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Comment by zmmmmm | Hacker News Reader

I get a lot of what you say but this one drives me bonkers:

> able to tap people on the shoulder for quick questions rather than having to ping them over chat

My work requires so much focus, having people randomly tap me on the shoulder to ask a question they could just drop in chat is debilitating.

I'm curious you phrase "having to ping them over chat" negatively? I would say the same sentence almost totally in reverse:

"Now I no longer have to interrupt people to ask them a question, I can just ping them over chat for a reply when they are ready"

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Even for something quick, I will type up a question and then go over it a few times, make some edits, probably provide some links for context. It just feels like a bigger deal than just asking someone next to you.

In person they can cut me off when they start to get it, or I can tell from their face that I need to keep going with more context, it's just more more collaborative.

In chat I'll either end up having to answer a ton of follow up questions for detail, or I'll drown the question in context.

Yes, I can get better at asking questions. But tbh most of this complexity stems from me trying to ask questions well to begin with. IDK, pinging someone over chat seems like more of an intrusion than just asking a question.

Also, I won't, like, ask someone to take off their headphones for this. I'll ask them at lunch, or when we're grabbing coffee / snacks. Over chat there's no coffee break, it's all "headphone" time, from my perspective.

> In person they can cut me off when they start to get it,

the problem is that you have already interrupted their flow. Getting back into that takes valuable time.

I'll wait for coffee or lunch. There are natural places throughout a work day to ask someone a question without interrupting their work time. I specifically said that I wouldn't interrupt someone's flow.

But the act of tapping someone in the shoulder and break their concentration already does all the harm IMO.

Once you've done that, headphones on or off is redundant.

In my experience, 99% of these disturbances could be avoided with a bit more effort on the side of the person interrupting. So what generally happens is that the person concentrating loses his focus - very likely getting out of the zone - and helps them with something that they could've done themselves.

For me it really seems selfish the majority of the time. Urgent matters, things that really block you and you absolutely can't figure out, sure. Almost anything else can wait a bit for a response.

What? I'll wait for coffee or lunch. There are natural places throughout a work day to ask someone a question without interrupting their work time. I specifically noted this too.

I'm not advocating for instant response, I'm saying that there are no natural breaks in a remote environment for us to have casual conversations.

Yeah, fair point. But what's stopping you from simply asking for some face-to-face time and scheduling it?

Sometimes the best solution is to have a discussion and it's a lot easier to do compared to writing. On those cases I just ask "can we have a meeting to discuss X?" and we schedule something.

This gets you the help you the same results, without any interruption.

Sure they could just pretend to not see your message and ignore it leaving you in a tough spot, but that's a problem with the person, not remote work IMO.

Generally speaking, even if you're focused, you'll stop to have lunch, grab a snack, etc. And you then answer questions, setup a time to meet, etc.

Our work is very collaborative and being able to get quick feedback on some issue is nice.

Having to ping them over chat is annoying because while it may result in a quick answer it may also just disappear into the ether (or the chat app fails to deliver, the person steps away but you don't know this, etc.).

Again, our work is collaborative and if someone wants to be left alone they throw on headphones in which case everyone knows to just ping them over chat so they can respond whenever is convenient for them.

It sounds like you're saying that work can't be collaborative without people interrupting each other with no warning, but that isn't my experience at all—my experience has been that the most collaborative work happens when people are intentional about how and when they communicate, which seems easier to encourage in a remote setting.

If I may, what industry do you work in that needs this level of collaboration and such a quick turnaround on it?

I agree with you that it can be nice. But in thinking back on my career, I’ve never been in an industry that needed it (beyond dealing with operational events).

For me the right middle ground was the collaborative coffee break. Different team members or even departments spend ten minutes walking or lounging in the kitchen, and that's where comradery and spontaneous ideas and collaboration can happen, without it disrupting the big chunks of flow in the day. This I do miss working from home.

When I'm sitting in close proximity to other humans, I can often tell what they are doing. People can give signals that they are currently occupied; this could be things like putting on headphones, etc. It's pretty easy to tell when someone is doing focused work vs. talking to a desk mate, etc.

I hear what you're saying.

However, i loved being tapped and then helping people. it was my very favourite distraction, and assuming i was actually helping them with work, I felt zero guilt about losing my focus. it's very personality specific, I suppose * shrug *

in the office, even if the person I want to ask a question is next to me, I'd usually ping them beforehand and wait for their answer, it feels more polite this way.

Absolutely, that was the worst part of office working. I've worked from home for 5 years now and love that part.

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