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Comment by arcturus17 | Hacker News Reader

I consider myself 100% a remote guy, but c'mon. Isn't it reasonable for people in an org to be in the same physical space a few times a year.

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Personally I don't see any difference at all in being in the same building vs on online zoom/video meeting.

I find it very strange that being in a room with someone is somehow different than being on a video call.

You can see the peoples' faces...what are you going to do in person? Touch peoples' naughty bits? Fart so everyone can enjoy? I don't get it. You are there to exchange ideas. Being face-to-face in person allows you to see the person's face and non-verbals. But you get that in a video conference.

I don't understand.

No, why do you think it’s reasonable that be a requirement to be productive?

Because it helps people bond and so work better as a team. Plus probably not all your colleagues are complete introverts and may actually enjoy the company of others.

In my experience the only thing helping people work better as a team is just working better as a team.

Be patient, kind, and spend an extra minute writing a more detailed email that is helpful to your colleagues. If you're a manager, give them the right tools and empower them.

But this is completely orthogonal to whether the work is in an office or remote.

Part of the in-person experience is the opportunity for people to correct mistakes in communication. Many people are not effective writers, and so pushing for async or writing-heavy communication is difficult at best. Having one-on-ones by voice or video often helps cut down misunderstandings, and in-person is a way to help reduce the barrier to entry for such interactions.

This is just an example of extraverts forcing their way of doing things on others.

If people are bad at writing, they can get better at it, like any other skill. I have a bad memory for voice/video conversations, so my preference is to always have a written email to go back to for reference.

But I'll still attempt to do what my other team members are comfortable with.

I enjoy the company of others, but I can't say I much care for being forced to interact in-person with specific people. It's not that I dislike my coworkers, it's just that there's better ways to spend my time than in an office.

Because while I think the benefits of remote work clearly outweigh the cons, I also concede that face-to-face human interaction provides a host of benefits that cannot be replicated virtually, and meeting my clients and partners in person from time to time is nice (if I worked as an employee, I'd think the same of my teammates and bosses)

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