If you still hold a career being able to work remotely in 2023, you may be more than ecstatic with your working environment or not at all. As it stands, I currently work fully remote for a SaaS company, and I absolutely love what I accomplish on my day-to-day furthering my tech knowledge/skills or being able to complete a long on-going project. Five months ago, I was required to go into the office every 2 weeks, this balance I felt was just perfect, working in the office for 2 weeks then working from home for 2 weeks.
While working from home may sound like a luxury, sometimes, it can throw you off your balance if you enjoy the social experience of being around others, meeting someone new, or networking with your colleagues in person, or seeing your “office friends” by the coffee machine or water machine, or even walking laps in the office before your shift socializing.
To keep myself “sane” per se, I follow these tips below that I recommend to everyone to keep themselves as happy as possible if you enjoy social interactions.
Working From Home Doesn’t Mean You HAVE To Work From Home!
More often than not, you may hold a fully remote office job and you may not live close at all to your employer’s office location, so you may not be able to go to the office when you want to socialize with others. To get around this and meet your social needs during the working hours, I recommend working from your local coffee shop, as long as they don’t mind, have good WiFi, and have plenty of power outlets. Before doing this, I HIGHLY recommend scoping out the area you plan on working in before the day of your shift, ensuring that you’ll be able to work to your full potential. When pulling this off, I highly recommend bringing an external wireless mouse with you and a mousepad to still be proactive during your work shift. Most of the time, while we have Zoom and Teams, you can set a background so others can’t see what’s behind you, unless your workplace does not allow you to do this, I recommend setting a background so others don’t get the idea. If someone asks if you’re not home, be open that you’re not home, there’s nothing against this, and it may persuade others to do the same.
If you live within driving distance to the office, you should go into the office atleast once a week, this gives you the opportunity to talk to your office friends once again, and potentially join office-events after hours if there are any, this gives you the opportunity to be able to start new connections and meet your social needs.
Traveling While Working Remotely
While this sounds grand, it may actually be depending on where you are. More times than not, your employer allows you to travel while working remotely. Please keep in mind, your employer may require notice before you do this, even if you’re traveling within your country. If you travel outside of the country, you should let your HR department know or get approval first, as you’ll be working under different tax laws. Again, the same applies as above, you need to ensure that the location you’ll be working from, will not give you additional distractions and has a decent Internet connection. I would recommend traveling after your Friday shift, either right after work, or on the weekend, then return back home the next weekend. This way, you’re not inconveniencing yourself or your employer. When your shift is over, close the lid of your laptop, relax for a bit and forget about your workday, go out and enjoy what life has to offer.
Actually Working From Home
On the days that you prefer to work from your actual home, plan out your day accordingly. Decide what you’re going to do after your shift. Heck, do something around the house that needs to get done during your lunch break. Throw your clothes in the washer/dryer before your shift and finish doing laundry during your lunch. Eat food shortly before your lunch and go outside on a walk during your lunch, or grab groceries, or run an errand.
What Not To Do
To keep yourself sane, do not stay at home all day, even after your work from home shift, do not keep yourself isolated from others. Go out and enjoy life after your work from home shift. If you continue to isolate, you will lose out on your personal growth, and you’ll miss out on potential life experiences.
So, Is It Worth It?
If you don’t have extensive social needs to stay happy, and are an introvert, absolutely. If you have social needs to meet, and enjoying going out, absolutely, just plan your day accordingly after your shift is over and follow the helpful tips mentioned above.