Not everyone knows everything about their job. They need support from their peers when they have problems. Let’s face it. It’s impossible to know everything.
When we hit the wall, what do we normally do. We wander down the hall and stick our head in Charlie’s office and say “Hey Charlie, got a minute. I need some help with the Jones account.” Happens every day. No wait. Charlie is no longer there. He is working from home.
So, do we set up a zoom call (a pain), pick up the phone and call him, send an email and ruin his day, or punt.
I say most of the time we punt. It wasn’t that important anyway. Charlie is an expert on the problem I have. But he’s also a very busy guy. For whatever reason, busy people always have time for you if you are standing in front of them, however few like to be interrupted by zoom, phone, or email.
If you take the zoom et al approach what could have been a two minute quick discussion becomes an ongoing project. It takes on an air of unnecessary formality. A quick word from Charlie and you are off to the races. If you go to all the trouble to zoom, or email, how long will that on line conversation last. I think we all know the answer.
I can see the in person conversation with Charlie now. “Did you consider……”
You: “Oh yeah, got it.” And you are off to the races.
There is a reason offices exist. Humans feed off each other. We ask questions, get answers, and do a better job because of it. It may be more ‘fun’ and convenient to work from home. But does it give you all the tools you need to do the best job you can.
One Response
I agree with you completely but we have a problem.
I believe any company is a team of individuals that are much stronger as a group especially if they know each other really well. Three or four of us can go to lunch together and discuss a work subject, if you see me you know if I am positive or feeling down today.
I will never criticize the younger generation, being one of those in the past and seeing two more come forward that we were concerned about but turned out kind of ok I have no room to be negative. These groups will grow up however they have had a change that none of the others had. Facetime instant communication face to face with anyone and we just put them through two years of testing. They thought it was great. Unfortunately, we have to wait 20 years until they are 40 to see how it turned out. We also have a government that is against us making people come back to work and that generation that is 40 to 45 and currently in high management positions in most companies has a group of about 20% that are too weak to say “what the H is your problem, get your A back to work tomorrow or you are fired. instead they call the legal department and then HR, oh they are not at work either” so they do nothing.
On the positive side, we have a lot of wonderful people out there of all age ranges that will get it done.