One person said they’d spoken with colleagues who had chosen to go hybrid, and those colleagues reported doing work in mostly empty offices punctuated with video calls with people who were in other mostly empty offices.
This is the crux of it. All of our meetings now are virtual. Full stop. Companies had to adapt during COVID and to do that they got things like teams and SharePoints going. Now these tools are still in place and the genie is out of the bottle. No going back
I have mixed emotions about it. I manage a software engineering team at an aerospace company. I do see some increased quality and productivity when folks who work together and colocated. But there are tradeoffs, and happier employees for sure needs to be in the trade. Our company has sites in different states, and for years and years we’ve grabbed the skills we need from wherever they are. That is, we’ve recognized that it’s workable to have at least some people not colocated, and are willing to take that hit if it buys us something.
We were nearly 100% remote for the better part of two years, and it was fine. Our productivity was at least adequate. My personal feeling is that a hybrid arrangement, where everyone has some overlapping days, is the sweet spot. But I’ve fought for individuals being fully remote when it made sense.
I’m pretty sure some companies are also using it to encourage people to quit before layoffs and needing to pay out severance. Happened to me earlier this year. In December they announced we’d go from optionally fully remote, to mandatory 3-days in office in February. Then at the end of march they laid off a bunch of people.
So watch the timing at Dell, I wonder if we’ll see some layoffs there in a couple months.
I really dislike using the term “virtual” for online meetings. It implies the meeting isn’t real, or isn’t authentic, or like it’s imaginary. The meeting simply uses video cameras instead of a conference room.
This is the crux of it. All of our meetings now are virtual. Full stop. Companies had to adapt during COVID and to do that they got things like teams and SharePoints going. Now these tools are still in place and the genie is out of the bottle. No going back
I have mixed emotions about it. I manage a software engineering team at an aerospace company. I do see some increased quality and productivity when folks who work together and colocated. But there are tradeoffs, and happier employees for sure needs to be in the trade. Our company has sites in different states, and for years and years we’ve grabbed the skills we need from wherever they are. That is, we’ve recognized that it’s workable to have at least some people not colocated, and are willing to take that hit if it buys us something.
We were nearly 100% remote for the better part of two years, and it was fine. Our productivity was at least adequate. My personal feeling is that a hybrid arrangement, where everyone has some overlapping days, is the sweet spot. But I’ve fought for individuals being fully remote when it made sense.
Yes officer, this guy here. They’re being reasonable on the internet! /s
Thanks for the insightful comment :)
I’m pretty sure some companies are also using it to encourage people to quit before layoffs and needing to pay out severance. Happened to me earlier this year. In December they announced we’d go from optionally fully remote, to mandatory 3-days in office in February. Then at the end of march they laid off a bunch of people.
So watch the timing at Dell, I wonder if we’ll see some layoffs there in a couple months.
I really dislike using the term “virtual” for online meetings. It implies the meeting isn’t real, or isn’t authentic, or like it’s imaginary. The meeting simply uses video cameras instead of a conference room.
Do you think Virtua Fighter means the fighters aren’t real?
That’s virtua, not virtual.