[headmelted]

"Remote-only cuts out the in-person experience entirely, which is problematic for building teams and culture"

This is stated as fact everywhere but I've not seen supporting evidence anywhere.

I spend about as much time in my day speaking to other people as I would have done productively and by choice before. The only difference now is that I'm more able to avoid extraneous meetings and other drags on my time that don't benefit from my participation (because they're largely irrelevant to my work and vice versa).

In any case kudos for taking this step which I'm sure is not an easy decision to make given that it's a fairly seismic shift to how most companies approach work and employment.

[karmasimida]

What evidence do you seek?

It is obvious to me that the way you interact with people face-to-face is different from the way you would do with online chat.

[gedy]

That can be a good thing for non-charismatic types. I know that I've hurt my career at times in past due to in-person failures like being visibly angry or raising voice over dumb statements/power-positioning by leader-types. Being remote has helped me throttle those reactions and not be so public about my feelings.

[ticmasta]

Well if you've hurt your career with in-person failures, wait until you experience the context-free over-reaction that come from a faux pas made in a faceless medium that keeps record of your transgression forever. Getting mad at someone in-person also provides an opportunity to build a relationship that allows for a more intimate sharing of emotions; try getting that with email and slack.

[zaarn]

If you're used to communicating online, this is no issue. As an anti-social type myself, I'm more comfortable with communicating online and I'm confident in my ability to not commit a faux-pas that easily compared to in-person.

I think you underestimate how much WFH helps people with social issues.

[m0zg]

While I agree with this, I also think this is to a large extent because videoconferencing is currently pretty bad. It used not to be a critical necessity, so companies treated it as such. There's a lot of improvement that could be made to alleviate the disconnect somewhat, but of course not eliminate it.

[ryanSrich]

> Remote-only cuts out the in-person experience entirely, which is problematic for building teams and culture

The people who say this are the people you never see doing any work. They use the office as a social gathering place. They seemingly have no real job, despite a lofty title and high salary. They are the bane of existence for high functioning employees.

This is one of the few hills I will die on. I've never heard of a productive critical employee complaining about not being in an office. Every single one loves remote work because they can actually get work done.

[headmelted]

I’ll die on it with you over this.

It clearly doesn’t apply to OP because Dropbox are shifting to WFH, but so many of the arguments I’ve seen for offices returning are a variant of “I miss the social aspect”.

Fine, say that, I often miss it myself too, but realise you’re also arguing to compel people in the near term into a situation that could lead to them contracting a disease that could kill them.

Even beyond that, while many people might miss the meetings, I guarantee there are at least some people in that room getting stressed out because it’s actively blocking them from doing their job for no reason.

This is anecdotal too but I’ve worked on new projects, with new people, since this started. I’ve not met any of these people face-to-face, but we get along great thanks to being able to video/audio call whenever we want or need to. Every conversation I now have contains exclusively willing pariticipants. It’s great.

[jamaicahest]

Well you have now heard of a critical productive employee complaining about not being in an office. I am one of those guys who delivers faster than anyone and to a high quality standard, and I hate WFH permanently. While I enjoy no commute, I miss being around colleagues.

I prefer some combination of WFH and working in-office.

[UncleMeat]

Hi there. I’ve been promoted at a rate in the fastest 2% of engineers at my company. WFH is okay for me but I hugely prefer in person.

[ponker]

How about Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. I'd call him a productive critical employee.

[nullsense]

I spend about as much time talking to people, but I talk to less people. I don't like it. I've come back to office recently and so much more bandwidth to exchange information IME.

[lokedhs]

Anecdotal evidence like everybody else here, but after having worked from home 100% for several months, we're finally back in the office 50% and it has been great. You don't notice how much the team spirit and culture is affected until you actually get back to the office.