[dhx]

What is the benefit of mentoring or guiding less experienced workers through new tasks in person as opposed to remotely with voice calls and screen sharing / live multi-user document editing / similar real time collaboration tools?

I've generally found remote work a better model as all people involved can edit the same document / diagram / model / code at the same time collaboratively, or at least have a better view of a screen than what is projected at low quality on a wall or displayed on a single monitor that isn't large enough for people to read at a distance. Whiteboards are OK for toy problems but are a hindrance for anything complex.

[PoignardAzur]

My recent experience (I've started two different contracts since the pandemic started) is that companies are at lot worse at on-boarding when everyone is remote than when everyone is in the office.

Maybe it's just that we all need to get new habits and adapt to this new medium, and it's only n=2, but so far my intuition is that on-boarding is harder when your colleagues with the relevant experience aren't one office away. Asking questions on Slack just isn't the same.

[cgio]

I don’t disagree and that is largely the consideration behind my closing statement. Nevertheless, keep in mind this makes assumptions on technical acuity of both mentors and mentees and the fact is there is a generational gap between them that might reflect on their ability to use these tools for mentoring relationships. I don’t claim having an answer, but I have been exposed to such discussions at high levels and I have seen people being concerned about this.