I just read an article on t3n about reasons to be in the office and reasons to stay in the HomeOffice. It’s an interesting read, just at one point I could have screamed (maybe I even did)! 🤦♂️
According to Kramer, people who work remotely are often very task-oriented. Getting straight to the point after one or two introductory sentences in a video meeting is efficient, but humanity and mutual connection are lost in the process.
Returning to the office can therefore make sense to a certain extent […]
I fully agree on the first part: Getting straigt into the topic is efficient but not very social. But the solution is a complete U-turn into the office?! Seriously? Seriously?!
Why not simply NOT go straight to the point in a meeting?
I usually try to have some socializing and smalltalk at the beginning of a meeting. I just want to know how the others are doing, if there’s anything new in their life we want to chat about, what they have done or will be doing on the weekend …
And guess what? In several years in the HomeOffice, I gained quite some good relationships to colleagues that I never saw personally in my life. And I wouldn’t have seen them either if I were in the office because they don’t work in the same city or even the same country!
Of course, if it is a meeting where I do not WANT to socialize – for all kinds of reasons – I can still immediately go straight to the topic … No matter if I’m in the office or not.