Read on Twitter
Let me explain. https://twitter.com/KiddBubu/status/1247357416058032129
When you work in an office with colleagues, you can just pop in an ask for clarifications in the "last report you received". a 10 minute convo and you are out right, well not exactly.
What never get taken into account is the productivity of the person who was engaged without prior permission. If he was in the middle of a cognitive heavy tasks, he is going to take no less than 30 mins to pick up and resume to where he was before.
And it gets worse the later in the day it is. If it is towards, the end of the day, some people might not resume until the following day.
But most times this is not a problem, cos when you set in the office, you are paid for your time, not effort, and that is all you have to give. The worst that happens is a feeling of frustration when it happens. But the dynamics for remote is way different.
In a remote scenario, the equivalence of popping in and asking for clarification is hitting someone up in the DM's. But here is the catch.
If the person you ping is absorbed in a task you will most likely not get a reply when you want it. Cos, this time there are in control of their own time. And its even worse, cos the person might be away from his home station.
So this time your time gets wasted and the level of frustration is even more. If someone doesn't reply to your DMs especially during work hours, he's is going to pick an unscheduled video call with you. So know double the time is lost in productivity.
This is the number one reason employers don't really like remote working.
Having a documentation culture means writing everything down as if, the next person who is going to use it will never have access to you. Because most often it is true. If you create a report with some obscure details, without a documentation culture...
you rely on the fact that you might have to explain it at the next meeting. But if the next meeting never happens, because you fall sick, get hit by a bus or you suddenly become unavailable, not a lot of sense can be made from the report unless the work is repeated.
So yes, you can replace weekly meeting with video calls and all is great, but that is not where work is done. The work is done when you have to get clarification on issues that will enable you to continue your work.
In another thread, I might talk about how and why to start building a documentation culture.
