It’s as much a remote-work ritual as wearing sweatpants with a business-friendly top (known as a “mullet”). But its reason has been a mystery – until now.
| It happens at the end of most virtual meetings: One person waves goodbye, and colleagues follow suit. Why we still do this, nearly four years after remote work went mainstream, is one of the mysteries of the modern workplace.
She is not alone. A survey this month by professional network Fishbowl found that 55 per cent of workers wave. That’s down from the 57 per cent who said they did so last year in a survey by Zoom Video Communications, and the three out of four who said so in 2021.
It is the awkwardness of the wave that puts some people off, but by not waving, workers risk being seen as rude. “It bothers me when I wave, and people don’t wave back,” says Molly Beck, founder and CEO of enterprise communications software maker WorkPerfectly. “I would compare it to when you hold the door for someone and they don’t say thank you.”
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