I mean, you could offer them a genuine compliment, you could ask some questions, or have some fun with some go-to icebreakers. Most of us want other people to find us and our businesses interesting and captivating and fascinating. Since the 1980s, the percentage of American adults who say they’re lonely has doubled from 20% to 40%. The physical, mental and emotional consequences are serious. Some research indicates that loneliness might be as much of health risk as smoking. You have gifts to share with the world and my job is to help you get them out there.
Consider joining fitness classes, hobby groups or volunteer organizations in your community to expand your social network. Be honest about your social needs and take proactive steps to meet them. If you’re naturally extroverted, you might need more social interaction than someone more introverted. While technology can sometimes feel like a barrier to authentic connection, when used strategically, it becomes your most powerful tool for building and maintaining relationships with co-workers.
As infections dropped, people had somehow forgotten how to return to their normal lives. So now is the time to shed your COVID-induced anti-social behavior. Just change a few of your habits and force yourself out the door.
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Chat with different people, as someone new comes here every day in coworking spaces. Perhaps there, you will make friends and even future business partners to create your start-up when you work from home. Companies like Afni stand out as ideal workplaces for remote professionals. We offer rewarding job positions and a supportive environment that encourages social interaction among employees. We make it simple to find your ideal job, progress in your workplace, and establish meaningful connections.
That may seem obvious, but as a person who knows that I have several colleagues in my area that I’ve never met, I know that it’s not. In these remote work times, some of the more natural opportunities for praise – like head nodding in a meeting or a quick “nice work! Everyone likes to be recognized for their hard work, so take a minute to send a text or an email letting someone know you noticed them. At Atlassian, some teams even have a virtual messy-desk faceoff in Slack every week. You can learn about someone by seeing what objects they have sitting in front of them all day. At Atlassian, we also encourage team members to create their own Learning Circles.
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- You can also attend events or meetups that are held at coffee shops.
- I know plenty of finance folks, so I’m not trolling the American Banker’s Association to meet new friends.
- Make an effort to get out of the house at least once a day, even if it’s just for a quick walk around the block.
- Even without direct interaction, being around people helps you feel part of a larger community.
- I schedule lunches every day with different groups of coworkers.
Or perhaps somewhere a little quieter is more to your liking. Your local library might be the perfect spot for you to be around others and also get some work done, or put your work aside and read a good book instead. Thousands of incredible souls come here each week for insight and inspiration, and your story may help someone else have a meaningful breakthrough. But you want to know what makes people really interested in you?
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These strategies are most effective when implemented together as a comprehensive approach. Remember that preventing isolation is an ongoing process, not a one-time fix. Stay attuned to your changing social needs and adjust accordingly.
Kimberly Cummings, a career coach in NYC, advises trying to recreate as many of these casual professional encounters how to make friends when you work from home as possible to stay in the loop. Not having an in-person office environment doesn’t mean you can’t still have a lunch date or coffee chat to catch up or get to know someone better. Meet-and-greet video calls are especially helpful if you’re new to a job or to a team. Being a remote team ourselves and talking to other remote workers, here are a few ways we’ve found to socialize and foster connections while we work from home.
If what you’re doing hasn’t yielded a new friend, acquaintance, cohort, partner in crime, or crony, you need to try something new. So learn to cook, play an instrument, or try the downward-facing dog at yoga in the park. This could be a channel to share tips for keeping those houseplants alive, swap recipes and dinner ideas, or talk about the books people are reading. Consider hosting events for members of the channel as well. To make friends with your colleagues, you’re going to need to let your guard down a little bit.
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- Keep talking and making friends even if you work from home.
- The more you engage with a person, the stronger a professional relationship—and personal friendship—you can build.
- Be active on the channels that interest you, and look for opportunities to make natural connections with your coworkers.
- However, according to a Gallup poll, only 37% of employees felt they had a best friend at work in 2022, compared with 42% in 2019.
Because the last person at a group mentorship meeting happened to be the hosts, I got some one-on-one face time with them that I wouldn’t ordinarily get to have. Because we had some extra, meaningful interaction about a particular issue, they explicitly solicited my advice during the next group meeting. Not only did that feel like an ego-boost, it also helped make meeting virtually a lot more pleasant because I was engaged. Spending that extra few minutes lingering in the Zoom room paid off so well that I plan to be the last person to leave every meeting I can. Overall, we know that building those coworker relationships is really important to your wellbeing at work. Sometimes it takes some creativity and effort to get to know your remote friends.
Dee Ann Pizzica, engineering manager at Atlassian customer BRD has worked mostly remotely since 2009. She always starts her weekly staff meetings with a different icebreaker question. We become friends with the people we see all the time – our next-door neighbor, the college classmate who sat next to us in the lecture hall, or the colleague who shared our cubicle wall. So sometimes, you’re even more focused because of the change of pace. These might feel intimidating at first, but these events and communities are here for people to meet each other and find connection.
In Buffer’s latest State of Remote Work survey, 23% of fully remote workers identified loneliness as their second biggest challenge—just behind difficulties with collaboration and communication. They can provide comfort and support in stressful situations and they can also help uplevel our careers. “Our work relationships are unlike any others,” says Lauren Cook, a California-based therapist and career coach. Up to 80% of jobs get filled through personal professional connections. Here’s how to make sure you are nurturing these critical relationships.
How do you make friends out in the real world when WFH/remote?
As you all already know, I work from home and have lots of ideas to share from my experience. Every month or so the Remote Newbie community holds a live, virtual huddle with 3-5 remote workers. We also bring in one remote expert to join and teach us something new! Past topics included, how to find a non-tech remote job and how incorporating video within your team is crucial for communication. Join fellow remote workers (newbie or otherwise) for future remote huddles by subscribing for updates here.
It’s just important to have a conversation, because small talk establishes a relationship between two people and makes our interactions feel less transactional. “Repotting,” according to Ryan Hubbard, founder of the Kitestring Project, means varying the settings in which you interact. The more friends we repot, according to one study, the deeper the friendships. That means if you only ever interact at work, it’ll be hard to strengthen your bond. Instead, go to the museum or happy hour or have your co-worker over for dinner.