It’s true though, and there’s no technological improvement to communication software that can ever change this.
If you sit physically next to your colleagues, you can at all times see what they are working on, talking to each other about, etc., and thereby learn more about the project and the company; if you work remotely and have to explicitly choose to communicate, you miss out on all of that.
I haven’t been in an office since 2020, but the 15 years prior that I spent numerous offices taught me that much of corporate life is spent dealing with office politics instead of accomplishing anything meaningful.
Those “water cooler conversations” that executives are so keen on are mostly spent shootin’ the breeze or complaining about how Bob from marketing is a fucking moron.
Turns out when people step out for a break or head to the water cooler, they don’t want to talk about work.
Shocking, I know.
I never had any productive water-cooler conversations but I have had many eye-opening and productive smoke breaks with colleagues when that was a thing. The smoking area was the great equalizer that these companies are waxing nostalgic about.
I learned that I could never concentrate in the office over other people’s conversations, that the boss could and would interrupt me with trivial matters every few minutes regardless of what I’m working on, that Steve on my right was more concerned to be seen working when sick than to prevent others getting sick, that colleagues will always shout out questions they could answer themselves in a few seconds, thus prompting an hour of random chat, that Steve was always sick, and that Steve was the noisiest eater in the world of the most garlicy food in the world, which made him gassy, that the boss’s assessment of my productivity was chiefly based on hours visibly spent suffering Steve, that Steve considers shopping online to be a social activity, and that the boss can detect headphones going on your head and music starting from 50 feet away and instantly be behind you with a burning question that doesn’t make any sense. Working at home has been more productive for us all, except that the boss and Steve don’t seem to know that Teams offers chat channels other than “General”.
I miss casually bumping into people and chatting, but not because it ever helped with the work.
the boss can detect headphones going on your head and music starting from 50 feet away and instantly be behind you with a burning question that doesn’t make any sense.
I’m sure you realize that the question doesn’t make any sense because they had to think of it on the spot, just to prove that you can’t wear headphones in the office due to all the important ambient office talk you need to be a part of.
One of my best, most competent bosses once said to the team “I don’t understand how you guys can work while listening to music, but as long as your output stays high, I’m not going to interfere.”
Downside: Many companies use open-plan offices, which means it’s too busy to concentrate. So everyone wears noise-cancelling headphones in order to be able to work at all.
The only time I actually felt that being present was a benefit was in a company that had one from for every two people.
Do you actually do work or are you one of those middle-men that add dubious value?
And, like, do you think I can read my coworker’s screen from across the room and be like “Ah yes, that is TransferProjectView.py. I should tell him that I am also planning on touching that file”?
And adults can learn to explicitly communicate. It’s not impossible. You just type into the box.
It’s true though, and there’s no technological improvement to communication software that can ever change this.
If you sit physically next to your colleagues, you can at all times see what they are working on, talking to each other about, etc., and thereby learn more about the project and the company; if you work remotely and have to explicitly choose to communicate, you miss out on all of that.
I haven’t been in an office since 2020, but the 15 years prior that I spent numerous offices taught me that much of corporate life is spent dealing with office politics instead of accomplishing anything meaningful.
Those “water cooler conversations” that executives are so keen on are mostly spent shootin’ the breeze or complaining about how Bob from marketing is a fucking moron.
Turns out when people step out for a break or head to the water cooler, they don’t want to talk about work. Shocking, I know.
I never had any productive water-cooler conversations but I have had many eye-opening and productive smoke breaks with colleagues when that was a thing. The smoking area was the great equalizer that these companies are waxing nostalgic about.
I learned that I could never concentrate in the office over other people’s conversations, that the boss could and would interrupt me with trivial matters every few minutes regardless of what I’m working on, that Steve on my right was more concerned to be seen working when sick than to prevent others getting sick, that colleagues will always shout out questions they could answer themselves in a few seconds, thus prompting an hour of random chat, that Steve was always sick, and that Steve was the noisiest eater in the world of the most garlicy food in the world, which made him gassy, that the boss’s assessment of my productivity was chiefly based on hours visibly spent suffering Steve, that Steve considers shopping online to be a social activity, and that the boss can detect headphones going on your head and music starting from 50 feet away and instantly be behind you with a burning question that doesn’t make any sense. Working at home has been more productive for us all, except that the boss and Steve don’t seem to know that Teams offers chat channels other than “General”.
I miss casually bumping into people and chatting, but not because it ever helped with the work.
I’m sure you realize that the question doesn’t make any sense because they had to think of it on the spot, just to prove that you can’t wear headphones in the office due to all the important ambient office talk you need to be a part of.
One of my best, most competent bosses once said to the team “I don’t understand how you guys can work while listening to music, but as long as your output stays high, I’m not going to interfere.”
Downside: Many companies use open-plan offices, which means it’s too busy to concentrate. So everyone wears noise-cancelling headphones in order to be able to work at all.
The only time I actually felt that being present was a benefit was in a company that had one from for every two people.
Do you actually do work or are you one of those middle-men that add dubious value?
And, like, do you think I can read my coworker’s screen from across the room and be like “Ah yes, that is
TransferProjectView.py. I should tell him that I am also planning on touching that file”?And adults can learn to explicitly communicate. It’s not impossible. You just type into the box.
Found the C-Suite.