The contract I have worked on for the last few years has ended, and for months, I have had plans in place to move into a new position with a different company. That job fell through, and I ended up accepting a different position–a really different position.
The offer is a good offer in so many ways. It seems like good work, good people, good pay, good benefits, great training opportunities, great advancement opportunities, and a good experience to add to my resume.
But it’s a remote position. Which would probably thrill most people, but I was really hoping that my next job would be at least partially on-site. (The one I had thought I was going to take was fully on-site, and actually a pretty long commute, so in some ways this is yet another benefit of the change of plans, because I will be saving thousands of dollars on gas.)
So why do I consider this bad? Because I’ve been in partially remote positions before, and I’ve noticed a few things I don’t like about working from home. The increased screen time and increased social isolation is not good for my mental health. Even if I make an effort to get out of the house and have an active social life, it’s not the same. I also feel more of a sense of collaboration and team if I’m actually in an office with other people, looking at the same documents and having live conversations. I have less distractions (as long as I have quiet work environment), I move around more since I’m not three steps away from the kitchen and bathroom, and I have found that coworkers are more likable if you interact with them in person than if you’re just corresponding via email or phone.
So, I don’t know. Like I said, this is a great opportunity, and I really wish I could feel properly excited and grateful for it, but instead I’m dreading no longer working in an office with other people. And I’m hoping that someone out there can give me some good advice or input that can help me have a better attitude towards this new job that I’m about to start.
Look into coworking places near you? You get the office social environment and amenities and the coworking space membership likely costs less than the transit to a far office.
Have you done something like that? I had a neighbor suggest to me setting up in a coffeeshop somewhere, but I find that being surrounded by strangers is a very different experience than being surrounded the actual people you’re working with.
On that note, this place actually has an office incredibly close to my house (like, walking distance), that I’m welcome to come in and use. When I went in there to interview, the only people there were the two owners and the receptionist, but I will be working closely with one of the owners, so it actually would be like working in person with one coworker.
On the other hand, I’ve started the on-boarding process, and I’m receiving emails from future coworkers about things like IT accounts to set up and training to schedule and how to set up direct deposit, and all the email correspondence is making me think about how this is probably going to be my future. If the customer wants to correspond via email or conference call rather than in person, then that’s how we’re going to correspond.
Perhaps you can encourage other coworkers (assuming they are near this office) to come in periodically as well to at least have some contact and organizational cohesion?
Personally, I’ve been mostly fine with working from home (since I travelled frequently pre-pandemic I was often working remotely anyway) but it has causes issues with a couple of people who work for me, and it certainly makes bringing in new employees more difficult.
Been working remote since COVID started. But I knew all the people already. It’s sort of a hybrid office now.
Personally, I love it. Been wanting to for a long time.
One thing I would recommend is to have an office space/area. Many can’t do that as these ad-hoc workspaces where set up. Also, it helps that our team of 16 uses Slack. It’s an IM tool and works very well to keep everyone in touch and see what’s being worked on and keep track of projects/teams. It’s also our ‘water cooler’.
And, of course we use Zoom.
I live remote anyway, and am a bit reclusive so it works great. I’m also hard of hearing and meetings in person had become a chore. Even with hearing aids the acoustics for me with more than one on one stuff is difficult for me.
It’s not for everyone I’m sure, hopefully you can make it work. As said above, I would try to carve out a workspace for yourself that is just work.
And, perhaps, on several days a week, use the two hours a day you saved by not commuting to go out and socialize, perhaps in a face-to-face volunteer job.
I’ve worked remotely for about 8 years now. Just think of all the gas you’re saving in a high-gas-price economy, the nightmare of commute, play some loud music at home, enjoy the solitariness.
It’s interesting. I’m an old fart (well 61) and both my wife and I are early risers. But, when I went into the office, I always stayed in bed until 5:15.
Now, I get up around 4:30 - 5:00. Doesn’t really matter ya see. Though I do like that I can get on systems when no one else is working on them.
This is a tough question. My job went remote since Covid and I have noticed a decrease in my work quality. I no longer can interact with different dept heads face to face. I am in finance/operations and it was a great boon to be able to walk down the hall to a director of say procurement and have him tell me who I need to contact for what thing.
As a result of the remoteness and a move of our entire division (over 6k employees) to a brand new company this has gotten worse as I need to contact another group of strangers to get help on how their systems work.
I am not sure how this is going to play out either. My company plans on opening an office close to where I live but essentially it would be an office full of strangers since now most of my reports work in another location in the US.
My advice to you would be to get to know interact with your co-workers more online. Weekly meetings, shared knowledge etc.
For your personal space I think you realize that you need to get up and outside more so you are starting down the correct path there.
Good luck.
I haven’t. I had planned to do so as I transitioned to fully remote. Toured a couple such places. Then a few weeks before I was set to move, Covid hit, and I’ve been working from home since. I am still thinking about doing it, but after 2+ years of working by myself, while I miss the social connection of an office, I’m not really worried about it any more like I was, since I’ve found ways to cope and have social connections outside of work (or virtually).
My office had about 70 people working in house about a year before COVID, but we also had about 50-75 people working remotely around the US and Canada. My department has always been mostly remote (only the managers were in the main office) so we had a pretty smooth transition when remote work became the norm.
We downsized when our lease ended but we still have about 5-10 people that regularly go into our current office. My position requires me to send out weekly shipments, so I usually pop into the office about once or twice a week. After we went fully remote, only two people were in the office but more started going in when they realized that there were other people would be there. They just let people know that they could be reached at the office and other people who wanted to come in started making it a more regular thing. People seemed to appreciate having the option and knowing that some of their coworkers would be there. Have you talked to any of your office regulars or the folks who are nearby?
I spent several weeks in a shared workspace while I was training one of our Canadian teams and it was pretty fun. I got to know some of the other regular office workers on our floor and it was a great way to get food recommendations from locals. It really felt like a normal office building but with more camaraderie between the workers from different companies.
I’ve never personally worked in a bar or coffee shop for more than a day or two, but I spent years working as a bartender and we had regulars who would come in to work remotely every day. They all seemed to do a good job balancing the social aspect with the work side of things. Quality headphones are a necessity but I think most of their success was based on their ability to focus in spite of the distractions.