[ChuckNorris89]

>I don't know what new skills someone would have to learn in order to do that.

The skill to actually want to do that. Some people are shellfish and don't want to.

I've had a mentor who outright refused to do any screen sharing calls with me. He only wanted to communicate in chat. So things that could be cleared up in a 3 minute calls took over 30 minutes of back and forth in chats. I hated him to the core.

[nick__m]

I am pretty sure that your "mentor" would be still be the asshole in an office setting too!

[ChuckNorris89]

Actually he was nicer before the pandemic while we were in the office. He always came by to show me stuff when I called him.

I've noticed the behavior of several other colleagues (not everyone) changed while WFH. Many became more distant and hesitant to cooperate and lend a hand. Most wanted to lock themselves in a "don't bother me for anything, let me wrap my work faster, so I can sign out for the day early" kind of state.

[nick__m]

Completely opposite experience to mine but I see how some work environment/culture could foster that behavior.

[waboremo]

Terrible, but some mentors are just like that very reluctant. I will say though even if he only wanted to do chat, most services offer that asymmetrical ability where one is screensharing and both are in chat. Still would have taken longer than purely audio but certainly more immediate than pure-chat. So it's odd he didn't opt for that, it's the method with the least friction.

[ChuckNorris89]

He wanted mostly async chat. So screen sharing into a void wouldn't not have helped.