Today marks the first full week of working from home. While the news of what’s going on outside is scary, I’ve found working from home surprisingly enjoyable. I’m thinking of writing an update every week so we’ll see if this week simply turns out to be an outlier…
One thing I didn’t expect to feel in my first week of WFH is more connected to the rest of my company, not less.
Indeed, I surprised myself on Monday by reaching out to a co-worker that I rarely speak to and suggesting that we launch a new channel in our company chat where people can get together in a video call and simply chat about non-work stuff, we called it #dev.coffeebreak. Keeping it alive will take some work, but I’ve found organising a quick call a lot easier and less intimidating than organising a coffee meeting IRL. Sure, a video call was always an option before COVID-19 but
- setting up a video call with someone who works in the same building just feels weird,
- asking them if they want to grab a coffee if you don’t know them that well also feels weird,
- and what about that one person in your department that you don’t know very well who’s always been remote? Awkward.
Something else I’ve noticed about myself over these past few days is that I’ve become more outspoken. When I would usually limit myself to sharing my thoughts on something that happened with a co-worker or my manager, on Thursday I found myself writing an email to upper management about our attitude as a company to self-isolation measures. The email, I found out shortly after, was well received (!).
It’s common knowledge that people are generally more comfortable sharing things online than in person, but I think there’s more to it than that. I was talking to a friend about this earlier this week and he said that remote working can act as a big leveller. Yes, all the tools we’re using now were already available to us before COVID-19 confined many of us to our homes, but now the physical barriers that separate us in the office have disappeared. The co-worker down the hall or your CEO on the top floor is just another person sitting at home behind a screen.
Obviously, there have been some downsides to WFH. My back started aching on Tuesday after being hunched over my laptop for two days, and my elbow started aching yesterday probably because of using my laptop’s keyboard and trackpad instead of an external mouse and keyboard. But those are things that can be solved. The first has been partially resolved already thanks to my husband’s company dropping off an external monitor, which means that we don’t have to fight over who gets to use the one we already have.
Oh, and the internet connection has been patchy at times making some calls last twice as long as they feel they should, and we’re still figuring out how to avoid interrupting or talking over each other. We might not be able to fix the internet, but good video conferencing etiquette can be learned.
On a more personal level working from home has meant more time to meditate and run in the morning (while running is still permitted, otherwise you’ll find me racking up points on Zwift), healthy home-cooked lunches with my husband and more energy and time left at the end of the day to catch up with friends and family online.
That last one is something I usually struggle with during a normal work week. Often, by the time I’m home from work all I want to do is have dinner, maybe watch some TV, read a book and go to bed, which feels OK at the time, but sometimes leaves me feeling quite lonely.
As I go into the weekend and the number of cases in Berlin and the rest of Europe continue to rise, I’m looking forward to staying home and connecting with more friends, loved ones, and strangers too❣️
