The Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic is clearly impacting on us all and many have commented that it will drive some significant and permanent changes in behaviour.

In particular, the technological advances that have made it easy to conduct conferences by Microsoft Teams or Zoom have tempted people to dream of downsizing their office space and of dramatically reducing the need for hours of commuting. I’m not so sure, and Mathew Paris in the Times today has definitely nailed his colours to the mast by suggesting that most of the changes that we have adopted in the last couple of weeks will not last long after the release from lock-down whenever it comes. The lessons, he thinks, won’t be learned at all.

My objections come from the frustrations that I feel at the barrier that this mode of working sets up between the individuals involved and also the isolation and disconnectedness that the individual feels working alone without the companionship of others with whom to share the daily aggravations and the minor problem-solving that goes on in a shared environment.

This second aspect has been highlighted in recent conversations with my daughter who spent two years working alone in Dubai, to set up a branch of her employer’s business there and also my sister-in-law who worked from home for over two years in a consultancy business and in studying for her PhD. I think that it is very important to be able to share a difficult experience with someone else, even if that sharing involves no more than to be present when the other person is having a stressful conversation with a difficult or demanding client and to be able to say, “well that sounded a tough one”. Or “he was a bit of a dick, I had one like that myself last week”. It can help to keep things in proportion, it can help to be able to share a problem-solving short cut for an IT  or procedural issue.

As a Manager I find it a problem to be struggling to hear what everyone is saying in the meeting and to have the feeling that not everyone is focusing on the topic under discussion. Maybe they are reading or answering emails at the same time. I can’t read their body language and I certainly find it very difficult to pick up on whether someone has something that they want to contribute but don’t want to hit the “hand up” tab. Even one on one conversations have a feeling of distance  where commitments are less firm and the eye to eye contact is much less certain.

Of course a quick question can be asked and answered better than by a phone call alone and in much less time that it would have taken to visit the other’s desk. Those are easier and may possibly have the downside of  being so easy that they become disruptive of the other person’s time.

In the end, I expect that the quick video call will become a very commonplace tool but that when important things need to be done and people need to be motivated and engaged, the most efficient process will be to do it in person, face to face. Those who don’t respect the need for personal contact will alienate themselves from colleagues and subordinates alike.