Ask HN: Anyone else miss spontaneous conversations at work?
Considering it's been 6 months since most office workers have started WFH, this is a question I've been thinking on.
Of course, remote work has many benefits such as cutting down on commute times, being able to work at your own schedule, and less office distractions. But one thing I find sorely lacking & so far irreplaceable is the spontaneous interactions that used to happen. You know, water cooler talk, catching up with a friend you run into, side conversations before a meeting etc.
I was toying around with the idea of an app that can help you "bump into" your coworkers again, but only when you're on break & want to chat. I was curious if people even had this problem in the first place?
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[ 2.8 ms ] story [ 85.9 ms ] threadSo I got some good noise canceling headphones and all was right for awhile until people start waving their hand in front of your face. ;-/
Just out of curiosity, would your answer also apply in moments when you wanted to take a break (ie got away from the desk, took a walk etc)?
Walking with people after lunch bs'ing about whatever was always enriching for me.
Some people at my company are using it, but I don't miss the watercooler talk that much, so I haven't tried it
For the purposes of "breaks" though, considering all the zoom fatigue that people face, I was thinking of something that pairs people together for a more hands-free interaction (like audio or phone call) which allows people to actually walk around or brew coffee or whatever, just like when they're on break in a physical office.
Like I mentioned earlier, I think I messed up somehow the first time because it didn't show up on "Ask HN". I hope I didn't make this redundant for any viewer.
Bit new to HN, but very sorry, I'll make sure to not repost in the future so quickly in case it actually is just a timing issue.
Please enjoy :). Always interested in feedback. Email in bio.
Shoutout to https://uselander.xyz/ for making it so easy to create clean landing pages.
I'm blessed in that I have two roommates I'm also best friends with, so that definitely helps, but I do agree with you that there is a certain privilege, if you will, to the spontaneity that comes with office talk.
Curious, do you still reach out to those close coworkers during lunch in some other medium? Or have you found that to be pretty challenging?
Just curious, do you find people joining those always on voice channels like Discord often? And are these set up for the team, or some larger group?
I’d love to try it out at work, but I feel like there’s a lack of understanding culturally how voice chat is supposed to work and what a good setup looks like. People I’ve talked to about using it at work are (rightly) worried about interruptions to flow.
I think after-work hours are the big suck right now: teleworking 9-5 would be way better if 6-10 all the restaurants / bars / coffeeshops / .. were open (for that matter, coffeeshops 996 or st).
The barrier to this isn't lack of an app - it is just developing the habit of reaching out and saying "Hi."
Just out of curiosity, how did your team work to develop that habit when starting out? Is there anything in particular you did to hit that critical mass? I find it can be difficult at times to build that up.
Some people at work meet up on zoom rooms to hang out but the idea gives me weird anxiety. I'd give anything to go back to the office, but yet another meetup app wouldn't do anything for me.
Just out of curiosity, would your perspective about talking to someone change if this interaction was just a 2 person conversation? And if you could not look at a screen (ie audio or more low-tech phone call)?
Which is not to say that you shouldn't just build it anyway. Much like slack and zoom, your real customers probably aren't people like me, but companies that want to adopt the technology to fill the office-culture-sized whole in all our hearts. And much like those apps, even if people like me don't like the experience, it's startups start adopting it, people use it
Outside the office, on the other hand, I definitely miss spontaneous conversation. In my experience, post corona, it's kinda hard to talk to anyone random. Most places where it would be appropriate are operating at a lower capacity, everyone is wearing a mask(making it difficult to read sentiment), and they all just want to get in and get out. It doesn't help that at least 20% of people are down right paranoid about getting the virus. I miss those random conversations at the cafe, the gym, the grocery store, the gastropub, etc., because at least they happen in a natural environment and have some potential for actual acquaintance. I know things are opening up very slowly, but it's still not the same.
Workplace, I can't care less. People are more fake at the workplace than in real life.
The idea is that you can see who is around and just jump into a conversation without calling.
If you are interested you can look at it at https://www.inoffice.chat
I also miss blowing off some steam with colleagues. I find noone really complains or blows off steam on Zoom or in MS Teams Chat.
I don't think I'd ever work for a company that doesn't have significant in person/office presence.