Office work was broken. It took a pandemic for some of us to realize this. When I started working, personal offices were still a norm. A distraction free environment is critical for occupations that require deep work like programming. Somewhere along the way, open plan offices started becoming more popular.
I can't agree more with what you have described. I faced a similar inner resistence when it was announced that offices will be opened soon. Not sure how many people I would have reached out to discuss pros and cons and how WHF is helping in making a truly global environment where everyone is working in the same situation (e.g. distraction due to kids etc.) and a special type of connect was getting formed where we started understanding each other more. It didn't mattered whether one is in EU, Aus, US or anywhere else. And I was satisfied that I was able to communicate more using mail/chat etc.
But office still opened (in Hybrid model) and reluctantly everyone strated coming in. Intial few days went by catching up with everyone who were not connected work wise or had limited connection. Most of the conversation happened during lunch or at coffee vending machine or just on the way to desk. And slowly I realized that there are lot of conversations that happen (informally) for which you can't really set a meeting invite. I normally call them side conversations. And these side conversations do open up quite new perspectives whether is knowing about new initiatives/ideas people are working upon or new shift in strategy or new team structure or just a casual discussion over some new technology etc. which you don't discuss over the online meetings which are driven based on agendas. So unless one is hard core Individual Contributor who just needs to keep is head down and keep doing what he is supposed to (e.g. writing the code) with little discussion here and there, connect and side conversations definitely help.
So I completely agree that Hybrid model is way to go forward.
For me, the biggest gain with being full remote, is being able to structure more things into my day. I can workout in the time I would have commuted. I can fix an issue with a side project at 2:30 if I need to.
That sort of flexibility is why I am not a fan of a hybrid model for myself. To each their own!
Hey Rahul - Another great article !
I can't agree more with what you have described. I faced a similar inner resistence when it was announced that offices will be opened soon. Not sure how many people I would have reached out to discuss pros and cons and how WHF is helping in making a truly global environment where everyone is working in the same situation (e.g. distraction due to kids etc.) and a special type of connect was getting formed where we started understanding each other more. It didn't mattered whether one is in EU, Aus, US or anywhere else. And I was satisfied that I was able to communicate more using mail/chat etc.
But office still opened (in Hybrid model) and reluctantly everyone strated coming in. Intial few days went by catching up with everyone who were not connected work wise or had limited connection. Most of the conversation happened during lunch or at coffee vending machine or just on the way to desk. And slowly I realized that there are lot of conversations that happen (informally) for which you can't really set a meeting invite. I normally call them side conversations. And these side conversations do open up quite new perspectives whether is knowing about new initiatives/ideas people are working upon or new shift in strategy or new team structure or just a casual discussion over some new technology etc. which you don't discuss over the online meetings which are driven based on agendas. So unless one is hard core Individual Contributor who just needs to keep is head down and keep doing what he is supposed to (e.g. writing the code) with little discussion here and there, connect and side conversations definitely help.
So I completely agree that Hybrid model is way to go forward.
For me, the biggest gain with being full remote, is being able to structure more things into my day. I can workout in the time I would have commuted. I can fix an issue with a side project at 2:30 if I need to.
That sort of flexibility is why I am not a fan of a hybrid model for myself. To each their own!