Before Covid-19 and social distancing, small talk was a daily workplace ritual for most of us. We exchanged hellos with colleagues on our way in from the parking lot, chatted about our weekends while waiting for meetings to begin, and swapped stories about our families with our cube mates. Though these encounters probably lasted only minutes, they played a crucial role in making us feel emotionally connected at work.

Small talk is important to us in other ways, putting us at ease and helping us transition to more serious topics like negotiations, job interviews, sales pitches, and performance evaluations. The tidbits we learn about our colleagues — for instance, that they play guitar or love dogs — build rapport and deepen trust. Research even suggests that chance encounters and spontaneous conversations with our coworkers can spark collaboration, improving our creativity, innovation, and performance. Many people say that small talk energizes them and makes them feel “seen.” As one employee of a midsize accounting firm told us, “Your coworkers don’t necessarily need to know every detail of your life, but it certainly helps everyone feel like a real person.” No wonder so many of us are mourning the loss of small talk during the pandemic-driven work-from-home boom.

Yet others are deeply skeptical of small talk. They say it makes them anxious, spreads gossip, wastes time, and is inauthentic and awkward. Some even arrive at meetings exactly at the start time to avoid having to chitchat. This makes small talk a bit of a social paradox and raises the question: Is it ultimately more helpful or more hurtful to employees’ daily lives?

To resolve these views, we surveyed 151 full-time working adults three times a day for 15 consecutive workdays before the pandemic. We asked how much small talk they made at work each day and about their positive emotions (friendliness, pride, and gratitude) and ability to focus. And each night they reported their levels of well-being and prosocial behaviors.

The results revealed that small talk was both uplifting and distracting. On days workers made more small talk than usual, they experienced more positive emotions and were less burned out. They were also more willing to go out of their way to help their colleagues. At the same time, they felt less focused on and less engaged in their work tasks, which limited their ability to assist others. However, we found that one group — people who were adept at reading others and adjusting their conversations in response — were less likely to report feeling disrupted by small talk. We also saw that conversations didn’t have to be intimate or lengthy to deliver benefits. On the whole, it was clear to us that the positives of small talk outweighed the negatives and that those negatives could be managed.

As we navigate endless Zoom meetings and new work/life challenges, let’s not underestimate the value of small talk. Just because we might be working remotely doesn’t mean that casual conversations are no longer important. In fact, they may be more important than ever to help us seize daily opportunities to connect across the virtual divide.

(Adapted from: https://hbr.org/2021/03/remote-workers-need-small-talk-too)

Na sentença “We also saw that conversations didn’t have to be intimate or lengthy to deliver benefits. On the whole, it was clear to us that the positives of small talk outweighed the negatives and that those negatives could be managed”, indique a expressão que pode substituir On the whole mantendo o significado e a correção gramatical