| > That’s more familiar. Humans staring in random directions. Many clearly not listening. Camera off for one participant. Here’s the question, how many humans are on this call? > Zero. Now show us 14 people in a room together and tell me that all 14 are engaged. This was also a fiction. I’ve been working remotely since 2007. I spent the first ten years of my career in pointless meeting after pointless meeting. Part of what motivated me to work from home was all the time lost in the office shuffling between meetings, engaging in chit chat I was socially obligated to do but didn’t care about. Friday-afternoon beer bashes when I just wanted to be home with my wife. Ridiculous off-site team-building exercises. I have a life outside work. I want my colleagues to be competent professionals. I’ll have a collegial relationship with a few I work closely with. But do I care what everyone did over the weekend? I do not. In a meeting of 14 people, how many people really had to be there? I’m not saying that teamwork isn’t sometimes a lot easier in person. Some things are. Some things aren’t. And I understand that many people enjoy the company of their coworkers as friends. Fine. I didn’t, except for a few. I’m engaged on Google Meet just as much as I ever was in person when the meeting calls for it. I understand some people can’t work this way. But Rands is projecting here. He clearly values being physically around his team. I get that. But it isn’t for all of us. I hope this pandemic ends and that those who want to return to the office can do so. But I also hope companies remember that some of us really prefer to work from home, and we’re more productive in doing so. FWIW, I’ve worked for companies as big as HP and Verizon, and startups as small as a dozen people, and mid-size companies in between. I’ve worked for and with college and post-college friends. I have over 25 years of professional experience. We’re not all the same. Different strokes, man. Oh and about that screenshot of Leia… I obviously knew Fisher had passed away before Rogue One was made, but didn’t realize it was computer generated. I thought it was somehow pieces together from old footage. It fooled me. |
Has anyone tried to deal with meeting attendance inflation with some actual economic scheme? I'm thinking where tokens are distributed and used as payment for someone to attend a meeting. This would force you to think in terms of a budget for how many people-hours of time you are requesting in meetings. Of course management and especially middle management would likely hate this idea but I'm curious if anyone tried it and what the results were.