Comment by lazide
The issue is that folks like newbies on the team end up left out, and when everyone is off doing their own thing there is often no actual team - which shows up in a lot of non-obvious ways.
The issue is that folks like newbies on the team end up left out, and when everyone is off doing their own thing there is often no actual team - which shows up in a lot of non-obvious ways.
Sure, but sitting next to someone and being able to ask them questions is easy, quick, and natural. And often helps build relationships.
As is sitting in an area and seeing who everyone goes to ask questions, and even overhearing the discussions.
So someone can learn how to phrase questions, what are useful types of questions to ask, what types of questions get someone told to ‘do their own research’ vs gets in-depth help, etc.
For a junior, that is very valuable because they often literally don’t even know where to start.
For someone with more experience, they often either already know all these things, or know how to find them out pretty quickly even without the help of watching what is happening, yeah?
That’s a fault of the existing teammates. I always prioritize 1:1 with new members in my team or my sister teams and make myself available for any onboarding or technical questions.
Yeah I'm just totally not a team player anyway. I would avoid such interactions in the office too, by picking another floor. I'm not a mother hen. Other people are and they like to be that, so it's much better that they do it. They also do this over Teams by the way.
I always maneuver myself into such a place that I have something to work on for myself.
I observed this at $PREVIOUS_EMPLOYER who wasn't normally a WFH shop. They had some really bad teething pains figuring out how to adapt to WFH at all, let alone keeping people socially engaged.
Not all offices are like that, though! It takes some awareness & outgoingness from leaders and experienced folks, but it is possible to cultivate a socially engaging remote work environment. At my current employer, there seem to be two ingredients: 1) management and mentors who will happily talk about stuff that isn't work-related, and 2) an annual retreat where you do get to meet all of your coworkers in-person, in an environment where bonding is the main purpose.