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The effects of remote work on collaboration among information workers
41–50 of 216 posts
Re: The effects of remote work on collaboration among information workers
#42Next paper from these guys will say: "the shift from an open office plan to private offices caused work to become more siloed. Previous research shows this may impede the flow of information through the network" People need to stop fetishizing "breaking down silos" and "serendipitous hallway encounters" and all that nonsense and think about the big picture. You're more likely to have something worth saying, and a wor…
If your business model includes: "we put people in an office in the hopes that their random interactions will create value"...then that sounds like the problem is something else. Random encounters that create value sound good. It sounds less good when you flip this logic, and ask whether the reliance on randomness is a function of weak information-sharing within formal structures. It is easier to break down silos if…
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Re: The effects of remote work on collaboration among information workers
#43The key thing is here: > over the first six months of 2020 Those first six months were pretty rough. The large majority of people had little to no experience working remotely, so many folks didn't have a good home office environment, and there was a general sense of being unsure if this would just be temporary or if employees should settle in for the long haul. Many orgs didn't have good practices set up for remote w…
I would agree with this. Ancedotally, at least for the first 6 months until the fall of 2020, my team and its management were completely accepting of sub-par WFH setups and attitudes. We couldn't really blame the guy whose two young daughters screamed all day and tromped up and down the stairs next to his desk. Now it's different - remote hires are expected to have a decent working environment (either at home or else…
Elsewhere at their own expense? Yea that's gonna be a no from me.
Re: The effects of remote work on collaboration among information workers
#44Companies will invoke even God to make employees return to offices. I don't trust Microsoft neither this study.
That argument works both ways - some people who like remote will do all sorts of mental gymnastics to defend WFH when presented with evidence that it isn't ideal.
Re: The effects of remote work on collaboration among information workers
#45Companies will invoke even God to make employees return to offices. I don't trust Microsoft neither this study.
I think it's specifically driven by the management population. Individual contributors don't seem to feel too strongly about how their coworkers want to work (remote vs. in-office). But there seems to be a large effort by managers in general to get everyone back into the office, often without any supporting evidence for why that is a good option to force upon people.
This study is not good evidence against remote work. If anything, this study is just confirming what we already know - that is, remote work happens differently (synchronously vs asynchronously).
I've said it before and so have others: the push to bring everyone back into the office is in my opinion, representative of management's own insecurities.
Re: The effects of remote work on collaboration among information workers
#46[flagged]
Re: The effects of remote work on collaboration among information workers
#47All we will find in this thread is a bunch of remote workers trying as hard as they can to dismiss any finding that remote work might have downsides.
Those damn managers only caring about butts in seats!
Re: The effects of remote work on collaboration among information workers
#48Next paper from these guys will say: "the shift from an open office plan to private offices caused work to become more siloed. Previous research shows this may impede the flow of information through the network" People need to stop fetishizing "breaking down silos" and "serendipitous hallway encounters" and all that nonsense and think about the big picture. You're more likely to have something worth saying, and a wor…
You're more likely to have something worth saying, and a work product worth talking about, if you aren't wasting time on your commute and shooting the shit in the office.
The problem is that no one actually knows if that's true, or whether it's universal or individual. I used to commute by train, and I got a good hour of time to myself to think. I did great work thinking through problems in that time. Now I work remotely I try to carve out an hour to just think about stuff, but it's less effective because I'm easily distracted by house things like washing up or playng with a cat. Similarly, I got value from hearing conversations around the office, and now I don't have that. Slack can be the same thing if people join in, but so far it's rarely as effective.
All of that is tempered by the fact that I do much better work at home. Fewer distractions, more time, and longer quiet periods, all sum up very productive times.
Ideally we need some from column A and some from column B. I absolutely don't think remote is perfect, but it's certainly better. With work on how to collaborate in remote environments I can see it being even better still.
Re: The effects of remote work on collaboration among information workers
#49"I just read a study in Nature saying remote work is more trouble than it's worth, back to the office everybody!" /s
"Don't be snarky."
"Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something."
Re: The effects of remote work on collaboration among information workers
#50Normal work from office as past will resume in next few months. WFH is not sustainable or enjoyable experience for most people.
I don't know on what basis you make these sweeping generalizations. If nothing else, commutes made people miserable in terms of time, money, stress, and difficulty scheduling outside life.
Time will tell whether you are right or not.