London Banter - View Single Post - Cambrige

Neil Williams · January 9th 05, 07:37 AM posted to uk.transport.london

On 9 Jan 2005 00:05:32 GMT, (D.M. Garner) wrote:

I would love to telecommute, but it can never replace the quality
of interaction you get from chatting face-to-face and scribbling
things on pieces of paper in meetings.

I'd agree with that. While I'm still based in an office, my role has
changed somewhat over the 3 years I've been with the company, in that
it mostly involved face-to-face working at the start and is now almost
entirely involving working with people in the US via teleconferences.

As far as I am concerned, my productivity has dropped markedly as a
result, largely because of the fact that people have very little
discipline in teleconferences and so either invite people who don't
need to be there, or waffle on for ages rather than getting to the
point.

I have quite a bit of time (!) for the management consultancy (can't
recall which one) that banned seating and refreshments from meeting
rooms, in order that they could be over with as quickly as possible.
Pity such things can't be applied easily to teleconferences.

Productivity (or not) aside, I find it a bit more difficult to work
with people (at a personal level) who I've never actually met. Just
feels odd.

Neil

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Neil Williams in Milton Keynes, UK
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