system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
How much time did you spend with face-to-face collaboration in an office before the pandemic?

Just thinking about the long term effect of the pandemic. Can you work fully remotely or do you need physical meetings?
gpt
The big thing you miss remote are the informal coffee break and lunch talks. Scheduled meetings over zoom are fine, but it’s more difficult to do the un-scheduled communication. The unscheduled communication is typically where I’d learn more about what other teams are working on and how we might be able to work together or align goals and get people’s opinion on project direction and health. You also miss the ability to rapidly get or give help when working on a task as easily as you can irl.

Remote is also tough for some employees due to constraints around needing an office space at home, which not everyone has, plus many people have kids or other family members who were already at home, making it trickier to try to work in the same space. Requiring a commute is tough on other employees who don’t live near the office, so you need to balance everything which is hard.