Is Compassion Best Accomplished Face-to-Face? Compassion Recipients’ Channel Use, Preferences, and Impact in Hybrid and Remote Working Contexts

How do we care for people during personal hardship at work? Research suggests that compassion helps individuals and organizations alike. But how do we effectively communicate compassion in mediated contexts, such as remote or hybrid workplaces? Compassion research emphasizes the importance of physical touch, presence, and close attention to nonverbal cues—all of which may be constrained in mediated channels. This exploratory mixed-methods study examines how recipients experience compassion in hybrid and remote working contexts. Our findings suggest that recipients in hybrid work arrangements overwhelmingly experience compassion face-to-face and espouse strong beliefs that face-to-face is the most appropriate channel for compassion, and yet, channel did not seem to impact evaluations of conversation quality and outcomes. We discuss theoretical implications for how people adapt to leaner media technologies, despite strong lay theories about the proper channels for compassion.