The pleasure of having my colleagues around ✍️
I've not been going a lot to the office lately.
During holidays it's always a bit quiet, so I always use that as an excuse to work from home, and gain the travel time for something else. But still, if more people would be at the office it wouldn't make a big difference to me.
I don't have a lot of team members at the office.
In fact, I have none.
It used to be so different. During peak years, we were with 10+ at the office.
We worked from home, but this was very limited.
But then, things started to change. Corona hit. Home working became the norm. Even after it ended, we never went back to the original schedule. People came less to the office.
And, as within every company, people change and move to another position, or leave. But instead of hiring people here locally, they were hired from remote locations. Labor costs in Belgium are expensive and as we have different Hubs, the decision was made to hire abroad.
I saw the team here in Belgium reduce to only myself.
I've never considered changing. I like the things I do and the support I get from the management and company.
The office Hub I work at hosts about 60 people, from other IT areas, and even my former manager, and while I do chat with some, it's not the same connection as you have with members of your team. A quick chat during lunch or when passing by, but most of the time I spent my time at my desk or in a meeting cockpit.
I almost forgot the joy, of working closely together with someone, sitting side by side, to brainstorm. To have multiple discussions with each other, to ask them if you could pick their brain. Or to come back on it after a few days in the coffee area. Or to just ask and get a quick reply, as you're sitting next to each other.
Until today.
For the introduction of our new big boss and some alignment meetings, my manager, as well as our technical lead are in the office. And just like that, I feel like we're solving so many things in so little time. Sitting close to each other, it's easy to ask for something. We're having lunch, sharing stories,...
Sure, you can do it all online as well. But this is often an asynchronous process, where you ask something and wait for the other to have time for you. And you can still have time for chit-chat, but I feel this is often skipped, to be efficient and not waste time.
Remote work comes with its benefits, that you can work from anywhere and still have access to anything. But with the more tools that we have to connect, I feel the disconnect is getting bigger. Perhaps it's because I'm older and have known the time without all these online tools. Ar that we all came daily to the office.
I'm tech-savvy, but I feel that all these tools are not connecting us as they claim to be.
My colleagues will be here in the office for the next days and I'll be as well, cherishing the time together.
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