The early summer of 2020 was an interesting time to graduate.
For many years, there had been a clear path towards better opportunities. In 2020, this finally came to an end but at a time where no further step felt to be on stable ground. The sense of uncertainty was constant and inescapable.
Those fortunate enough to begin their careers in autumn 2020 were introduced to a working environment that their own managers were likely struggling to adapt to. Resigning in December 2020 amounted to sending an email, having a video call, and then never logging in again after working the notice period.
All of the stories we’d heard concerning life before remote work were just that – stories of a time before ours, and not something that we could easily relate to. For me, remote working was familiar. It was travelling to the office and interacting with colleagues outside of video meetings that felt foreign.
All of the stories we’d heard concerning life before remote work were just that – stories of a time before ours, and not something that we could easily relate to. For me, remote working was familiar. It was travelling to the office and interacting with colleagues outside of video meetings that felt foreign.
When I joined Programmai in January 2021, I spent the first three months working remotely and the last two easing into a flexible blended office model. Considering the contrasts between these two ways of working is seemingly unavoidable under the circumstances, but necessary. In order to best navigate this transitional period, we need to recognise the differences.
Joining the world of work, virtually
To illustrate how different and detached the fully-remote experience may be from the decades prior, here’s a quick summary of what the process of getting a job was like:
- Fill out a form online
- Have an email conversation
- Complete a task done and submit online
- A couple of video call interviews
- Receive a contract via email to be signed digitally
- Join the company’s messaging app
This sounds straightforward, but each part of the process is intangible. There’s no physical change to anchor the experience to.
This significant transition in life – a new career – now means logging in at a different address and learning to navigate an unfamiliar app or website. For some, this may have been the only experience so far of the hiring process, and from there it’s been all text chats and video calls.
There’s also a very diminished social side to work.
To each person, the importance of the ‘culture’ of the company they work for may be anywhere from it being the main reason they work there, to “it’s just a job”.
This persists in the world of remote work, but what is actually offered by the culture of a company is greatly limited. How does ‘culture’ work through video calls, text chats, and emails? The correct solution seems to vary a lot depending on the business.
For Programmai, scheduling 1:1 video calls for casual catch-ups seemed to work. It’s a simple idea really, but it does the important job of facilitating growing bonds between colleagues despite the fact that each person’s presence is limited to their co-workers’ monitors.
It’s clear why some reminisce about life before remote work – the incidental conversations, the group lunches or dinners, the less rigid meetings, the drinks. With remote work, only approximations of life before can be made – it’s all detached, it’s all digital. But to those of us who have only experienced remote work, they’re all new experiences to have with our colleagues almost as if we are starting the job again.
With remote work, only approximations of life before can be made – it’s all detached, it’s all digital. But to those of us who have only experienced remote work, they’re all new experiences to have with our colleagues almost as if we are starting the job again.
Transitioning to office life: my observations
Of course, eventually, we were freed from the confines of our coworkers’ laptop screens and could walk among them.
Here are a few of my observations and thoughts (that may or may not be revisited later) from my first few times going to the office and actually interacting with colleagues outside of video calls:
- Everyone’s faces are less flat than they appeared on the screen.
- You feel it at the time, but it’s still striking how differently the rules of body language work in a video call versus in-person.
- Being in a relatively small office, all conversations are audible. Us engineers can hear the strategy discussions from everyone involved in the sales – this is both entertaining and intriguing.
- Going on a walking meeting in an area you’re unfamiliar with can help you remember the conversation better. The recollection of the experience seems to work somewhat similarly to the ‘memory palace’.
