Adjusting to a new workplace, WFH edition

October 6, 2021 10:10 AM

I moved from one remote job to another, and I'm having trouble feeling socially connected and productive. Ideas?

I was not always remote at the old job, only since Mar 2020, so I had interacted with most of my coworkers in person before going remote and had a bunch of work friends. I'm permanently remote at the new job and haven't made any social connections. There aren't very many social events, even though everyone is remote. Lots of people keep their cameras off in meetings.

My main issue is weird because it's a mixed blessing. Old job had a lot of activity on the calendar, Slack, and email. It was a big company so there was always something to catch up on, both work and banter. At any time of the day, I could pop into a tangentially related meeting if I wanted. New job is a small company with sparse meetings, and while there is chatter on Slack channels, it's relatively muted.

Now, that should be great, because one of the things I was tired of in the old job was the difficulty of finding focused time to work, but here, I'm increasingly distracted and bored, and turning to social media (like, right now), which is just awful for productivity. At least work related chatter is somewhat useful.

So, basically, I'm feeling socially isolated and have too many free blocks of time which should be great for work, but my old job seems to have conditioned me to not know how to deal with that well! Any tips?

posted by redlines to Work & Money (6 answers total)

I miss having relationships with coworkers too, and for various reasons there are not good ways for me to develop them remotely. So, well, I figure that since socializing and taking breaks keeps me more productive in the long run, I'm good with doing that during my official work hours. I'm still getting my work done while spending plenty of time doing non-work-related things.

Maybe if you schedule this "nonproductive" time throughout the day it will make it easier to be productive during your actual work hours?
posted by metasarah at 10:47 AM on October 6, 2021 [1 favorite]

It looks like maybe you're in tech, so in place of tangential meetings (and assuming you have authorized access to things not strictly within your team), maybe 'waste' time poking around in wikis, repos, etc. to see what other people are doing--it's not a social activity but it's helpful for feeling in the loop. For productivity, maybe commit to doing one 'thing' per hour (or interval that otherwise feels wasteful): at least one thing however small, like writing an email or a simple function or something, as a way of creating routine opportunities for much more productive flow without expecting to achieve it on a particular schedule.
posted by Wobbuffet at 11:11 AM on October 6, 2021 [1 favorite]

I have an extremely similar situation, having started a new job recently with a smaller team, and having a bit of trouble connecting / finding the same avenues.

I also moved.

General things that have helped me:
* Getting diagnosed with ADHD and getting Adderall
* Learning that coffee had a similar effect as Adderall for me
* (I moved) biting the bullet and buying a better monitor/keyboard/laptop/desk setup.
* It gets better with time
* Finding friends and social connections outside of work
* Having weekly connects with my manager to instill a sense of priorities
* Telling myself - it's okay to not work 10 hours a day if my work can be done in 3.
* Installing the caffiene application to keep my Teams/slack/whatever as "active" (works in very locked down computers) without having to wiggle the mouse, allowing me to take concrete breaks to do other things.
posted by bbqturtle at 11:31 AM on October 6, 2021 [3 favorites]

I have worked from home for 85% of my career. I’m in show biz and personal connections are hugely important.
I try to make connections in my neighborhood—look for the same clerk at the grocery, get coffee from the same place at a regular time, walk my dog at the same route, same time of day (predictable, but then I can chat or wave with others along the way.)
For work, I’ll try to set up a call or Zoom just to “catch up” with one or more colleagues, outside of our usual meetings. I send silly emails, photo of dog, anything sort of related to various interests we have or new sources for research.
Free blocks of time—I can listen to something and do boring chores around the house. Or have a phone call with someone while sorting stuff for Goodwill or transferring files from old drives. I’m medicated for ADHD, as well.
posted by Ideefixe at 11:43 AM on October 6, 2021 [1 favorite]

It's worth taking the time to get to know some of your coworkers- chat them up individually on Slack. Ask how long they've worked there, etc, or ask advice on something about the job. It's not just about your social needs, but important for you to have those connections to be able to get things done well at work...If the culture isn't that social, you'll have to initiate.
posted by pinochiette at 12:17 PM on October 6, 2021 [1 favorite]

When I notice myself being side tracked, in that moment when my brain is fishing for something to think about, I try to keep a list of work stuff running that I can try to hook it on. So like, here I am on AskMe, ok, well after this question I'll go back to my massive pile of open tabs and see what I have to do to close them out. I'll update my project tracker timeline (and in the process, notice a thing that I needed to respond to and remember a question I had that leads me to an article to read and ... an hour later I've done that instead of Twitter).
posted by Lady Li at 1:06 PM on October 6, 2021