Reply to Real talk about the city’s economy, federal buildings leases, and telework impacts

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote]

Anonymous wrote:

You sound like a dinosaur. Things have changed and we’re not going back to the old way, get over it. Even when all the old managers are in the office, we don’t have meetings in conference rooms anymore. Everyone is sitting in their office or cube alone during meetings where we are all in the same building- how does that make any sense? Work from home has more advantages than disadvantages, and now we use programs like teams for things like training. Why would I go back to having someone looking over my shoulder when I can just share my screen over teams and talk to them? And since I am sharing my screen anyway, why do we even need to be in the same room?

+10000. These types of people simply can’t evolve and accept we have technology that no longer requires physical presence. The technology was around pre-Covid but out of necessity we were forced to use it in 2020. Now people are used to it. There’s simply no need for me to go into an office to have a conversation I can have over video chat. Just like once cell phones became common there was no reason for us to sit around at home next to our landline in case we received a call.
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I may be a dinosaur but here's what I hate about work from home and the idea that video chat/training is a substitute for in-person interaction:  (1) People are easily distracted on video.  When you are meeting someone in person, it is a lot harder to be distracted by your email/texts/crying toddler/barking dog, etc.  No, I don't want to go back to endless conference rooms, but all virtual isn't the answer either.  (2) You absorb a lot of useful information/job skills/market knowledge from the conversations you have with older professionals at work.  You don't get that training sitting on your sofa on your laptop.  An architect friend of mine was forced to hire first years who insisted upon work from home as a condition to employment.  He reflected that after the first year the work product of the work-at-homes was so poor that the firm wasn't able to bill for it.  Bad for the firm.  Bad for the young professional.  (3) There is no substitute for actually building relationships with the people with whom you do business.  It is VERY difficult to do that in an all video/text/email environment.  I fired a consultant last week who simply wouldn't interact on the phone but insisted on sending everything in email.  What's worse, even the young account manager responded with email instead of a phone call when I specifically asked for a call before deciding to pull the plug (and we are a large account).  I instead called another "dinosaur" who picked up the phone and n one conversation resolved the issue and got me the agreement I needed.  When I emailed the account manager who had not called me back and told him they were fired; he STILL didn't pick up the phone.  In the future, those members of the younger professional generation who learn how to keep the best of the old (in person collaboration, relationship building) while strategically using the "work from anywhere" technology when it creates efficiency instead of impeding it, are going to be the professionals who advance the quickest.  No one wants to mentor someone who thinks they already know it all and doesn't need to leave their house or learn how to hold a conversation.[/quote]

We’ve discussed this before on this board but the issues you are pointing out are management failures and weaknesses.  If you can’t find a quiet space and pay attention during a video call, you are failing as a professional and as an adult and your manager needs to talk to you.  These failures are just made more obvious by telework, they aren’t created by it.  If you can’t figure out a way to talk on video calls and train and connect with people, again, you are failing to adapt as a professional and an adult.  I have trained multiple young employees solely through virtual and there were zero issues with getting face to face time, building relationships, and training them in every aspect of their jobs.  I’ve actually become friends and mentor them too, that’s how much we were able to build a relationship.

[b]It’s time to adapt.  If you can’t adapt, you’re failing, and the rest of us don’t need to cater to that[/b].[/quote]

This. PP can’t adapt.  We have fantastic technology that mean we now don’t have to physically be next to each other to see and talk to each other.  [/quote]

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