The quote of 2020 was: you’re on mute, the quote of 2021 is: who’s in the office?
TL;DR:
- The hybrid model of remote work doesn’t work
- We haven’t figured out remote work tools or etiquette
- Remote work isn’t going away
Notes
- “Hybrid model never works”
- “Remote lacks serendipity”
- “Video defaults to 30min, in-person defaults to 1h otherwise it’s impolite”
- “People still don’t know when to have a meeting, versus email, versus something else”
- “McKinsey has clear rules for sending emails, how to ask questions”
- “Current tools aren’t very good, you can’t share files through Zoom”
- “Most people think it’ll be 3-4 days in the office, few say 1 day in the office”
- “Hybrid model creates resource issues: when are people in, how much space do you need if everyone’s in but only on Monday”
- “We don’t even know what the questions for remote work are”
- “You sometimes miss the visual cues, like when someone has something to say in a meeting”
- “Unmuting during a Zoom call is extremely impolite for some, for others it means you want to talk”
- “Etiquette isn’t established for video calls”
- “We need a UI structured around video and the problems we have”
- “Clubhouse: what is it? Is it a podcast? is it a panel? is it a radio show? is it a community? Will it monetise as a conference platform?”
- “How do physical events shape the attendees? e.g. if you’re married, if you’ve travelled in, you’re less likely to hang around or attend”
- “CEO of Universal didn’t believe London was on a different timezone”
- “Async is a struggle for many. What are the tools we need?”
- “Documentation needs to be a common habit to be Async”
- “All-hands and other sync events can be recorded, but information needs to be consumed within a certain timescale, so everyone is on the same page”
- “Some of the COVID habits will go away, but a lot will stick”
- “Micromanagers hate collaboration because they can’t control it”
- “I kick-off messages I send at ridiculous hours with NOT URGENT, just because I don’t want others to reply, but I just came across something I need to send”
- “The people who invented hot desks in the 90s, struggled with getting everyone a laptop, with not depending on paper, finding the people they wanted to talk to” – it was too early for remote work.
- “Very few people who went remote didn’t set the ground rules, being late for 3 minutes on a zoom call is a long time.”
- “As a remote team you’ve got 5x more process, most people don’ have a microphone, or a camera.”
- “Most laptop cameras are bad because no one cared about that before COVID“
- “Why don’t we tell people their sound, or video is poor?”
- “The quote of 2020 was you’re on mute, the quote of 2021 is who’s in the office?”
