During the pandemic remote work became normality. Fewer than 30% of knowledge workers around the world are working from the office every day. This means that many employees are interacting with far fewer co-workers during the day than they used to at their desks before. Sending messages to co-workers who you don’t know well for no work-related reason would feel pretty weird. Colleagues who used to be a small part of workers’ office lives are now effectively ghosts.
Microsoft conducted a study in 2021 that showed staff switching to remote work meant employees didn’t just change who they worked with, but also how they worked with them. People in different work groups connected far less with each other than before the pandemic. Groups also became static as workers hung on to existing connections rather than making new ones.
Since people talked mainly to their own team members, organizational silos became less connected to each other. This trend continued even when the silos themselves became less stable because many members left the company.
Due to remote work interactions with colleagues were reduced to daily 15-minutes check-ins, rather than the casual chats all day long. The opportunities to chat or joke have been cut out. Contact with indirect colleagues and work contacts were stopped altogether.
Another survey from 2021 by the job-search site Indeed found that 73% of people missed socializing in person and 46% missed work-related side conversations that happened in the office. Social ties people have in the workplace give them a sense of attachment and belonging at work. Many employees felt less connected to their colleagues than before the pandemic and many felt disconnected from things going on in their company overall.
Employees don’t miss only interactions with colleagues who they knew well, but also the ones who play a more casual role in the workday. The outer circle of acquaintances are known as weak-tie friendships. Those casual acquaintances can boost happiness, knowledge and a sense of belonging.
Connections happen when we pay attention to each other. We need to find ways to do this even in a virtual environment, for example by remembering a birthday or by scheduling a virtual coffee. And after the pandemic has passed, we should take care to rebuild our networks of casual acquaintances. We can learn a lot from talking to people we barely know.
