[Yizahi]

Walking to someone else workstation is a different thing from the so called "water cooler talk". When you go to or simply turn to the nearby team member (or even far away) you initiate a conversation one way, so you judge when a person is not busy and ask him/her. And then discussion happens. This is not unlike a call to that same person (you can ping him in chat to clarify if he is busy) and in general is a close enough substitute for office, at least remembering that for that small quality of life improvement every person mush pay with full 30 awake days per years of wasted time for commute.

But the original proposition by the RTO managers is different. They posit that such spontaneous talks happen in a place different from any workers workstation, e.g. watercooler or kitchen etc. That is a two way conversation which to happen much check the following - both (or more) persons mush happen to go to the same place at the same time, and they both must have a topic to talk about in that particular moment. And those linkedin propagandists claim that a lot of such talks are supposedly highly technical about the project itself. Which is honestly never happens in my limited anecdotal experience.