What Was Lost To Remote, Day 2: The Workplace Community
When we went from co-located to remote, many of us lost our main community
The best part of working in the office was the conversations and sense of community.
Every week, our team would get together for pizza, share our week, and share ideas for how to handle the next week better. When we worked in an office with other start ups, we’d watch Game of Thrones together at night and sometimes even make bets between companies about what was going to happen.
On the far other end of the spectrum, my mother has a thriving intellectual community in her office that she can tap into, at lunch or on demand by popping into anyone’s office. Or she did have that.
But just as I lost my entire community to remote work, so did she. For me the adaptation was easier: online community fulfills many of my needs for intellectual and social interaction; but she has never recovered.
Why Some People Struggle with Remote Community
Remote community is a real and satisfying thing. Just ask any shy teenager you see: experience over the last 3 years has shown me that they come alive online in Roblox, Minecraft, or some other online game. And if you are reading this, you may well be part of the remote work community on LinkedIn
But some things about the in-office community are hard to replicate online. If someone depends on these rituals to feel a sense of community, an online variation will definitely limit their experience:
Gifting food. There is nothing quite like giving someone food you’ve made and watching them enjoy it. This exchange of food helps build bonds and a sense of appreciation for one another. It also reveals hidden talents certain people have, increasing their sense of pride and desire to be a part of the group.
Full body experience. I’ve covered elsewhere that Zoom calls can elicit a fight or flight response due to the overly large head that your brain is NOT equipped to process as friendly. However, seeing a full person allows you to really connect the human to the head on Zoom, and learn what unique characteristics about them make them who they are.
Several of my former colleagues at Yodo Games marveled at how much they enjoyed having a full-body experience of their colleagues. I can’t explain it better than that, but having met two of my current colleagues in real life this summer, I can attest to how valuable it is to see and experience the full person.Sharing the same food or drink. Many of my former Pakistani colleagues in Islamabad frequently meet up and share tea, and sometimes dinner. I have seen how happy they are doing it, and it reminds me of times past when I was able to go for drinks or dinner with my fellow teachers in Washington, DC.
This is an absolutely critical bonding ritual that can help build trust and reveal unexpected insights that help people grow at work.Office parties. Oh the fun you can have at an office party. Yes, these can be replicated online, but they typically lack the spontaneity of in-person parties. Add to that the fact that even the best online “parties” are typically time boxed and structured, to avoid anyone checking out and doing work or something at home.
The Root Problem
Community IRL is a fine balance between spontaneous and structured, ritualized and random interaction. It relies on long blocks of time, some scheduled, some open ended.
Community online, particularly in the workplace, is typically structured and rigid. In as much as it’s possible to connect team members together in real time, there is usually a sense that time must be “valuable” for the company or the people participating. If it’s not, participants will check out.
For people who are adept at building community outside of work, this is probably fine.
But for those of us who prefer work-based community, there has been a clear sense of loss.
What to do
Unlike workplace friendships, there are some things that just can’t be solved about work community. At least not with our current technology.
This leaves us with a rather unglamorous alternative, but a critical one:
Talk about the challenges of remote workplace community openly.
I’m going to start experimenting with this kind of content soon. I hope to see some from you too :).