I mean that I'd wager about 90% of my great ideas were not found during technical meetings in remote, but rather by bouncing ideas with my collegues in our work space during informal pauses.
We don't have that anymore: I have meetings at a certain hour, to discuss a specific subject, and in between I am alone in front of my screen at home. I eat alone and watch $shitty_youtube to pass time at noon, and I get back to work.
There's no incentive to discuss things informally, and whatever things we tried to motivate people quickly died: we had a "coffee google meet" for people coming online before 9, but this meet is now empty all the time; we have IRL meetings but people are now wary of taking the car to come (25km) because they are used to their comfort and only the local minority bothers to come.
The company culture is going down the drain, people don't know each other anymore and the retention is starting to wither: why stay in a company where I don't have anything other that money to gain? Seeing each other twice a year in seminars isn't going to spur much camaraderie, if the next day it's "wake up, walk 3m, sit at desk, eat at 12, back at desk, shower, sleep".
Also, the communication was way more fluid when all my team was at work in the same room: people didn't expect me to answer if I wasn't at my desk; now I get notifications even at 8PM because people started to work strange hours at their home and expect everybody else to answer when they need them to. Whereas in our room, 5 people were constantly bouncing ideas, problems, and possible solutions. We would draft things on the walls (they are writable) and reach conclusion fast.
If I needed an answer from another team they were a room away, and I could quickly pass the head and get a chat. At 6Pm I could go home, have a wind down on the road, and switch contexts to have a meaningful exchange with my kids an wife.
Now I have to summon everybody in a google meet for 30 min, preferably with 1 day forewarning. Half of the invitees don't even bother to put their cam, and if I forgot to invite somebody, there's 80% chance that he's unreachable, doing whatever, and I have to send an email to get an answer later during the day.
Maybe I'm one of people that like the human aspect of work? Am I a minority?
Ridiculous. Its not zero sum. I can get money, and coworkers, and engagement, and growth, and mentoring.
If I'm going to be by myself all day. Why work here when I can actually interact with humans and grow.
You assert the company doesn't care about me. WFH coworkers don't care about me either. They make work worse, because they only care about their immediate desires.
> The company culture is going down the drain, people don't know each other anymore and the retention is starting to wither: why stay in a company where I don't have anything other that money to gain? Seeing each other twice a year in seminars isn't going to spur much camaraderie, if the next day it's "wake up, walk 3m, sit at desk, eat at 12, back at desk, shower, sleep".
Sounds like the comp is getting too low for the market.
You can set up informal fun time meetings on VC. We did that at my last company. 1/2 hour fun time, rotate through people and each of them tells something about themselves, shows a few pics, to encourage friendly chatting. It worked well. Start with someone friendly and they can encourage everyone else.
