Do emojis belong in the workplace?

Christine: Hello and welcome to Work Check, an original podcast from Atlassian where we debate whether the workplace practices of today are still working for us. Hello Atlassian community!

(Audience cheers.)

Oh, nicely done. That was a test, you passed. Great job.

I’m your host, Christine Dela Rosa, and instead of being both host and judge as I normally am for all these episodes, today I’m just your host. As you heard a little bit earlier, you are actually all gonna decide on who the winner is. So, at the very end of the debate, you will, by applause, decide who has moved you to their side?

But you’re not here to listen to all these announcements. You are here for the talent, our debaters for today we have Deb Lao and Marshall Walker Lee. Please welcome them to the stage.

Deb: Hello, hello everybody.

Marshall: Hello.

Christine: That was an awkward hello. We did some winks that you couldn’t see and then, um, almost high-fived and then didn’t, so that’s the exhilarating thing that you’re gonna see from today, from this debate. But, uh, I’m just gonna jump right in. I’m gonna get started for our first ever live show.

Deb: Sounds good.

Christine: Deb, Marshall. I like my remote hangs like, I like my magic show participation. At first, I’m all sweaty, I’m dreading the fact that I was picked to go up, but then afterwards I am relieved cause I got to see magic up close!

Marshall: Very on brand.

Christine: That’s right. Today we’re talking about virtual socializing. Uh, and just to level set, uh, as we do for every episode. Let’s just define what that means. Virtual socializing. We’re talking about a whole team dedicating time, putting it on their calendars for people to come together and not necessarily talk about work. This could be chit-chat, this could be catch up. This could be an AMA with different members, but essentially it’s a departure from talking about, uh, moving work forward. Does that work?

Deb: Alright.

Marshall: May I ask one clarifying question?

Christine: Of course you can, Marshall.

Marshall: So all those examples you gave, they would all be happening during working hours, right?

Christine: Yes. That’s correct. During the workday. Whatever that may be for your team.

Marshall: Understood.

Christine: Cool. All right. Um, before we get into our actual debates, we’re gonna start out with some opening statements.

Deb: All right.

Christine: Since you’re on my left, Marshall, why don’t we start with you?

Marshall: Great. Are we gonna put time up on the clock? I was told I only had 90 seconds.

Christine: Actually yeah.

Marshall: Oh no, that is terrifying. Alright.

Christine: I like this font, this is very intimidating.

Marshall: Wait. The clock is ticking. I have to go. Okay. All right. I wanna start by asking, asking the audience a question, I need your help. So I want you to applaud if you agree with the following statement: who here has way more time than they need to get their work done.

(The audience is quiet.)

Okay. Well, for the audience listening at home, that silence you’re hearing, it’s confirming what I assumed, which is that we are all very busy. In the remote and hybrid world, many of us barely have enough time to get our own work done. And Christine, you said that all of the social events we’re talking about today would be happening during working hours.

Yes, correct. All right. So at the risk of stating the obvious, I wanna state the obvious. If it’s happening during working hours and I’m expected to attend, it is work, period. The aim of the meeting might be lofty building relationships or reinforcing values, but at the end of the day, if it’s a happy hour or a virtual scavenger hunt, if it’s happening at 2:00 PM on Thursday, it’s work. It’s another meeting.

So just like we do with our other meetings, we need to inspect these social events to make sure that they’re actually meaningful, right? We need to ask, do they have a clear purpose? Are they actually achieving that purpose? And critically, could we be doing something else instead that might be more effective?

So to cut to the chase, Christine, Deb, today I’m going to be arguing that virtual socializing has no purpose at all.

Christine: Hmm. Bold.

Marshall: Maybe a murky purpose at best, and that it’s actually crowding out other activities that could more meaningfully get us to a place where we are happier and more productive at work.

Deb: Nice.

Christine: Um, and time. Great job. Uh, that’s me commenting on you being within the time limit. Not necessarily my opinion. Just to clarify, Deb, um, there’s a lot of, uh, high level thoughts. Strong statements. What do you got for us?

Deb: Very bold, Marshall. Yes, I’ll give it to you, they’re sometimes very cringey, but I, I truly believe that they’re worth it in the end.

We need something to stay connected with each other now that we’re hybrid and remote and our teams are distributed across the globe.

Christine: Mm.

Deb: Virtual hangs are a way to build connective tissue that successful teams have. I’m talking about psychological safety. I’m talking about comradery. A sense of trust that you have with your teammates. It helps you also stay familiar with the teammates that you barely work with and maintain those relationships, so when the time comes that you need to work with that person, you’re not starting at zero.