>> my remote coworkers are far more responsive than my on-site coworkers, who are always in meetings, in transit, having in-person chit chat, or taking a break.

1. In meetings - working

2. In transit - before and after working hours

3. Having in person chit-chat - working

4. Taking a break - remote workers should also take these

>> I've had the opposite experience

I think it depends on the type of people you're working with. I've found hand-on engineers (i.e. people writing code) are really available and perhaps they shouldn't be. Business-type people are so much more reliably flaky.

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adabyron 5 days ago | parent | next [-]

> 3. Having in person chit-chat - working

Having done years in both settings, random non-work related discussions were always more prevalent in office type atmospheres.

Only semi-related but in office at a cubicle is the least productive environment I've ever seen for companies. I cannot personally take a leadership team serious if they care about productivity & fiscal responsibility when they have cubicle farms of more than 10 people in an area.

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sugarpimpdorsey 5 days ago | parent | next [-]

> Having done years in both settings, random non-work related discussions were always more prevalent in office type atmospheres.

Whether you realize it or not, these are team-building exercises. It brings people closer, sometimes too close (I slept with one of them lol), but overall this is a net plus for team dynamics.

It's really hard to bond with people exclusively through chat. Especially if you hide behind an anime avatar or refuse to switch on your video.

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dakiol 5 days ago | parent | next [-]

I don't need to bond with you. I don't need team-building exercises. I have been working for over a decade and made 0 friends at the office. I'm an easy going guy, though, no complaints or anything. Just keeping it professional is good enough. A bit tired of the whole "we are a family" thing really. Plenty of successful open source projects are successful and driven by people working together remotely and behind avatars.

	▲	Consultant32452 5 days ago \| parent [-]
		Most workers enjoy being emotionally manipulated by their employers. A friend of mine was gushing because their new employer sent some chocolates to everyone at Christmas time. They felt “appreciated”.

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mlnj 5 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

>It's really hard to bond with people exclusively through chat. Especially if you hide behind an anime avatar or refuse to switch on your video.

If they are not bonding virtually, I don't see how much better that relation is going to be when I force these people to be in a corporate space.

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__s 5 days ago | parent [-]

I worked in MS Vancouver office

It's a little special since most people there were due to visa issues preventing them working in Seattle

It was too cold. Open layout with people yelling on calls

I'd wander around for a few hours, then go home to actually work. I only had one coworker on same team there

	▲	mlnj 5 days ago \| parent [-]
		>Open layout with people yelling on calls I would never again want to put up with it.

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xenobeb 5 days ago | parent | prev [-]

[flagged]

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basisword 5 days ago | parent | prev [-]

How common are cubicles now? I haven't seen one in nearly 20 years. And I find open-office environments kind of discourage non-work chat because you know you're disturbing others for no good reason.

	▲	adabyron 5 days ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Apologies. I think of cubicles the same as open office and they’re not. There is kind of a spectrum between these ideas. In my above statement I was thinking of both cubicles and open office.
	▲	sugarpimpdorsey 5 days ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Still the norm outside of tech.

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tempfile 5 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Unfortunately this is a strawman. They said remote workers were more available than in-office workers. Not that in-office workers weren't working when they were unavailable.