Vad händer med småpratet när kollegor inte längre träffas på kontoret? : En kvalitativ fallstudie om informell kommunikation vid distansarbete under en pågående pandemi

Sammanfattning: The world is currently in the grip of a pandemic caused by the SARS-COVID-19 virus which has left nothing more than suffering, social distance, and distance work in its tracks. Because of the regulations regarding social distancing, many organizations have chosen to distribute their work and make their employees work from home. This thesis covers how distance work affects informal communication and how the lack of social interaction affects relationships and informal communication between colleagues. To investigate the subject further we performed a case study of a company within the media and communication industry where both interviews and an observational study was conducted. Our findings show that there has been an overall decrease in informal communication between colleagues in our case. We have also identified several factors that may affect the possibility to sustain the amount of informal communication during distance work. These factors may include regular group activities, knowing when it is okay to contact other colleagues without disturbing them and having regular meetings. Finally, our study findings highlight that there may be other factors beyond the reach of this study that might affect how employees experience working from home.