I couldn’t imagine anything worse than purely async communications. Tonality of voice is so key in building rapport, even better are video calls so facial expressions and (limited) body language can be used and seen.
I understand the sentiment but a world of purely text based interactions would feel very lonely and full of miss interpretations and understandings.
A happy medium needs to be found but while the pandemic has us locked up in our homes? I’m incredibly thankful for Zoom, Hangouts, FaceTime, Teams and even Skype.
Update: I don’t begrudge people not turning on video, im more than happy to just use audio but please don’t force me to type any more than I already do if you want to discus something complicated.
Update 2: I’m a full stack developer in case you’re assuming I like to talk because I’m product/sales/marketing
What’s your field of work? In tech, it’s often much better to resolve and discuss things in writing. It gives everyone time to think. There are technical details to work out, and getting a clear picture of things is easier when you have to write it down.
I think a combination of both is optimal. Spend too long communicating exclusively through async text, and silly misunderstandings can waste a lot of time and even grow into features that no one actually wants. Spend too long communicating exclusively through meetings etc, and you end up going round in circles without committing to anything. Alternate between the two modes, and they correct each other.
Getting a clear picture of your recipient's understanding is much harder when you have to back-and-forth async. In discussion it's considerably easier to see when a point hasn't landed, ask questions to check for understanding, and dive more deeply into the areas of confusion. It can be a real time-saver.
Communicating efficiently does not mean “ignoring the humanity of employees”. These are not exclusive.
You’ll often see “big important emails” by Jobs, Zuckerberg and other figures being circled around. These use written word for a reason. It’s like the difference in podcasts vs books - would you want to study philosophy solely via podcasts? Would be extremely draining. Complex subjects require structure and slow thinking.
Interesting that the OP makes a similar point (“a world of text would feel very lonely”). Why do you feel like going to the other extreme?
I love the eventual video meeting with teammates for planning, discussing company matters or a simple coffee break. But staring at each other during a standup or trying to figure out some product specs or analytics code does nothing to “build rapport” and just wasted everybody’s time.
I think the author is just referring to writing heart-felt letters or well-thought-out business correspondence. People en masse don’t know how to communicate these days because of the instant gratification of snaps and DMs and yadda-yadda.
We don’t know how to read either because we skim the internet’s garbage, sifting through ads to get to the meaning of a blog entry, only to think we understand it but… what if we skimmed over it??
Communication and social interaction have been junk-food-ized just like everything else mass produced, and supplied in abundance.
Then again, the author’s post didn’t exactly communicate that well—this is just my interpretation :)
Most neurodivergent (not just autism, attention deficit too) people really appreciate options that do not include synchronous communication, especially for a prolonged period. I'm not saying it doesn't have a place, but you need to also consider that it is a serious disadvantage for some.
I'm pretty happy we're having a shift where a lot more companies will be offering remote work too now. I don't thrive in offices. I usually try to find empty meeting rooms so I can actually get things done. Similarly, I hate meetings. Especially the kind that could've been an email or requires only minor involvement for me. I don't have enough of an attention span to keep listening to information that is not relevant to me or my job.
Having to sit in a Google Meet / Teams call for the last few months all day has not been great for my mental health either (aside from the fact that Google Meet sometimes emits random noise).
That’s fair, the linked article is somewhat opinionated and doesn’t specify the nuance you have here. Of course I am happy to make considerations where people need it but the linked article doesn’t read like that
Personally I say fuck written language too! Who needs words!
If you want to communicate with me, just grunt
In all honesty though, we are going through an wonderful revolution in language where people are beginning to acknowledge communication is made up by more than just words.
Emojis make it clear that certain things are hard to put into words, like
It’s also quite a new phenomenon to hold people accountable for tone, facial expressions and body language. (Think toxic masculinity etc)
That said, I am also open to the idea that some work can be done, perhaps better, distilling the communication down to pure word messages that have persistence (IE accountability)
e.g. you don't need to send me a meeting invite for a meeting that starts in 15 minutes so that you can tell me that you've created a new issue for a bug. Just create the issue and assign it to me, and I'll see it when I'm free to do so.
You might be able to get around that by being highly responsive to new issues/tickets. Immediately email or phone the person to say you got it. They're likely using a meeting to force you to acknowledge their issue because otherwise it could or will go unnoticed.
meh, it's about balance and knowing what communication medium to use for a specific topic.
great teams don't just use one communication method, they adapt to the situation and people.
For deeply technical topics where there are a ton of specific details, yes - use writing.
For more free form topics - one on ones, retros, brainstorming, high level planning, calls or video chat may work better. It depends on what the people involved want.
No communication tool is perfect, use the ones that are right for the topic at hand.
This seems to conflate Zoom usage with a lack of typing and writing skills? Given how many people use Zoom now, I'd like to see the numbers on that, if that's really OP's position. (You want to vent about the boss via anecdata, ok fine but that's different)
That's strange to me because I find it easier to go high-level (concept level) in Zoom calls without getting bogged down. In effect it's a much better communications tool when a short trip through the stratosphere can replace a week long trip over bumpy and windy roads.
Plus as others have mentioned there's the tonality aspect, of which OP's post is a great example: Are they angry, and if so how much--and would it be helpful feedback to see the shocked faces of the people on the other end of the communique?
There's a lot of people - mostly in management, marketing, etc - that seem to kinda suck at touch typing and much prefer a quick call because (for them) things move a lot faster then.
I don't see how a short-form rant suggesting greater time investment in slower activities would be an improvement or something other than a belief/personal preference.
PS: Maybe we need a one syllable, easy-to-pronounce word instead of "video conferencing?" Is "Zoom" that "Xerox?"
Zoom is also sadly the absolute worst meeting software.
Even moreso if you're not an English speaker since the UI translations are terrible and most of them don't make sense in context - the interface is confusing as is, my parents stood absolutely no chance in figuring out how to work it.
What? Zoom is miles better than Skype or Vidyo or WebEx or whatever the fuck else I'd had to use before Zoom. Zoom is the absolute BEST meeting software that I've ever used. Setting up meetings is a cinch, sharing the meeting links is no bother, it syncs up with your calendar, screensharing is easy, annotating is available, it even has built in polling.
I get that they're a shady as shit company with perhaps very little respect for your privacy, but their video calling UI is best in class. No one I talk with (not the most tech savvy bunch) has any trouble with "I don't hear you!" type rubbish anymore.
No, the UI doesn't make sense to English speakers either. It is very clear that people working on the software aren't native speakers of English. Typos and grammatical errors galore, and they never get fixed.
> Ever since the pandemic started, everyone wants to zoom. Can we do a zoom interview call? Can we do a zoom meeting? Let's set up a zoom. Let's do a quick zoom. Let's all get on a zoom. Zoom classes for students. Zoom yoga. Let's get beers on zoom. Hour long screaming zoom calls with kids and family members (don't point that thing at me).
> Fuuuck zoom.
Good. Perhaps, I have to give it to Zoom for providing extraordinary value to their shareholders during the pandemic. Better than any product or competitor.
If you don't turn on your camera I won't really enjoy working with you. For me, facial expression alongside the tonality of your voice are important communication mechanisms.
It's actually quite rude if you don't turn on your camera (ever). It's okay if you need it off every now and then.
Sure, but it's not pointing at me. I like good ergonomics, which means my work laptop sits besides my monitor and keyboard and mouse. So yeah, I can turn on the camera and have it look at the blank wall past my shoulder if you like that. I'll do the camera thing for really important or polite functions, but not for the daily stand-up or whatever.
I had the misfortune of using Zoom yesterday. I've used Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and Jitsi Meet (that one's nice), but Zoom really sucks. Somehow it manages to hijack the mute control of my microphone, which the others don't do (all using the browser version, no apps). I usually just unmute myself in the meet-thingy and mute/unmute myself with a keyboard shortcut which operates on the OS-level muting, but Zoom does not like that.
I understand the sentiment but a world of purely text based interactions would feel very lonely and full of miss interpretations and understandings.
A happy medium needs to be found but while the pandemic has us locked up in our homes? I’m incredibly thankful for Zoom, Hangouts, FaceTime, Teams and even Skype.
Update: I don’t begrudge people not turning on video, im more than happy to just use audio but please don’t force me to type any more than I already do if you want to discus something complicated.
Update 2: I’m a full stack developer in case you’re assuming I like to talk because I’m product/sales/marketing