How to Make Work Friends When You Work Remotely

Most towns and cities have some sort of interest groups that might pique your interest. If someone isn’t interested in chatting about anything beyond the project at hand, give them space how to make friends when you work from home and introduce yourself to another colleague. Help Desk is a destination built for readers looking to better understand and take control of the technology used in everyday life.

• Use social networks and video conferencing tools to keep in touch on a regular basis.
• Coordinate times with your workplace colleagues to have some one-on-one or small group time if you can.
• To branch back out and meet some friendly faces, you can easily venture outside the office using the office friends you’ve already made.
• Be curious about others—without acting stalkerish, of course.
• It’ll feel awkward at first, but the more you do it, the more people will respond favorably to you and the more you’ll get a feel for what resonates with your colleagues and what doesn’t.
• When a new person walks up, Walton steps back, widening the circle to make room.

Coronavirus outbreaks, moving to new cities and the stiltedness of meeting strangers in person all nudged them toward an online approach. Despite widespread loneliness and the accessibility of making friends online, Leif said he still knows people who are uncomfortable with the idea. Adult friend-making looks different for people like Walton from how it looked for their parents. The coronavirus pandemic sent millions of young people home from high school, college and the workplace. Those ages 18 to 25 saw the biggest spike in loneliness during the pandemic, according to one Harvard University study.

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Social science and Nelson encourage us to understand that friendship is crucial when it comes to our mental health, careers and developing meaningful connections throughout our lives. Fewer friends, explains the author, means more cliques, more gossip and less intimacy. With 20 per cent of people who report feeling lonely at work almost all the time and 60 per cent of people feeling it half the time — it’s clear friends are super important to have at work. According to Cigna’s 2020 Report on Loneliness and the Workplace, those who own friendships with their coworkers in the workplace report being less lonely than those without friends while on the job. Connection doesn’t just happen over coffee or lunch, Kantor says. Arrive at in-person meetings a few minutes early to chat or integrate icebreakers where people share their personal news at the beginning of team meetings.

Coordinate times with your workplace colleagues to have some one-on-one or small group time if you can. Kantor says she sees a trend among her hybrid workplace clients in which teams or even the entire workforce are in the office on the same days. Everyone may be in the office on Tuesdays and Thursdays, or the marketing team may be in office from Monday through Wednesday and other teams may have their own in-office days. She advises that both employers and employees be “purposeful” about choosing their in-office days for productivity reasons, but also to reinforce workplace relationships.

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If you’re struggling to come up with the right words, ask your new colleague to tell you more about their role or their team. Some people love sharing the things they wish they’d known when they were in your shoes. Discover apps from Apple and third parties that work well in remote environments. “I make a lot of events like this, where there’s a blob of people and an opportunity to meet them,” he said. After all, working from home gives less opportunity to express positivity in traditional ways. There are less gifts and cards, not as much baking for each other, less inside jokes and a more specific effort must be made for acts of kindness when you’re working remotely.

If you’d like to improve your new employee onboarding program or help employees develop a better sense of camaraderie and collaboration, we can help. Contact us to learn about our training programs for remote supervisors and employees. If people https://remotemode.net/ don’t respond to your efforts, don’t jump to conclusions. Maybe they’re overwhelmed with work and have no time for “the new guy” right now. Or they might have other issues, like a difficult history with your department or predecessor.