AKA - Microsoft is trying to layoff employees without getting more bad layoff press while they make record earnings.

A company where most employees work digitally with people across the world is requiring people to sit at a desk in a physical location. The irony is blinding & shows an utter lack of transparency by leadership.

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ghaff 5 days ago | parent [-]

I certainly saw engagement, collaboration, etc. going down once things switched heavily to video calls (even before COVID) rather than meeting in-person in various ways--especially among people you didn't already know.

Of course, in many situations, it's unavoidable. I'm probably not going to hop on an international trip at the drop of a hat--though I certainly attended events.

But there's some subset of people that just don't want to travel or go into an office at all and IMO they're mostly mis-guided.

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adabyron 5 days ago | parent | next [-]

I’ve had the opposite effect. Meetings where everyone is on video run so much better.

More on task, plus transcriptions & other features dramatically improve the meeting. I can more easily understand accents, read when people talk over each other, ai generated notes and tasks, and I can rewatch parts of the meeting by searching for something said. Also easy to detect who dominates the meeting and who might need to be included in talking more.

	▲	ghaff 5 days ago \| parent [-]
		I'm not sure big in-person meetings in rooms are especially useful but eating with people, having discussions in small conference rooms, social events, etc. were. Big online meetings never engaged me much and I certainly almost never rewatched parts of a meeting. And latterly it was sort of "Who are these people" if I hadn't known them before. I do agree that video conferences that have agendas, collaborative notes, and so forth matured during COVID (though we did them before) but don't require a video meeting. But people have different preferences.

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wiseowise 4 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Have you ever thought that “engagement” and”collaboration” that you saw is as hollow as the statement from Microsoft?