A lot of companies are asking employees to work from home due to COVID-19. Many for the first time. I’ve seen good tweets on how to manage your time and organize your day, but as someone who has worked 100% from home for a few years, allow me to give some mental health advice...
DISCLAIMER: I AM NOT A MENTAL HEALTH PROFESSIONAL
These are just my observations and learnings that I wish to pass on. Working from home for an extended period of time can actually be pretty lonesome and a bit harrowing for first timers.
These are just my observations and learnings that I wish to pass on. Working from home for an extended period of time can actually be pretty lonesome and a bit harrowing for first timers.
Your mental wellbeing while working from home can be a way more insidious problem than other issues you might encounter, because it will sneak up on you or won’t be immediately apparent.
Those semi throw away discussions around coffee, or those times when you chat with your pod mate about <insert local sports team’s> game last night and waste a few minutes? You’d think those interactions are a waste of time and sometimes you might even dread or avoid them.
Turns out, those conversations contribute greatly to your sense of community and remind you that your life experience is a shared one. WFH, it’s way less often that people are randomly messaging you about how your softball game went, or how hard you fragged in Fortnite.
WFH can be a pretty harrowing and lonely experience. You spend all day in one small room, interacting digitally with people or working on your own desk work. If you live alone, you likely won’t see anyone all day. Otherwise, you’re only going to interact with your roommates/fam.
My advice would be to make sure you have some planned social interaction, as silly as that may seem. Plan to see a friend mid week after work hours. If you’re worried about the plague, invite them to come hang out and watch a movie or play a board game.
At worst, jump on Discord or XBL voice chat and play some games with friends (although I would highly recommend face to face). Call a loved one or family member just to talk and catch up. If you can, go for a video call/facetime, I think it’s even better.
Exercise. Break your day up a little. I used to go for a run over lunch. Getting the endorphins charged helps combat being cooped up in a solitary office/bedroom all day. This honestly helped me a lot. Get some sun if you live in a place that provides it (sorry Seattle friends).
Again, if you are willing to risk the end times, go grab a coffee from a local coffee shop. You’d be surprised to realize that a short pleasantry with the person providing your beverage goes a long way to helping you maintain your social sanity.
I realize all of this seems like common sense, but again, this is one of those things that can sneak up on you and will be a relatively new experience for those that haven’t spent a lot of time doing work from a home office.
For many, the last time they spent so much solitary time focused on mental effort was college/university. Even then, remember how many people went to the library on campus, and how many people were around you sharing that experience?
Make sure to get those social interactions in, even if they are forced.
I didn’t talk about the positives of working from home, but there are many. Hang with your pets. Flexibility of scheduled. Uninterrupted desk time.
Stay safe out there friends. Hope this helps someone!
I didn’t talk about the positives of working from home, but there are many. Hang with your pets. Flexibility of scheduled. Uninterrupted desk time.
Stay safe out there friends. Hope this helps someone!
