I should become a consultant. There would be a lot of middle & upper management that would get the ax, based on what I’ve read in this thread.
Let’s just leave out trades and manufacturing (because they all have to be on site or in the field), for the obvious reasons, and just focus on office environments, which I am actualy very familiar with. I hear people talk about dry by conversations, and in a healthy office, a social bonding is actually a positive thing, but in a productive office, people can collaborate very quickly, even if it’s only to ask a quick question. I will admit this works better in a small to medium size office and falls apart in a huge corporation (but those have dysfunctional policies anyway). “Where are you on project A, and have you spoken with engineer x yet?” “Bing bang boom.” “Okay thanks”. Then zip off to get something done.
Places I’ve worked, people who were “never there” had better be on medical leave, in the field, or in sales. Otherwise, they’d be canned and finding a new employer to ghost.
I have also talked to people who seem to be stuck in meetings all week long. These tend to be in larger corporations, but always, but no matter what, it’s a terrible kind of dysfunction that kills productivity time. Meetings are good for group brief/debrief information dissemination as well as for higher management to hold people’s feet to the fire in groups and in person (where frankly it’s much more effective). I will grant you that teams/zoom meetings can accomplish some of this though but those tend to be even slower than in person. The only groups that should be meeting frequently or daily are collaboration intensive, such as writers or programmers. Whether online or in person, meetings kill productivity but remote work lends itself to a lot of brain numbing electronic conferences.
In my situation, I work for very large employer. IT Engineering, by itself, has over 2000 employees. Employer has well over 20,000 employees. Not all of us WFH due to the nature of our jobs. However, 99% of IT Engineering does.
Our "collaboration" works just fine, as we are all on Skype 100% of the time we are on the clock. Your example above is done much quicker on skype than in person, since no one has to actually get up and go find the person to ask the question.
Also, it helps the mid managers keep track of their teams, along with zoom calls. No more scheduling of meeting rooms. Things are much easier and productive all around due to WFH.
At least for us.