Page 109 - WHERE WE WORK - Schlegelmilch

Reconfiguring workplaces
Illustrative evidence
Relationships with project team: “I mean the relationships are good, you can maintain them. But because you are not physically together, you miss something. When you don’t look for that, then your relationships weaken. [...] You have to physically get together at a certain frequency, once or twice a week, to maintain the relationship and keep it right.” (P16, employee, medium tenure)
Relationship with team members: “All these people were close to me. [But] the people that you don’t work with, they are automatically farther away.” (P17, employee, medium tenure)
Face-to-face meetings during the closure: “We made someone in the team responsible for arranging it all. It was a logistical matter. That’s how we met each other in different spaces. We saw each other every week.” (P11, middle manager, medium tenure)
Contacting people in mid-layer: “I thought, ‘It’s good to catch up with [colleague]’, so I would call her in the car. But you don’t just randomly think ‘I will call [colleague]’ because [...] without having a purpose.” (P18, manager, high tenure)
"But there is also a big group that you don’t really know, who you only recognize by face or with who you talk once per half a year.” (P17, employee, medium tenure)
Finding new projects: “I knew its project manager already and then you chat once in a while. But then, because you encounter this person more often, next time he will think ‘I have a great project. I’m looking for a developer: [P22].’ And that is something that won’t happen if you didn’t meet that person once in a while at the office and have a coffee with.” (P22, middle manager, low tenure)
Peripheral layer disappearing: “The layer that encloses others, where your other colleagues – the ones that you don’t know directly but also walk around here – disappeared. It’s just invisible, it just wasn’t there anymore.” (P12, middle manager, high tenure)
Newcomer perspective: “People were trying to have personal contact. But not having an office doesn’t help. It’s like limbo.” (P13, employee, low tenure)
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