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> Treat them as R&D employees. Start paying them for doing random crap on company time and resources, no strings attached. Then you'll have innovation.

I think this is really important and it's often overlooked by a lot of companies. It's also one major component of what keeps me being a freelance worker.

Most of my decent ideas come while I'm walking around, maybe 3 miles away from my workstation and I also learn a ton of job related things while not directly working "on the job" with random self guided R&D and other activities that I like doing around tech (writing blog posts, podcast host, etc.).

But most companies don't see it that way. IMO it's unreasonable to expect a salary worker to put in 9 hour days (no paid lunch), be on-call 365/24/7 for emergencies (also not compensated for) and then be expected to do continuous learning and other "this is work related but not directly related to work" activities after hours without compensation. This is exactly how you end up with burnt out employees even if the person enjoys tech. The critical component is the no strings attached. R&D needs to be no strings attached otherwise it feels forced or you're fighting the system by having to cram it in after hours since you can't do it on company time but then you're also left feeling like you're being taken advantage of because it's not compensated for.

> What casual lunch discussion, random hallway chats, water cooler talks and after-hours beer have all in common is, people involved are slacking off.

> I find it ironic that companies want everyone to do spontaneous R&D work, but they rely on it happening spontaneously due to inefficiencies of office environment.

I don’t think those conversations and lunches are slacking off. Connecting with people goes a long way towards my own mental health, building relationships, learning about other projects and initiatives, and earning trust. If your employer defines that as slacking off, it’s maybe time for a new company.

My company has an expectation that I deliver X, help Y program move forward, mentor and teach, and generally disambiguate and solve hard problems.

Slacking off is if I repeatedly fail to perform those roles, and it’s only slacking off even then if it’s carelessness on my part.

I feel you understand what I meant, so let's not get hung up on the exact word. I called this "slacking off" because it connotes "slack" as in a good thing to have in any system, and because if you (as a lowly IC) were trying to explicitly set up "hallway conversations" with your remote co-workers, your boss would tell you to stop the bullshit and get back to work.

But yes, you can view this as mental hygiene or morale management. Point is, being in the office gives plenty of opportunities to talk with random people about random things, with no strings attached. Most of hallway/watercooler talk isn't "learning about other projects and initiatives" - it's just random non-work-related talk, which absolutely helps build trust and new relationships, but isn't the "serendipity" the management is expecting. But you can't have one without the other - all those sparks of innovation happen when you let people just relax a bit, and talk about whatever they feel like.

My point thus being: it's not impossible to have this in remote setting. But because most companies are relying on "serendipity" as side effect of office inefficiencies that are missing in remote work, you have to explicitly add them back. Or, you can accept that you want actual R&D work to happen. Surprise surprise, R&D work involves... giving people a lot of leeway and little day-to-day pressure. I.e. slack.

> if you (as a lowly IC) were trying to explicitly set up "hallway conversations" with your remote co-workers, your boss would tell you to stop the bullshit and get back to work.

“Lowly IC” - I don’t think you and I are on the same page, so let me stop you right there. None of the companies I’ve worked at treated people as being “lowly” or ICs as being lowly or inferior.

I don’t work in an organization where my manager tries to micromanage me. Nor does anyone here micromanage even the most junior employees.

People are responsible for meeting goals, driving initiatives forward, and delivering value. As long as you’re doing that, we don’t really care if you spend half your day on Twitter or watching Netflix — so long as you’re not actively distracting people. And by distracting, I mean intentionally interfering where it’s unwelcome by the other person.

Your argument seems to be that managers are trying to squeeze the most value by forcing people to be heads down working.

Maybe that formula works at Burger King or where you’re working with your hands - every second or minute lost might mean you produce less “widgets”.

This isn’t true in technology jobs, and if that’s how your organization is run, I recommend you start applying elsewhere.

This is all tangential to the main topic - some of the best innovative conversations do happen in hallway chats, over lunch, or while people are sitting near each other at their desks. And I recognize you disagree with that but to be clear, the culture you describe isn’t remotely close to my experience. We’re comparing apples and oranges - our experiences are not comparable at all.

I believe that face-to-face physical interaction is a way more determinant criteria than slacking off for making those moments productive.

Why do we imagine that in person communication is somehow mystical? I guess science doesn’t work because papers are not presented in person? I guess we are not engaged by films because the actors are not physically present?

It’s superstition.

So you would be fine with keeping all your platonic relationships strictly digital? If not, why?

All my work related relationships? Gladly.