[makeitdouble]

> it shows an understanding that people need to unwind and interact, and work ultimately benefits. Funny how it’s such an alien concept the moment work moves online.

Offline people were in the same building under direct watch from the employer. We badged to enter and leave the building, employers surely felt fully in control.

Online that physical boundary disappearing, the pendulum swings the other way for companies that try to grasp the remaining bits of control.

That's one of the reason I prefer fully online shops, they'll usually have made peace with it and structured themselves in saner ways.

[davidw]

> That's one of the reason I prefer fully online shops, they'll usually have made peace with it and structured themselves in saner ways.

There's also a 'tipping point'. If you have 9 out of 10 people in the office, they're just going to be human and chat about stuff in the office and meet in person and the 1 person not there is best viewed as someone to farm piece work out to rather than part of the team. Which is fine in some cases but different than:

If 9 / 10 people are remote, then everyone is using the online tools and has to buy into them and they're all an integral part of the team.

[ghaff]

Yeah, I'm not sure 100% remote all the time is ideal but if you're the 1 in 10 person who is remote, that's probably not a good space to be in.

[davidw]

It can be ok if everyone is clear, and accepts that you're not really an equal part of the team, but someone who gets tasks and does them relatively independently. That kind of thing can work ok for the right person at the right time.

The problem is if you're trying to maintain the fiction that the one remote person is just like everyone else.

[ghaff]

I agree with that. They're effectively a consultant who pops in from time to time and may be on calls. Which can be fine but everyone needs to be clear that's effectively what the situation is whether it's explicitly acknowledged or not.

[dnissley]

So long as the in office folks are split between different offices in groupings of 1-2 you're fine

[ghaff]

Then everyone is effectively remote which doesn't invalidate the point.

[skybrian]

At Google, sometimes my manager and most of the team were at another office so we did a lot of video calls anyway.