The standard for team communication in the remote workplace has morphed into something far from natural, something efficient. In the pursuit of increased “productivity”, most companies rely on asynchronous chat apps like Slack and Microsoft Teams for the majority of their team communication through channel, group, and direct messaging. As a result, remote workers (hello 👋) experience a social disconnect from their coworkers, which can lead to devastating mental health problems such as anxiety, depression, and loneliness. Lesser known, these negative mental health effects also effect organizations at a massive scale: according to the HHS, loneliness is costing companies around $154,000,000,000 every year.
Yet, human communication is inherently inefficient. Our speech is filled with ums and uhs, emotionally-charged and synchronous by nature. And that’s a great thing. It’s what a Slack message can never be: emotional, lively. Human. The inefficiencies in natural conversation - the pauses, the tangents, the shared laughter - are precisely what make it so valuable!
Moving workplace comms out of the physical office has removed this spontaneity from our day-to-day. Impromptu cubical visits from a teammate about something so unnecessary can now feel so strangely necessary. These seemingly inefficient moments can lead to creative breakthroughs, stronger team bonds, and a more vibrant company culture.
It is absolutely critical to the health of the general public that we don’t lose sight of the importance of face-to-face interactions in fostering innovation and camaraderie within teams. The spontaneous nature of these exchanges allows for the free flow of ideas and the development of personal connections that are difficult, if not impossible, to replicate one-to-one in a purely digital environment.