{"id":4605,"date":"2025-05-08T18:59:34","date_gmt":"2025-05-08T18:59:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aomtodayprod.wpenginepowered.com\/?p=4605"},"modified":"2025-07-09T15:41:36","modified_gmt":"2025-07-09T15:41:36","slug":"how-remote-work-changesemployee-interactions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/how-remote-work-changesemployee-interactions\/","title":{"rendered":"How Remote Work Changes Employee Interactions"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Daniel Butcher <\/a><\/p>\r\n

Working from home, whether it\u2019s two, three, or five days a week, has a profound impact on the ways that colleagues communicate with each other. While it does present challenges, it doesn\u2019t necessarily have to be negative, as many leaders advocating for a full return to the office assume.<\/p>\r\n

Academy of Management Scholar Jessica Methot<\/a> of Rutgers University and the University of Exeter\u2014who coauthored an Academy of Management Journal article <\/a><\/em> on that topic with Emily Rosado-Solomon<\/a> of Babson College, Patrick Downes<\/a> of the University of Kansas, and Allison Gabriel<\/a> of Purdue University\u2014said that small talk is a simple way to reenergize during the work day.<\/p>\r\n

How does that translate to a remote work environment?<\/p>\r\n

\u201cWhat are the implications of small talk when employees are working remotely? Maybe it doesn\u2019t look the same in a remote work environment,\u201d Methot said. \u201cAfter interviewing people after the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic and running additional studies, we found that many characteristics of small talk, including its spontaneity or scriptedness, are really difficult to replicate in a virtual environment.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cMeetings conducted remotely are more transactional and intentional\u2014they\u2019re planned; they\u2019re scheduled,\u201d she said. \u201cYou\u2019re not bumping into someone on Zoom, so you can\u2019t recreate that spontaneous interaction like you would if you were collocated in an office; it feels more awkward.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

After many companies moved to a remote work arrangement, it took a while for people to adjust to interacting with people over video-conferencing platforms.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cWhen you join a Zoom call, you\u2019ve got a group of people together all trying to have small talk,\u201d Methot said. \u201cPeople are interrupting each other, talking over each other, because it\u2019s hard to create that same sense of being in the same place in the way that we would engage socially otherwise.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cAlso, when we’re physically present in a conversation, it creates this sense of copresence, where people feel like they\u2019re in the conversation together,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re in this bubble where we\u2019re interacting together, and we can\u2019t do that same thing on Zoom.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cWe\u2019re looking at our own reflection on the camera, and we\u2019re thinking about things that are going on in the virtual meeting room with us, so it\u2019s hard to focus in that same way.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

It\u2019s also easier to read people when talking to them in person.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cWhen we\u2019re talking to each other in the same place, there\u2019s a natural transfer of energy,\u201d Methot said. \u201cWe\u2019re able to read each other\u2019s emotions better, but that transfer of energy is eroded in a virtual environment.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cIt\u2019s harder to see how people are feeling, reacting, and thinking when we\u2019re meeting remotely than when we\u2019re talking face-to-face,\u201d she said. \u201cAlso, when we\u2019re on remote calls or virtual meetings, chit-chat just isn\u2019t a priority.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cWe\u2019re all pressed for time; we\u2019ve structured our workday and may be experiencing Zoom fatigue, so we\u2019re not trying to drag out meetings for too long.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n

A sample of Methot\u2019s AOM research findings:<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n