And what OP argue about is a direct consequence of that: small talks, serendipity, politness rules, etc.
If you want raw efficiency, the article makes sense.
However, in most orgs, that's not what most workers want.
> And what OP argue about is a direct consequence of that: small talks, serendipity, politness rules, etc.
You can do that while following the same rules of politeness and small talks.
For instance I had a colleague who used to put "Hi" or "Good morning" messages several times a day on my teams chat.
He could be as polite saying and include small talk in a single message:
" Good morning prmoustache, do you have some time to help me on project BLABLABLA, I need assistance regarding setup of FOO in a BAR context. Mr John Doe told me you had experience with that. Here are the errors I get.
<some snippet>
If you have some time now we can maybe do a quick call, otherwise can I schedule some time?
By the way, how is the weather in Spain today? Did you enjoy some nice time on the beach with your daughters? "
This is polite, include all the info I would need, some small talk, would give me an idea on how much time I might need to dedicate to that to give assistance, if I have to check some info in my note/wiki/whatever and either decide to stop what I am doing now and help him immediately or ask him to schedule a meeting later during the day or week. And maybe I have the exact solution and I can point him a link that will help him directly.
People who usually don't go straight to the point either do it:
- for cultural reasons
- by ignorance on how to work effectively with remote worker
- or because they want to brute force their way into you.
- a combination of all 3