Biggest takeaway from pandemic lockdowns for Microsoft? Teams stopped talking to each other
- Reference: 1631209389
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/09/09/microsoft_crossteam_conversations/
- Source link:
In a [1]peer-reviewed study published in Nature Human Behaviour today, researchers from Microsoft showed how colleagues at the Redmond-based software biz changed their communication and collaboration patterns during the first months of isolation.
Using data gathered from circa 61,000 Microsoft employees in the US between December 2019 to June 2020, the study shows that company-wide remote work caused the collaboration network to become more static and siloed: people were less likely to communicate with those outside their immediate business teams compared with when they spent time in the office.
[2]
At the same time, there was a decrease in so-called synchronous communication – phone calls, video meetings or face-to-face meetings – and an increase in asynchronous communication such as email, SMS or corporate chat, the data from emails, calendars, instant messages, and video/audio calls showed.
[3]
[4]
Together, these effects may make it harder for employees to acquire and share new information across the network, said the research team led by Longqi Yang, a senior applied researcher at Microsoft. In an accompanying blog, Microsoft said collaboration time employees spent with cross-group connections dropped by about 25 per cent of the pre-pandemic level.
The company blog argued that even if firms mixed working from home with office work – so-called hybrid work – the effects on collaboration patterns would still be present, albeit slightly mitigated.
[5]
"Without intervention, the effects we discovered have the potential to impact workers' ability to acquire and share new information across groups, and as a result, affect productivity and innovation. In light of these findings, companies should be thoughtful about if and how they choose to adopt long-term work-from-home policies," it said.
[6]More than half of companies rethinking back-to-office plans amid variant uncertainty and vaccine mandates – survey
[7]Amazon delays return to office work until 2022 at the earliest
[8]Google delays back-to-office recall until at least 2022
[9]UK chancellor: Getting back to the altar of corporate dreams (the office) will boost young folks' careers
The results will no doubt add fuel to the tech industry debate on working from home. While half of companies are [10]rethinking back-to-office plans as nasty COVID variants circulate, [11]Amazon and [12]Google have stated that they will delay the return to water coolers and suspended polystyrene ceilings until 2022.
In such circumstances, expect a raft of technologies pitched at solving the undesired effects of long-term WFH. Exhibit A: [13]Google Workspace , "a better way for people to engage in topic-based discussions, share knowledge and ideas, move projects forward and build communities and team culture."
Microsoft itself has [14]delayed its return date for staff to work on-site until 4 October, and those that do choose to commute in will need to show proof of vaccination before they set a foot through the door.
In the other camp is Workday and the UK's Chancellor of the Exchequer. The SaaSy HR and finance app slinger's CEO said [15]five days a week at home might be "too much family time" and later splashed some dollars [16]buying office space .
[17]
Months later, Rishi Sunak [18]said he doubted he would have built the strong relationships that fostered his career if his first jobs had been conducted via Teams and Zoom.
Nonetheless, home working looks like it is here to stay for the foreseeable future. Better get used to some silo-breaking rhetoric and accompanying tech solutions. ®
Get our [19]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-021-01196-4
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YTqEJZCeJW0mXzoPBVEiWAAAAFM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YTqEJZCeJW0mXzoPBVEiWAAAAFM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YTqEJZCeJW0mXzoPBVEiWAAAAFM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YTqEJZCeJW0mXzoPBVEiWAAAAFM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2021/08/24/jumpcloud_survey/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2021/08/06/amazon_covid_office/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2021/08/31/google_office_covid/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2021/08/03/uk_chancellor_rishi_sunak_returning_to_office/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2021/08/24/jumpcloud_survey/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2021/08/06/amazon_covid_office/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2021/08/31/google_office_covid/
[13] https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/workspace/enabling-hybrid-work-with-google-workspace
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2021/08/04/microsoft_covid_work/
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2021/01/18/workday_ceo_says_oracle_way/
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2021/03/24/workday_building_purchases/
[17] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YTqEJZCeJW0mXzoPBVEiWAAAAFM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[18] https://www.theregister.com/2021/08/03/uk_chancellor_rishi_sunak_returning_to_office/
[19] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
My irony meter
..has just exploded...
Teams vs. Slack
I do consulting at multiple organizations at a time, and thus tend to participate in multiple Slack and M$ Teams channels at a give time. The biggest difference I see is people actually like using Slack, communicate openly and socially vs. what seems like mere ghost channels on Teams like they're afraid of corporate logging something inappropriate.
Slack seems to invite communication dumping everyone into "General" first, usually with hails of "welcome!", and folks are typically encouraged to find other channels as appropriate to join. There are typically few private only channels, rather it's built more on social inclusion vs. exclusion. People actually enjoy using it both for being social within the companies and for getting work done in some combination of both.
Among even my own team Teams channels, it's almost frowned upon to post non-work items, get rare responses, and all teams lock their own channels to only themselves vs. inviting cross-team collaboration (no networking bofh's in the systems channel, please). There is no "General" channel for everyone to socialize in, no "Pets" channels, no specialized "outside work" interests, nothing. It's all entirely sterile and/or depressing. People only use it for direct messages to each other, and most hate it as a conferencing platform, still using their webex/zoom/google conferencing instead.
This is consistent across every Teams org I've joined.
As much as M$ gives it away, it just as usual misses the mark to clone Slack as much as they would like it to be.
Slack rules Ok
Teams is [redacted] in comparison.
Using Slack does give another take on 'Slacking off'.
'Sharing'
I once had a desk in an open plan office at the junction of three separate teams who all shared the same floor. I must confess that there was some very distracting 'sharing' of results from two teams to me, being within earshot of lots of conversations.
I also had the 'experience' that the person sat immediately to my right was a heavy smoker. Every now and then he would disappear for 15 or so minutes and return literally stinking of tobacco smoke (sorry for the offence caused to smokers by this revelation, but I'm asthmatic so found this particularly irritating).
Some cross team sharing is not always welcome. Although hearing one of my neighbours say over the phone "don't get on your high horse with me", was a bit startling (he was speaking to his daughter).
On the other hand, every other Friday afternoon I have a conference call with my former colleagues at work, and catch up on all their gripes and worries, which is fun.
Logic fail.
So working in an office is far too dangerous but all those crowds at the footy isn't a problem?
Which unvaccinated red zone country is El Reg being scripted from?
Worked for us
We managed to maintain good communications channels and even increased our productivity per hour worked. There is a lot of general chatter in our team channel and also we have been actively communicating with other teams. Our former CEO had to eat his own words in the end. It really depends on the company structure and how receptive your team members are. I moonlight with another company, in a different industry, also very technical workforce, main platform is Slack and that works quite well for everyone. In the end, as long as the tool is decent and the teams are receptive to tech, it'll work out.
Microsoft Teams destroys human race, details at 11
Then it cheers around in Redmond for the human destruction they’ve delivered!
Get out the bunting!