Re:Ask HN: Employers, why do you want us back in the office?
by itronitron on Sunday February 05, 2023 @03:32PM
(#34669004)
I understand your point, and I have experienced that on occasion, maybe once or twice a year. However that also requires that people have slack time available to kick things around in conversation.
I've had equal or better success following paths on my own that while being highly tangential/unrelated to my work ultimately provided valuable and relevant insights.
I guess my point is that valuable spontaneous connections require time but they don't require in-person interpersonal interactions.
I can't believe the amount of people here denying this exists or that they've ever seen it. I wonder if they are the type to neglect social dynamics over cold, detached, ultimately flawed and incomplete metrics? They can't even conjecture about unseen forces and subtle influences, a sort of butterfly effect where an off topic conversation about the weekend leads to different technical decisions? Because all that stuff does happen. It can be very hard to quantify or understand.
That's one reason I hate cultures they put too much weight on performance reviews. They think they can measure individual contribution and productivity. They don't get the less obvious things that arise from group settings and informal collaboration.