these days, two people came up with the static single assignment part, but had no idea how to create it fast , and ran into some others whiteboarding control dependence for other reasons, and realized that it solved their problem. This is why the paper (https://www.cs.utexas.edu/~pingali/CS380C/2010/papers/ssaCytron.pdf https://www.cs.utexas.edu/~pingali/CS380C/2010/papers/ssaCyt...) has five authors and reads like one written by two different teams :) I think the better argument is that it's not how newer generations seem to collaborate or operate, not that it never worked at all. It definitely did work in the past.

prepend 2y ago

Forced is horrible. But consensual is great.

Vinnl 2y ago
I think they meant "forced" as in "artificial" (as in: "hey, let's start a video call to pretend we're at the watercooler"), rather than "mandated by management".

refurb 2y ago

You've never been in an office and had a productive, random interaction with a coworker? Like, never? I've had it happen on a regular basis. I see someone and suddenly remember to tell them "oh, I did some work on that long ago, I'll share it with you" or you overhear a conversation about a topic you didn't know they were looking at?

TeMPOraL 2y ago
IDK, I spent plenty of time around a watercooler and I don't recall something like this happening even once for me or people within my earshot. The one thing I saw that actually works like that metaphorical watercooler is going to a bar and drinking together, or engaging in a similar activity that involves relaxing and unwinding. Of course, that's not something people feel comfortable about, plus it comes with its own set of issues and exclusions around time, family and alcohol, but that's the one type of situation I saw where people actually have those serendipitous productive interactions managers dream about.
theshrike79 2y ago
You missed the "online" bit in the comment you replied to.
LunaSea 2y ago
> You've never been in an office and had a productive, random interaction with a coworker? I absolutely did have these interactions but simply not online.
- alex_suzuki 2y ago
  Same. I have fond memories of working in a small team (~8 engineers) in a single room around 2010-ish. We'd often just walk to each other's desks, read the body language and ask each other "what are you working on?" and just engage in these unscripted, natural discussions that may have resulted in a pair programming session, or a cigarette outside accompanied by some good old-fashioned complaining about management. Don't get me wrong, I think working remotely and home office are great. But something was undeniably lost, at least for me.

Vinnl 2y ago

Yeah, I know there's people who are able to make it work, but not me, in general. I can get a fairly similar experience on the org chat, though, and sometimes at the start or ends of meetings. And just meeting up in real life every now and then helps a lot.