While the respondents might have had different perspectives on several topics, they did all agree on one thing: the remote setting has made the human connection to other people more challenging. While a virtual meeting works for communicating with people, building an emotional connection is much harder. The online meetings also made it harder to read peoples body language, facial expressions and in general to be able to read between the lines, compared to when interacting with people in the same physical space.
“… not just be a production machine in the silence of your own house, but actually think that there's someone listening to you, someone to support you. “
As the meetings had become more efficient and focused on the objectives, some respondents felt that there was less time for casual discussions. In addition, some participants in the meetings did not even want to engage in the casual discussions, as they saw them as a waste of precious meeting time. As these casual discussions are an important part of the team building process, one respondent stated that it had become harder to sustain a good mood and vibe in his project team.
“Some people don't really like that much that we are wasting precious meeting time to this seemingly non-important stuff. At one point one person from an off-site development centre was saying that ‘Hey, can we stick to business? This is not for idle chit-chat this meeting.’ I thought ‘Okay, okay Mr. Grumpy, let’s go to business then’. “ The casual discussions during the meetings are still not the only thing that creates a good team atmosphere. The spontaneous, ad hoc interactions in the office also contribute to the overall atmosphere. One respondent stated that he felt that talking to people when going to the kitchen, bathroom or the coffee machine made him feel more relaxed and feeling like he belonged to a group of people. According to another respondent, the workplace culture is built by the interactions between humans, making it very hard to foster the culture in the office when everyone is working remotely.
“Culture is built on the human behaviour. It is really hard, at least for me, to find a way how to actually build the human relationship over the camera. “
The remote working setting had also led to that the respondents mostly only met people working on the same project. Where they previously would have seen their other colleagues in the office, they now almost exclusively interacted only with those they were closely working with. This reduced the feeling of belonging for many respondents, and
some of them also pointed out that this makes it much harder for newcomers to feel that they are part of the office, as they never meet most of their colleagues in real life.
Most respondents felt that the office culture had taken a big hit due to the COVID-19 pandemic. According to one respondent, the employees in the office used to be a very closely knit pack, spending quite a lot of time together both in the office and outside of work. Another respondent described his colleagues as a fun bunch of people often joking around, and that visiting the office had used to be fun, even when the work itself might have been demanding or not very interesting. One respondent also noted that the more introverted members of the office used to be more visible in the physical space, whereas they almost disappeared behind their cameras in the remote working setting.
“Everybody agrees that the culture has taken a tremendous hit, and to some degree, the culture is currently non-existent. “
Several respondents also stated the physical gatherings and events are what they miss the most with how things were before the pandemic. For example, every Friday the employees in the office used to eat breakfast together. Two people made breakfast for the rest of their colleagues, often using recipes from their home countries, as the office had many international employees. After the day was over on Friday, they often used to organize afterwork events. Several respondents felt that while there might be room for improvements, it would be impossible to create the same kind of culture and atmosphere virtually. When asked, one of them stated the following:
“Like if this would be like a permanent situation that none of us would ever go to the office anymore, then... No way. No way. Because it's so much more than just work. Like all of a sudden, ping pong games are happening, turning into tournaments where people are participating. And then the table football games, and Friday afternoon beers when you're having the final last meetings of the week. And then that expanding into Friday late night beers and just people hanging together and singing karaoke and stuff like that.
No, online can never be the same. “
There had still been attempts to foster the human connection virtually. For example, some participants stated that they always emphasize keeping the cameras on during meetings, in order to work on the human connection. On Fridays, the whole office had started to have a one-hour meeting together, meant for more casual discussions and introducing new team members. One activity that was sometimes done, was placing the employees into several breakout rooms for 10 minutes, where they got to talk to random colleagues. Some respondents felt that this was a fun exercise, as they got to interact with colleagues they might not otherwise meet. There had also been some events organized with other departments from the Nordic region. But as some respondents pointed out,
all these attempts still did not result in much time spent together, and regardless, everything was still done in front of the computer screen.
“I like the Friday meetings that we have where it’s been pretty relaxed. Someone playing music in the beginning and then there's some ‘Hello my name is’ presentations, not being so very work focused. But then again, it’s still just sitting at home staring at a screen. “ 4.5 Opinions about the future of work
When asked about how things could be improved considering the current restrictions, the respondents had few clear ideas about how to improve their way of working. Two respondents emphasized the need for improvement in the human interaction. For example, the communication in large online meetings should be improved, so that more than only one person could communicate at a time. Another example was to somehow find a way to simulate drawing on a whiteboard together, as the respondent did not feel that the current digital tools enabled that well enough.
The respondents had more opinions when asked about how they want to continue to work once the restrictions are lifted. Most of the respondents stated that they want to have the possibility to work from home. The most common answer was to work around half of the time from the office and half of the time from home. Only one respondent stated that he will continue to work full time from the office. No respondent stated that they wanted to work fully remotely.
The reason for why so many stated that they want to work both from home and from the office, was that they see benefits with both. Remotely, there is no commuting, more flexibility, and one can even work from a completely different geographical location.
However, when working at the office things like workshops and brainstorming sessions become easier, people can meet their colleagues, and enjoy the office culture. Most respondents wanted to have both sides of the coin, thus stating that they want to be in the office at least a few days a week, while having the possibility to also work remotely.
“For me personally, I think a quite nice balance would be three days a week working from home and maybe two days a week from the office, or vice versa. I think that would still keep and include the benefits that I've had personally working from home, but also keep me part of the culture that we've created in the physical space. “
Several respondents highlighted the fact that people are different and have different life situations, which means that they have different preferences regarding how to work.
Additionally, every project is also different. Therefore, the respondents felt that there should be flexibility for the teams to choose themselves how to organize their work, as
some teams might want to, or need to, work a lot from the office, whereas other might aim to work mainly remotely. Some respondents felt that there should not be certain mandatory days where the employees must be in the office, but rather that the teams should decide themselves how to organize the work in their project.
“Not anything like it's mandatory to come in every sort of Tuesday / Wednesday / Thursday. But whatever is the need of the project. If you don't need to meet physically and everybody's happy working remotely, then you continue like that, and if you think that it's good for you as a team to meet up every Wednesday, then you choose to do so. “ As a completely flexible way of working might become quite messy, some respondents stated that there still should be some rules and structures for how the work is organized.
For example, one respondent stated that there should be one- or two-days mandatory in the office, in addition to mandatory presence during project milestones, such as kick-off sessions or workshops.
“On the other hand, it's very much a personal preference - what kind of person are you, how do you function best? What kind of work methods work best for you? Maybe this now allows for more freedom for different people working in different ways. And that's fine. There's needs to be some kind of shared framework around which we operate as a team. Different recurring meetings, toolsets, whatever sort of structure you put in place, but as flexible as possible. “
One respondent mentioned that there had been some discussions about what to do with the office space, to accommodate for the new way of working after the pandemic. The respondent stated that he thinks that everything should remain as it is, until people have figured out what the best new way of working is. According to the respondent, it can take some time before everyone is adapted to a hybrid style of working. Therefore, it would be unnecessary to reduce the office space or create new collaborative spaces before it is certain how the work is going to be organized going forward. In addition, digital tools are still going to evolve, potentially enabling different opportunities for work than what currently exist.
One aspect that most respondents agreed may become a challenge, is how to organize meetings and general communication when some team members are working from home, and some are working from the office. The work functions well if everyone is working remotely, or if everyone is working from the office. However, in a mixed setting the people working remotely might easily become excluded from the rest of the team, for example during a meeting. At the same time, if the team members in the office have to accommodate for the ones working remotely by also participating in the meeting virtually, the benefits of being together in the office would disappear. Potentially, this
could be very frustrating for the employees in the office. In addition, the team members working remotely would also miss out on all spontaneous information exchanges with their colleagues at the office.
“It's quite hard to follow the conversation happening in the physical space. Some people working remotely might feel quite distant from people physically working together. “ 4.6 Summary
In this study, I interviewed 8 people working in the same design studio. The objective of the study was to find out how the design teams have been affected by the remote setting caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The data from the interviews was analysed using a thematic analysis, resulting in five themes. The themes have been presented in this chapter, along with quotations from the interviews that function as evidence for the findings I have presented.
The first theme explored the personal experiences of the respondents. This theme did not focus on the teamwork, but rather on what the respondents thought about working remotely and how it had affected their personal lives. The respondents had different opinions regarding whether they liked the remote work setting or not, with some hating it and some loving it. However, they largely agreed on the benefits and the drawbacks.
The main benefits mentioned were not having to commute to work and being able to organize one’s own work more flexibly. The main drawbacks were a lack of good equipment for the home office, distractions by other household members, and a more blurred line between work and home.
The second theme focused on the practical differences in how the work had changed.
Because of the remote setting, the use of digital tools had become essential for facilitating the work in the teams. As the team members did not share the same physical space, they scheduled much more meetings than before, which felt exhausting for some respondents.
The lack of spontaneous interactions between the team members had also increased the need for organized ceremonies for communication, such as the daily morning stand-ups.
Finally, the client had become much more integrated in the work of the teams.
The third theme described how the collaboration and creativity in the teams had been affected by the remote setting. Surprisingly, most respondents found that the general information flow was as good, or even better, than before the pandemic. However, the interpersonal communication was still negatively impacted, as spontaneous interactions did not happen naturally, and it had become more of a hassle to ask a quick question
from a colleague. Although creative work done individually had not been affected by the pandemic, the collective creative work where team members ideate together and build upon each other’s ideas had become more challenging. This was very noticeable especially during the client workshops.
The fourth theme focused on the impact the remote setting had had on the office atmosphere. Almost all respondents agreed that the workplace atmosphere had taken a big hit during the pandemic, as the employees in the office did not interact with each other in the same way as before. The online meetings had little room for casual discussions, and the employees rarely talked to colleagues who did not work on the same project. Before the pandemic, it had been common to have physical events together, such as the Friday breakfast. Several respondents stated that these types of physical events are what they miss the most, and that they also missed having fun with their colleagues in general.
The fifth theme focused on how the respondents felt that the work should be organized after the pandemic. All but one of the respondents wanted to continue working remotely at least to some degree. Most respondents stated that they would want to work around half of the time in the office and half of the time from home. This way, the respondents felt that they could get the benefits from remote working while still being able to interact with their colleagues and enjoy the office culture. Several respondents also noted that a hybrid setting, where some team members are in the office and some are working remotely, may become a challenge. In such a case, the remote workers might easily become excluded from the discussions of the team members in the office. Alternatively, the team members in the office might become frustrated due to constantly having to accommodate for their colleagues working from home.
5 DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
The purpose of this theses was to explore how the remote work setting due to the COVID-19 pandemic has affected design teams. I conducted a case study on a design studio in Helsinki, with the choice of method being in-depth, semi-structured interviews. In total eight interviews were conducted. The interviews were analysed using a thematic analysis, with the resulting themes presented in Chapter 4. In this chapter, I will analyse and discuss the findings of this thesis in the light of past research. I will also present the limitations of my study and give suggestions for future research.
5.1 Discussion of the findings
In this section, I will discuss the research questions of my thesis, reflecting them to my findings as well as to previous research. The research questions answered in this thesis are:
1. How have the members of the design teams experienced remote working?
2. What are the biggest differences in the design teamwork due to working remotely?
3. How could the work of the design teams be organized after the pandemic?
5.1.1 The respondents’ personal experiences of remote working
The first research question focused on how the members of the design teams have experienced remote working. As Waizenegger et al (2020) noted, the reasons for employees working remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic are very different from the reasons for employees working remotely in the past. The remote working setting during the pandemic has been involuntary and happened so suddenly that there was little time to prepare for it. The authors found that employees experienced more challenges working remotely during the pandemic, compared to the findings of previous remote working literature. For these reasons, I assumed that the respondents in my study also would have had a lot of negative experiences due to the remote setting.
Surprisingly, however, this was not the case. Only one respondent was strongly negative towards remote working, whereas all other respondents felt that working remotely was okay, with a few even preferring it. Waizenegger et al (2020) stated that remote working due to the COVID-19 pandemic may lead to decreased employee wellbeing, as it is harder for the employees to engage in social and physical activity. While the social activity for
many respondents was limited, no respondent stated that physical inactivity would have been a problem. On the contrary, one respondent even felt that his physical condition had become better than ever, because he was able to go skiing during the middle of the day. This is a good example of the increased flexibility that comes with remote working.
Among the respondents, increased flexibility and not having to commute to work were the two most commonly mentioned benefits of working remotely. These benefits are in
Among the respondents, increased flexibility and not having to commute to work were the two most commonly mentioned benefits of working remotely. These benefits are in