10 months of back to working in person

👋 Hey, Madhur here! Welcome to my Newsletter. I write about technology and lifestyle. Subscribe to my newsletter to receive all my posts directly in your inbox. Happy reading

As we all know, In March 2020 COVID hit, and almost all the working population was forced to work remotely. We thought it would be over quickly but it lasted over two years. What was the effect of this? Remote work became a norm. Employers and employees (especially in tech) realized that working remotely is a good idea. It works for both employees and employers.

Even after the world returned to normal, my company remained remote, foregoing the transition back to in-person work. To be honest, I did enjoy working remotely. I get to choose when I work when I can go to the gym, or do my chores. One of the biggest benefits was there was no commute. If you reside in one of the major cities in the US, you can understand the challenges posed by commuting and parking. So this was all good. But over time I realized something was missing in remote culture. When I went to multiple company offsite I met a bunch of colleagues in person. We had a lot of great discussions, knowledge sharing, and of course social hours. Over those few offsites, I realized I love working in person since it helps me resolve my issues faster and I tend to learn more.

So as I was looking for new jobs, one of the criteria was to work in person. It did happen that I joined a company local to where I live and it was just 15 15-minute bus ride away (It was pure luck). 10 months later, after working in person I realized I was right on how I would love working in person again.

Working in person has its perks.

One of the most important things is the relationship I developed with my peers. While working remotely, I have not experienced that sort of trust between coworkers. It helps to develop that part where you can physically see and understand a person by seeing their body language instead of just their face in Zoom or Google Meet.

Conflicts are resolved faster as you can understand a person’s body language way better than you can do on Google/Zoom etc.

You can learn new things on those random coffee chats

For many people, remote work offers the advantage of avoiding daily commutes while also allowing them to schedule their day according to their family's needs. But I feel if you are a young fresh grad, going remote from day one is not a great way to start your career. It’s quite hard to learn actual people skills, which you need to excel in your career while working remotely. The learning you get by going to the office in person is incomparable if you work remotely.