  Workplace communications around the world were drastically altered by
Covid-19, related work-from-home orders, and the rise of remote work. To
understand these shifts, we analyzed aggregated, anonymized metadata from over
360 billion emails within 4,361 organizations worldwide. By comparing
month-to-month and year-over-year metrics, we examined changes in network
community structures over 24 months before and after Covid-19. We also examined
shifts across multiple communication media (email, instant messages, video
calls, and calendaring software) within a single global organization, and
compared them to communications shifts that were driven by changes in formal
organizational structure. We found that, in 2020, organizations around the
world became more siloed than in 2019, evidenced by increased modularity. This
shift was concurrent with decreased stability within silos. Collectively, our
analyses indicate that following the onset of Covid-19, employees began to
shift more dynamically between subcommunities (teams, workgroups or functional
areas). At the same time, once in a subcommunity, they limited their
communication to other members of that community. We term these network changes
dynamic silos. We provide initial insights into the meaning and implications of
dynamic silos for the future of work.
