And ideally this is how it should work to maximize usefulness of the space…oh, everyone else is gone on Fridays, I’ll come in Friday instead of Tuesday
Still coming in 3 days a week except now everyone is happier
Except the justification for forcing people back to offiices is to socialize and collaborate in-person. It defeats the purpose if you’re showing up when everyone else isn’t around (assuming management justifications are genuine).
If management actually value face-to-face collaboration, then they’ll mandate all team members be in the office on the same set of days. Allowing you to pick your own WFH days speaks to different priorities - either manager oversight of specific individuals, or justification for all the money being spent on rent.
imo (and I’m not a manager, though I occasionally do manage people) there’s different levels of collaboration. If you get the whole company in one room, that’s one level of energy. If you get 5 separate but related teams in a room, that’s another level. And if you get just 5 random people from the company together, that’s another level.
There’s definitely a balance to be had, but having your office be empty every Friday is not efficient, even if you want to increase socializaion and collaboration.
Plus there’s some benefit to providing workers a place that isn’t their house to work. Some people just need to go somewhere else to be at their most productive, not necessarily just for socializing.
Correct - there is no ‘one size fits all’ solution for this. Ideally, you would be on a team where your manager is well aware of what works for each individual, and make decisions based on that but also taking into consideration that there will need to be compromises where individual preferences are in conflict. Some folks may certainly work better in isolation. Others thrive from interaction with others. The more reasonable arguments for WFH practices stress flexibility when accounting for team dynamics.
Yah we usually try to have everyone come in on Wendesdays for our weekly meeting and after that its a free for all. Ironically wednesdays are my least productive as half the day is devoted to meetings and the other half is catching up with the people i havent seen in a week and our extended lunch break…
And ideally this is how it should work to maximize usefulness of the space…oh, everyone else is gone on Fridays, I’ll come in Friday instead of Tuesday
Still coming in 3 days a week except now everyone is happier
Except the justification for forcing people back to offiices is to socialize and collaborate in-person. It defeats the purpose if you’re showing up when everyone else isn’t around (assuming management justifications are genuine).
If management actually value face-to-face collaboration, then they’ll mandate all team members be in the office on the same set of days. Allowing you to pick your own WFH days speaks to different priorities - either manager oversight of specific individuals, or justification for all the money being spent on rent.
imo (and I’m not a manager, though I occasionally do manage people) there’s different levels of collaboration. If you get the whole company in one room, that’s one level of energy. If you get 5 separate but related teams in a room, that’s another level. And if you get just 5 random people from the company together, that’s another level.
There’s definitely a balance to be had, but having your office be empty every Friday is not efficient, even if you want to increase socializaion and collaboration.
Plus there’s some benefit to providing workers a place that isn’t their house to work. Some people just need to go somewhere else to be at their most productive, not necessarily just for socializing.
Correct - there is no ‘one size fits all’ solution for this. Ideally, you would be on a team where your manager is well aware of what works for each individual, and make decisions based on that but also taking into consideration that there will need to be compromises where individual preferences are in conflict. Some folks may certainly work better in isolation. Others thrive from interaction with others. The more reasonable arguments for WFH practices stress flexibility when accounting for team dynamics.
Yah we usually try to have everyone come in on Wendesdays for our weekly meeting and after that its a free for all. Ironically wednesdays are my least productive as half the day is devoted to meetings and the other half is catching up with the people i havent seen in a week and our extended lunch break…