đź’™Feeling isolated and lonely? Your not alone. How to work from home.
Hello from Glasgow!
Let’s talk about working from home! 🏠How do you feel about it? Most people seem to love it, but I want to be honest with you, I don’t always like it.
I personally always enjoyed going to work every morning. I loved catching up with my colleagues and talk about our weekend or upcoming holiday. I grabbed my coffee on the way over and I felt like I was in control of my career. Coming from a small city myself it was always my dream to become one of those super career women in the big city queuing up for Starbucks coffees, like you see in the movies, all dressed up and glamourous! Even now I associate commute and going to a big shiny office building with success and privilege. Working from home is simply not my thing but it is here to stay, and I need to make it work. During the pandemic specifically we were all forced to work from home all the time. I realised I felt more and more isolated by the day.
I was wondering how you all feel about it?
Talking to most friends though, they absolutely love love love working from home and they feel so relieved not having to go in to work early mornings anymore. Saving time and energy. More time to work, to multitask. In your comfy clothes in the comfort of your own home. Some of them even moved out of the city to live near the seaside that previously would not have been possible with long commute times. Perfect!
But not everybody who loves working from home, or is forced to work from home is good at it. You need to be aware of the long-term consequences of isolation and loneliness, specifically those who do not have a family, are single and live alone. Young people who struggle to make new friends at work simply because they have never seen anybody from work in real life yet. Being alone days on end, even if you like to work in isolation, will get to you eventually. We are human beings and we are social people.
There are days I am so busy and caught up in work that I forget to grab a cup of tea in the kitchen or I suddenly, to my own horror, I realise I haven’t been outside for days. I only realise this when it’s time pick up my daughter from nursery that I spend a whole day without seeing a real human being.
I was talking about this to a group of wonderful people at a network dinner recently and the working from home situation came up naturally and according to most, the new situation is here to stay. Most employers leave the choice with their employees if they want to continue working from home if you can of course.
So, if it’s here to stay make sure you are well prepared and ready for the new way of working. Let’s talk about the tree pitfalls you need to look out for and three solutions.
3 common pitfalls when working from home:
Isolation
Loneliness
Blurred work/life boundaries
How fix it:
Isolation and Loneliness
💙 Get outside, even in the rain!!!! To fight isolation, you need to get out and see people during the day if you can. Organise a walk and talk with a local colleague or grab your phone and walk to the park and listen to that webinar. You don’t have to stay indoors all day. I often just listen to a podcast on my way over to the supermarket in my lunch hour. Just 20 min from my home.
💙 Organise virtual coworking days. What I often see happening is that people organise a coworking day with their co-workers, or friend. The rules are simple, just send each other a Zoom link, switch on your cameras and just work as you normally would. It feels like you are there together in the room. You are accountable to each other because they can see you. It’s fun and it works. You can chat or ask questions when needed. I often do this with a group of other coaches, and we agree on a time, like 2 to 4 hours.
💙Attend a Lunch and Learn and switch on your camera. It does help to switch on the gallery view so you can see others. It makes you feel less alone, it really does work. Besides it’s fun to see people in their own homes too. You can use the chat box to ask question or make comments, make new connections, and invite them to your social media. I made lots of good new friends this way in the recent pandemic years. Even if you decide you can’t use your camera that’s ok, it helps to just listen in to a webinar, or lunch and learn on the background, knowing it’s in real time. Just hearing a voice is enough sometimes to fight loneliness.
Blurred work/life boundaries
💙 Create a home office, even if you don’t have much space. Try and clear out a little corner in your bedroom or living room, but make sure it is yours only. A place where you can leave your laptop, paperwork lying on your desk for the evening. This gives you a certain feeling of separating that your work from your private life. When we work from the dining room table, I always get the feeling I am still at home. When I work from my home office, I do feel I am at work. That space is mine and it is my work zone. When I switch off for the day, I leave my stuff and walk back to the kitchen to prepare dinner for my family. It’s all about creating proper boundaries between your work and your private life.
💙 Get dressed! Yes, that means joggers out, smart jeans on, clean shirt, no PJs allowed. Start fresh. It’s all about your mental state of mind. When we are dressed for work, we feel more professional. It’s hard sometimes, as what’s the point dressing up if we don’t see anybody right? When I was working in the office, I dressed up in my high heels, lovely handbag, and lipstick at hand, ready to face the day. You really do feel like a different person if you dress up for success. So, get ready in the morning. Try to make an effort.
Love Tineke