Smells like team spirit: Covid kills off the coffee catch-up

It’s not just coffee catch-ups that have been killed off by Covid, or at the very least pushed closer to extinction, writes Bernard Salt. Picture: istock

Along with cash, commuting, ties and (for a while, at least) handshakes, Covid seems to have killed off the coffee catch-up. I’ve spent almost three decades working in CBD office buildings and it’s clear to me that the coffee catch-up is the social glue that holds work-based teams together.

In the pre-Covid era, “Let’s meet for coffee” was part of everyday workplace parlance. It was easy, and it was spontaneous; for many it just meant taking the lift down to the ground-floor coffee shop. Not any longer. The shift to working from home or to some kind of hybrid working arrangement has curtailed opportunities for informal social interactions at work. No one arrives early to a Zoom call or sticks around afterwards for a bit of a natter with stragglers.

But it’s not just coffee catch-ups that have been killed off by Covid, or at the very least pushed closer to extinction. With many of us spending fewer days in the office, there aren’t so many opportunities for 20-something newbies to learn by osmosis the art of work-based social interaction.

An open plan office was perfect not just for interacting with the passing parade of office characters – and there are always office characters – but also for hearing and thus for learning such nuanced skills as how to talk on the phone to a prospective client or to a client/investor/supplier who is angry. It’s hard to learn unless it’s been demonstrated in a real-life, potentially career-altering situation.

The same goes for interacting with co-workers at all levels; there’s a lot that is transmitted and learnt just by being in the room. Or at the very least by being within (legitimate) earshot. Sure, there are skills to be gleaned by Zooming from meeting to meeting. But nothing quite beats being there – mixing with the cleverest, the most experienced, the most creative of workmates, in real time and at close quarters.

Working from home delivers undeniable benefits, not least of which is quietude for the development of a report, for the checking of figures, for the preparation of material for a big presentation. And at a community level, working from home means there’s less rush-hour congestion, fewer carbon emissions; some say less commuting is kinder to our overall mental health. All fair points.

Perhaps later in one’s career, when relationships are established, when skills are honed, when clients and collaborators know who’s who, then “being there” isn’t quite as necessary. Although I would argue that talent attracts talent; that human endeavour can be magnetic; that workers like the buzz of being around creative and committed work-based energy. And nowhere is this energy better on display than when workmates celebrate a win or commiserate over a loss. It’s the stuff that builds camaraderie, creates an esprit de corps, and delivers a sense of belonging to a team. I am sure there are tech developers out there promising to deliver programs and protocols that will ostensibly foster team spirit, that will connect workers in all locations at any time. And I am sure such technology will deliver some level of success. But no technology can replace the experience of being at the centre of things.

The bigger question is this. If our future does involve more working from home, then does the personal and community benefit – let alone the business benefit – outweigh the loss of spontaneity and the decline in camaraderie that inevitably flows from such a shift? I suspect we will find the answer to this question later in the 2020s.