General Discussion

there are a lot of variables.

I know many younger workers benefit from the mentorship opportunities of in-person interactions with seasoned colleagues, which are harder to come by via remote work. And there can be morale benefits from face-to-face communication, as long as your co-workers are good teammates and sane non-assholes.

I spent many years driving miles and miles to sit at a desk in buildings near the neighborhoods where top management lived. (Funny how that works.) In the last few years of my employment, I was on an IT team that was trusted enough to work remotely, which was such a blessing. Of course, it came with downsides, such as often working early, late, and on weekends. But our project rhythms were cyclical, so there were slack periods where I could take a long lunch break, work a shorter day now and then, etc.

But I can definitely confirm the ego part of the phenomenon. One of the Very Important Senior Executives at the corporation where I worked in my late-stage career came to our fair city to address a Town Hall meeting at our regional HQ. Most of us watched the video feed while multitasking, because we were as usual behind the 8-ball on deadlines. Well, we weren’t the only ones, as it turned out, and Mr. Big Shot spoke to a one-third-full auditorium. A bit embarrassing for him, it seems. Oops!

After that day, the edict came down from On High that we would all be expected to drag our butts into a local office an average of three days a week. Now, mind you, my job consisted of working with people around the U.S.A. and in different countries around the world, sometimes in vastly different time zones. (Calls with team members in California, The Netherlands, east coast U.S.A. and India were fun to schedule!)

So on my in-office days, I’d bring my laptop to a drop-in work space in a building in which none of my co-workers were present, so I could get credit for “being in the office,” where I would collaborate with people around the country and the globe.

All to assuage the fragile ego of a VP!