The Best Ways To Stay Connected While Working From Home
As a Career Coach & Leadership Coach I work with a lot of job seekers who are looking for remote positions.
One of the most frequent questions they ask about working from home, is “I know I want to work from home, but how will I make sure I don’t get lonely?”
Feeling lonely while working from home can be a challenge, but thanks to technology, growing communities who work from home, and with some forethought and planning, there are a lot of ways to stay connected while working from home.
Here are a few of my favorite ways to stay connected while working from home…
Voxer: Voxer is one of my favorite tools for staying social while working from home. Voxer is an app on your phone that operates kind of like a “walkie talkie,” harkening back to the days of being a kid. (You literally hold down a button that makes you feel like you're talking into a walkie talkie.) You can set up group chats with multiple people or single message chats with one person. Voxer is a fun way to leave short messages and brainstorm ideas with both friends and colleagues. If you prefer video messaging, WhatsApp is a great app for video messaging.
Co-Working Spaces: Co-Working spaces are low cost workspaces (i.e. office buildings with shared workspaces) with wi-fi, meeting rooms, and cubicles where professionals like yourself who work from home, can come together and work! It’s surprising how many cities have co-working spaces now. To find a co-working space in your area, check out: https://www.coworker.com/
Networking Events: Networking events, conferences, happy hour meetings with colleagues, etc. are great ways to stay connected when you work from home. While working from home, it’s important to make an extra effort to attend events like these.
Virtual Lunch Dates: Just because you no longer work in the same office building with your co-workers doesn’t mean you can’t still eat lunch together. Why not get together over video conference software (Zoom, Google Hangouts, Skype, etc.) and share lunch or even a coffee break?
Social Time: I find with working from home, it’s more important now more than ever to focus on setting up social plans after work and on weekends. Because I spend more of my day working independently, I need to emphasize making in-person plans on the nights and weekends in order to feel more social and connected.
Staying connected while working from home is important both personally and professionally because I find that collaborating and connecting with others truly makes work more creative and makes the process of working from home so much more enjoyable.
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