How to Make Work Friends When You Work Remotely

Ensure that you include your personal connections and socialization efforts, as well as your professional ones. In the early days of the pandemic, almost every company tried to offload the stress of staying connected with structure. You know, “planned fun,” like the kind my friend and colleague Megan Greenwell discussed in a previous column. The dream was that if the company handled the arrangements, you’d all come and socialize.

Or else, potentially pay the price of burnout, social isolation, and even depression. Communication dynamics for remote workers are totally different than those for people who are together in an office. But even though most people love working remotely, remote work has a lot of challenges. It’s easy to fall into many of the traps of remote work, especially if you’re new to it. Even though the rise of remote work isn’t a new trend, many people are still figuring out how to work remotely through trial and error, doing their best to stay happy and productive. The challenges exist both for those who are remote work veterans and people who are just getting started.

Connect with your colleagues on social media.

Other team members have a collaborative work style and enjoy brainstorming creative ideas as a group. Left unchecked, loneliness from long-term remote working can impact your physical and mental health, leading to poor performance. Spending eight hours straight crouched behind a laptop is a recipe for back pain, not success. Get yourself an adjustable desk or a portable desk riser, so you can switch from sitting to standing. At InHerSight, we use data to help women find and improve companies where they can achieve their goals.

• One report from Wildgoose found that 57 percent of employees say having a good work friend makes their job more enjoyable.
• But even though most people love working remotely, remote work has a lot of challenges.
• You can even ask remote colleagues who live in your area to co-work with you.
• Join in threads in Slack or Discord when someone says something funny.

But a big part of what’s still missing is the emotional piece—that ineffable digital experience that can replicate the feeling of presence we can only seem to get offline. It’s why, as cities and workplaces increasingly open up, finding that balance between the physical and virtual will be key. When everyone’s physically together in a workplace, people can rely on email, how to make friends when you work from home phone, plus casual chats, formal meetings, one-on-ones… the list goes on. When people are separated by distance, face-to-face options are drastically reduced. As a manager, it’s your job to ensure the team is happy, productive, and getting along well together. When you’re all working under the same roof, team building days and lunches out are the obvious choices.

Remote Work Ethics: Is It Okay to Take…

And a recent McKinsey report says that percent of the workforces in advanced economies could work from home between three and five days a week without a loss of productivity. Company Culture Embrace transparency, foster a sense of belonging, form connections https://remotemode.net/ – and have fun along the way. Remote Control Keep on top of your work from home life with these tips and ideas from our team to yours. Consider adding momentos or objects that show your interests in the background of your video screen as well.

• Make sure you share what you’ve written and discuss it with your team, either in your team’s chat app or on calls.
• Unless you purposely create a social agenda and time to connect with other human beings in person.
• And working together on a common goal will strengthen that connection even further.

Where once we were all required to commute each day, back and forth, to a communal workplace in order to do our jobs effectively, this is no longer a hard and fast rule. For many of us, all we need is a computer and a decent Internet connection in order to get things done at work. If you’re working remotely for some, or all, of the time it’s just as easy to schedule online social events, such as virtual team lunches or a weekly book club.

Try Coworking Spaces

Not all work relationships are with coworkers, especially if you are a small business owner or freelancer. Lunch-and-learns are a great way for an employee with a certain specialty to share a skill with the rest of an organization. Donut is a cute Slack integration that randomly “sets up” pairs of employees in the Donut channel to go on virtual first dates .

Dee Ann Pizzica, engineering manager at Atlassian customer BRD has worked mostly remotely since 2009. She always starts her weekly staff meetings with a different icebreaker question. Engaging in casual chit chat in the minutes before or after a meeting can be enough to spark a connection that turns into a friendship. Best for remote teams or departments, this communication tool proposes questions that build rapport, and icebreaker questions for new hires.