Just curious -- has anyone experienced any face to face meetings (in a conference room with someone or pulling up a chair to look over someone's shoulder on their monitor) since RTO where you've thought - "Wow, that was productive. I couldn't have otherwise gained that insight without being face to face"?
Or have you been able to 'establish more relationship/trust with anyone simply because you have been able to be in their presence vs virtual'?
I'll start.... Nope.
I said hi to someone and they opened their mouth and said hi back. Now we occasionally wave at each other from a distance with a half smile.
I am ready to collaborate around the water cooler, just as soon as they install one. Which should take years, if ever.
It seems to me that being in the office is more about not doing work than it is about getting actual meaningful work done.
I have been invited to volunteer. I have been invited to ‘networking meetings’. I have been invited to themed potlucks. I have been invited to participate in International Friendship day - which we were urged to send in personal pictures of our friends to be stored/used/uploaded by WF with limited info about what would be done with them. I’ve been invited to participate in food drives. I’ve been invited to attend multiple diversity meetings. I’ve been invited to attend security meetings. I’ve been invited to various ‘fun’ RTO events. Many of these contain a large handful of people that are in every single meeting.
These all take planning. These all require time. How is work getting done when some of the same employees are in every meeting and group there is? How can they remain employed when they aren’t doing any real work? How are employees supposed to be expected to participate in these without dropping their metrics and then getting punished in reviews for low numbers?
“Meaningful”and “meeting” cannot be used together at WF. I’ve had zero in person meetings and lots of meaningless phone meetings. Such has been the case for at least the last ten years.
Nope. Can't wait until dinosaurs fall off the corporate grid so we can finally achieve sanity and start focusing on what matters.
The corporate world continues to crumble the longer the outdated, bloated leaders remain in control.
Hard to do when your team is in 6 different offices, none of which are yours.
Made sure my boss was in. Went in and resigned, packed up and left after leaving my laptop on the table.
Off across the road for 25% more.
Never coming back even if they begged.
Ran into my bosses boss in the head, he snarled at me. Guy didn't even remember my name, total freaking tool. Most other companies would take you out for drinks to get people excited again about working together. Here they have a bunch of management who barely shows up themselves and you walk the floors and there's piles of sh-t everywhere, and sanitizer.
It has been nice to catch up with a few people. Human interaction is good unless your a Luddite.
Nope.
Saw a few folks I havent seen in 13 years at my reporting place. Only know them from older than dirt projects we worked on. That's it. Don't really know them and dont want to know them. They are constanty yakking to each other and actually standing up and doing it over my head to each other on the other side of the row. Their group sits together so it makes sense for them. Not for me. All I want to do is do my job and get out. So, my answer is NOPE.
Nope. Team days are staggered, so even our regular weekly huddle is still via phone.
The same people in the office that avoided one another before the pandemic are still avoiding one another now. Zero collaboration.
Had multiple good in-person meetings with customers. No meetings per se in the office, but it was good to see and catch up with some people I have seen in 2 years.
Not a single one. I come in, do my job, and leave immediately. I don’t talk to any of the strangers sitting around me, keep my mask on, and get out as fast as possible.
The guy sitting two desks over from me on Thursday said "good morning" to me. He seems very nice but we haven't spoken again. I have no idea who he is. Unless someone on my team decides to hop on a flight I'm not sure how those meaningful, in-person conversations are supposed to happen.
Sure, I talk to my kids every afternoon while I'm still WFH. Most productive conversations I have during business hours.
Same here - not even close, and not just because the giant building I work in is nearly empty all the time.
Even if the building wasn't empty, people don't do that. People weren't tapping total strangers' shoulders before COVID, and most certainly aren't now.
Maybe back in the 80s in a sales dept people did that?
The rationale we've all been provided for RTO is pure, demonstrable garbage. "Be more productive by talking near the water cooler". It's embarrassing.
This is the kind of nonsense we all have to endure until the geriatrics in the C suite are no longer here.
We desperately need younger leadership (especially COO) that isn't living in the 1980s.