No way. My VP doesn't have time to read and respond to my carefully crafted email. He might be having 1500+ unread emails. Same with DMs.
> In fact, the more senior a person is, the less office face-time they seem to have.
This is so contrary to what I have seen. Most senior people (including ICs) are busier in meetings compared to more junior guys.
> Phone call?
Meh. No body language, no eye contact, less energy in the conversation.
> Meet at a cafe?
Sure. And once you reach middle management, you will have so many of these cafe meetings that going to the office would be scalable, where you meet everyone. Once a few people do that, everyone who needs these cafe meetings will start doing it because the office is where everyone is.
> I think people should be allowed to play the game as they see fit.
I mostly agree on this with one caveat. If your remote employees are going to suffer in their career trajectories because of an apparent disadvantage, a company has to be super careful that it won't become a New York Times front page story. Imagine if Microsoft allowed this and a majority of their remote employees are women and a majority of their remote employees are getting promoted at a slower rate than in-office people. It will be an unnecessary headache. Better to nip the problem in the bud.
Wouldn't this particular scenario be made more effective and efficient with asynchronous communication?
> This is particularly true when you become more senior and replicating that over Zoom is nearly impossible.
Most office jobs are not senior roles. In fact, the more senior a person is, the less office face-time they seem to have.
> There are things you simply don't want to put in writing or say over Zoom which are most certainly monitored by the company.
Phone call? Meet at a cafe?
> And if there are some colleagues who are in office and some who are remote, the ones in office have a massive advantage when everything else is the same.
I think people should be allowed to play the game as they see fit. If my plans involve a lot of office plays and social maneuvering, of course I'd prefer to be at the office, and I should be allowed to do that alongside the other people that want to engage in such activities. If my plans are to be a reliable worker with no desire to shuffle on the ladder, I might as well enjoy a quiet stay-at-home life with occasional office visits when it suits the projects I am working on, my team members and / or myself.