I’ve worked from home a few years now, and whilst the upsides are well known I’ve personally found some challenges there too. Have you experienced anything similar? How did you deal with it?
My tale:
When the UK went into lockdown (along with everyone else) in early 2020 I started working from home full-time. For the first year I was with the same team I’d worked with for years whilst in the office, so nothing really changed except my location.
I switched jobs mid-2021 and the new team was much smaller. I work as a software developer, and this team was a grand total of three people including myself. We didn’t have many meetings, only one a week, and except for being assigned new work I never interacted with anyone. It took a big toll on my mental health and I quit after three months.
I took an extended break from software development and started working on a plant nursery, driving tractors and tending plants - it was so much fun, but paid very little and ate into my savings a lot.
Went back to software development last year and thankfully manage things much better. I’m not a very social person, so it was surprising how important socialisation was to my mental wellbeing. I’m now part of quite a large team that speaks regularly, and when I next change jobs I know that this is something I need to look for.
I also have a garden now, so when the call of the wild hits me I go outside and sniff my tomato plants. I do miss driving tractors though.
I’m supposed to be managing a small team and from that perspective, it’s a mixed bag. Everyone I supervise has taken a firm stance that they want to be 100% remote, and I support them because I can see that work is getting done, and I want to retain the talent that we have. At the same time? I’ve never met any of these people in person, I don’t have a great sense of who they are and what motivates them, and a couple of them take 60-90 minutes to respond to an e-mail from me.
When I go into the office, every two weeks or so, I can have more meaningful interactions and I feel like I know the in-office team members better than I know the people I manage. If they don’t respond to my e-mail right away, I can turn my head and see if they’re busy, out to lunch, or just watching YouTube. I try to be pretty easygoing about it but the fact is, there are a lot of advantages to being in-office if you’re expected to give people performance reviews. I can only view so much when I’m in Washington and my team member is in Texas. And you always have some people who will take advantage of the flexibility that they’re entrusted with.