A recent article highlights the growing need for employees to reconnect with their coworkers beyond the computer screen, and in-person retreats are one way they're doing it. In this Motley Fool Live segment from "The Virtual Opportunities Show," recorded on March 1, Fool.com contributors Demitri Kalogeropoulos, Travis Hoium, Jose Najarro, and Rachel Warren reflect on how remote work has shaped their own lives both during and after the pandemic.
Demitri Kalogeropoulos: The headline was, For Workers Who Are Never Onsite, The Offsite Still Beckons. It's an article about the ideas. We know most big tech companies and many other companies are not working in. They're all remote right now, off-site and hybrid work environment, if they're coming into the office at all. Meta, it used to be Facebook, has announced that most of their employees aren't going to have their work in the office, I think, ever again is what they are signaling. A lot of other tech companies are saying that too. But there's a few problems there. One is that it's hard to network with your coworkers and have ideas bounce off and stuff like that. That whole interaction is important. Then there's the isolation aspect that just people aren't excited about being stuck in the house and not socializing, I guess in the work environment.
Just a little quick quote here too from the article about that in terms of how remote work is going to morph into the future. It says offsite retreats and things like that where you're meeting and co-work, you do annual retreat, I guess, with employees and things like that, are more important than ever in a time of virtual work because it's easier to trust and communicate with remote coworkers when you actually know them and they're not just a face on the screen. I quote this guy, Jeremy Bailenson, who's done research on this interactive environment. He's a virtual-reality start-up. The idea of doing a multi-day retreat with back-to-back meetings over Zoom or something like that, he says "Insanity", and I'm not using that word lightly. He said you can't just talk at someone for 36 hours and expect the brain to absorb it. He's actually published a paper on the term "Zoom Fatigue." I don't know if you've heard that term before, but the idea that Zoom is like a firehose. You're getting flooded with nonverbal cues and that can be exhausting to do that. This is idea that because of that companies need this retreat thing. Which is funny, I guess, in the way that they're not actually retreating from the office because no one's in the office anymore, but you're retreating to do part of what you did in the office anyway. [laughs] Curious what you guys think about that.
Travis Hoium: I think that makes a lot of sense. I don't know if you guys have participated, we've done this with Motley Fool. We're all remote and we would, pre-pandemic anyways, go to headquarters once a year. It really is like the best way to get to know people and bounce ideas off each other. We're doing more video things now like this, and so we're getting to know each other virtually. But there's a lot of value to that. Even just those little smart dynamics, it's easier to send somebody an email or Slack message if you know them a little bit personally. If I've had a beer with you, it's easier to have that little conversation and ask you questions. I don't know what you guys' thoughts are, Jose and Rachel?
Jose Najarro: Unfortunately, I'm brand new to the Fool right now, so I haven't experienced those events. Hopefully later on, I can show up, but I do enjoy, like you mentioned, Travis, it's so much better once you get to know someone even through these videos. Because when I first started, I didn't know anybody which is doing my own stuff and then I got to me and I feel like now I can message you guys if I need maybe looking for new show or something and I feel very comfortable just talking to everybody here. Those are my thoughts there.
Rachel Warren: It's funny because I started December 2019 [laughs] right before everything happened with pandemic.
Travis Hoium: Right after the last conference. [laughs]
Rachel Warren: I just missed it. Maybe someday because that will be awesome. But I will say because before up until late last year, I had not done anything with live or Backstage and so pretty much all my interaction was just online instead of Zoom. I have found Zoom, which is the medium that we used to do our shows through, to be a really great way of being able to connect and get to know people. But I do think there's something to be said for, especially if you have remote first work environment, having those opportunities to interact because it can definitely be isolating.
I mean, I still would take working remotely versus the corporate life I had for years any day. But it absolutely can sometimes, you miss that human interaction, that face-to-face interaction. I do think it's interesting that companies are seeing that while overall, there's this big push to have a hybrid or flexible or remote work environment, which I think is a really great thing for most people in many, not all professions, but many. It is important to still have that human element and that I think can also contribute to like a really healthy workforce. I think that's cool and it's fun to have those in-person retreats, I think if you can do it.
