Coffee Chats: The Little Things We Miss At Home
It’s far too easy to feel like a piece of machinery nowadays. Even in this new wave of remote work, our minds aren’t safe from the slow approach of burnout. In fact, if we aren’t careful, staying at home can exacerbate that feeling.
The choice to work remotely may bring an air of comfort to one’s daily grind, trading the morning commute for an extra hour of freedom and the harsh light of the office for the warm glow of home. While these benefits are not to be understated, they do have their costs. Among other things, it can feel distant and impersonal to work with a team, as our interactions are now separated by screens and speakers. To avoid falling into a repetitive slump and letting important opportunities pass us by, we must push ourselves out of our comfort zone from time to time.
On the horizon, the coffee chat appears; defined in the tech industry as an informal meeting held between two or more people to discuss any number of topics. Despite its name, coffee is not required, but there’s usually some food-or-drink element to invoke a more casual, friendly atmosphere and ease any tension that may be present before or during a meeting. A chat between peers can be related to their work, the industry at large, personal stories, or just current events. This past week, I had the chance to sit down for a coffee chat with a few of my peers at Strategio, and it made me realize just how much I had been missing.
It was, of course, a little awkward at first. It’s hard to believe that I could be rusty at something as simple as conversation, but it had been a few months since I moved to Florida, leaving most of my friends in New York behind. Suffice to say, making new friends in a new city when you don’t attend school or work in an office is not the easiest thing in the world. I’m fortunate to have had some very outgoing and understanding people on the other side of my screen, and as the conversation continued and evolved throughout the short time we had, that awkwardness thankfully dissipated.
At a certain point, I felt like I could take a breath and really think about where I was. At all other hours of the day, there’s an omnipresent pressure to perform. I often think to myself, I’m here to learn and work, so there’s no time to waste. While there is truth within that statement, that binary way of thinking — where we feel like we have to be fully committed to behaving one way or fully committed to behaving another— isn’t always appropriate. When we think this way, we may perform better in the short term, but in the long run, we will very quickly find ourselves lonely and burnt-out. Having to schedule and attend a coffee chat as though it’s some big event may feel silly — and, in many ways, it is — but it’s essential for our overall well-being and productivity.
It’s easy to get caught up in the ‘always on’ mentality and forget about the importance of building relationships, not just as a step in your career, but as a vital part of your life. Taking the time to have a coffee chat with someone can help us to slow down, step away from the pressures of a fast-paced, ever-growing industry, and connect with others on a more personal level. I know that the first chance I get, I’ll be scheduling another one.
