Working Well (From Home)
A year in to a global pandemic and ten months or so in to the massive move to remote work what does it mean to be “Working Well From Home?”
While answers are specific to respective circumstances and ever-evolving, the commonalities are great. Why? As we socially distance from our colleagues and adopt new collaborative tools, the fact remains that most office workers are no longer sharing the same physical space, and we simply cannot read social cues at the same level over Zoom as In Real Life (IRL). If we feel lonely, it it because we are more alone. Feeling tired? Turns out that engaging online vs. real life is exhausting.
The Covid-19 pandemic has sent the vast majority of US office workers back home.
A recent episode of Hidden Brain called ‘When you start to miss Tony from Accounting” featured an interview with Nicholas Bloom, a Stanford Economist professor who studies labor, management and uncertainty, explained that while the move home was OK at first, months in, we are starting to miss the social interaction. .
As of mid-2020, the American workforce broke out as follows:
- 42% working from home
- 33% are unemployed
- 26% are working on location *
* There are the folks we now call essential workers.
I am privileged to be able to work remotely, yet facing the digital blank page of my work life each morning, alone with my coffee and planner is rather daunting.
One of my favorite aspects of my work in non-profit arts and non-fiction storytelling is working with filmmakers and entrepreneurs to craft a project pitch. I always coach folks to limit themselves to three ‘asks,’ so audiences remember. Sticking to the rule of three, here are the big ideas I am embracing around Working Well (From Home).
- BE WELL
Take care of yourself. Really.
Obviously living amidst a pandemic is stressful, an invisible potential killer that makes every live social interaction kinda dangerous, the monotony of daily life inside against the chaos of say, the election outside created a constant cognitive dissonance.
“Self-care” is no longer the sole dominion of millennials GOOP followers, and it is not for women only. It’s a 10 billion dollar industry!
Check out this lovely piece on The Unspoken Complexity of “Self-Care” by Deanna Zandt, who differentiates between self-soothing, self-care and community care and finally structural care. ( More on this soon.)
The take-away: do one thing that actively improves your health and well-being. Maybe you need to get out in nature, or sing along to your favorite song. Or maybe you need to step it up and schedule that delayed dentist appointment or open your mail and pay your bills, something that you’ve been putting off and will feel a lot better after you do it.
- DO GOOD
This is all about how we work, improving our productivity and efficiency so that we have more time and energy for what really matters. It’s about working with purpose. And setting boundaries. Consider that it may be OK to do good enough right now, we are going to be in this for at least another 6 months, it is reasonable to shift expectations and
The take-away: identify one thing you can do differently that will make your day better? What of the many things on your to do list can you let go of?
- KEEP CONNECTING
The pandemic has exacerbated social disconnection of the digital age and Zoom is a substitute for meeting in real life. To counteract that dislocation, we need to be proactive about connecting with friends, family and colleagues.
The take-away: make one real-time one-on-one connection today. Reach out to one person today and just chat — via phone or video call is fine. If you can go for a walk with a friend outdoors with a face mask, even better.
Connecting via social media is qualitatively different and does not count. But, don’t underestimate the power — albeit a delayed gratification — of sending an actual letter in the mail.
BIG NOTE: Systemic racism and inequity mean that remote workers are more likely to be white and educated. For insights on this from nine Black women working in the wellness space, check out “Wellness Doesn’t Belong to White Women” by Kelly Gonsalves in The Cut.
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