3 Ways to Make Friends Remotely
They can provide comfort and support in stressful situations and they can also help uplevel our careers. “Our work relationships are unlike any others,” says Lauren Cook, a California-based therapist and career coach. Up to 80% of jobs get filled through personal professional connections. Here’s how to make sure you are nurturing these critical relationships.
- You will gain self-confidence, reduce stress and emotional tension.
- That may seem obvious, but as a person who knows that I have several colleagues in my area that I’ve never met, I know that it’s not.
- “Repotting,” according to Ryan Hubbard, founder of the Kitestring Project, means varying the settings in which you interact.
- The Covid-19 crisis has forced masses of people into work-from-home scenarios and just about every university student into a study-from-home experiment.
- Volunteering is a great way to make friends when you work from home, do a good deed, and fulfill your civic duty.
- Don’t stop there – here’s where you can really connect with some new faces by planning out some office-adjacent fun.
All you need to do is sign up, search for the hobby or activity that you like to do, and go to one of their meetups. It’s that easy to avoid loneliness and make friends when you work from home. If someone isn’t interested in chatting about anything beyond the project at hand, give them space and introduce yourself to another colleague. If everyone shares pet photos in a Slack channel, consider posting one of your super cute pup. If someone asks for travel advice from a place you know well, share your tips. If you have the best recipe for lasagna or blueberry pie, share it, maybe with a photo from the last time you made it.
Another study found that when people answered a series of intimate questions, they felt closer afterward. Or, Cummings recommends, you can try something that introduces some of the accidental nature of water cooler conversations back into your virtual world. If you would generally “run-into” someone at a particular event, set a reminder on your phone to try to schedule a call with them around that date and time, Cummings recommends. Don’t let it dissuade you, however, from tapping into the random chat every once and a while. You might get the sense of someone’s personality, likes, and dislikes that would make you interested in linking up with them outside the depersonalized, emoji-filled world of messaging apps. At Atlassian we encourage individuals to give team members kudos (thank you notes with small gifts) when they embody a specific trait from our company values.
Try Coworking Spaces
Sometimes, it’s the easiest and most obvious things that work better than others. If you’re a bit of an introvert or you’re already at your computer screen, finding online interest groups is far easier than you anticipated. Most towns and cities have some sort of interest groups that might pique your interest.
Moving to a new city or country, a big break-up, or as is common in the last couple of years, switching to remote work. Any of these are bound to make us feel the need to get out there and make new friends. If you don’t have any kids or aren’t planning to, the same idea works for your pets.
Understanding each other’s interests will how to make friends when you work from home expand the circle of friends immediately. Trust your friends with a blind date or arrange a group date. Make an appointment in a crowded, trusted place to organize the most favorable environment for a joint holiday.
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Reach out to your co-workers, and turn your remote work relationship into real-life friendships. Arrange virtual coffees or happy hours to connect with people. Working remotely is a true paradise when you want to plan your day perfectly, find a balance between personal life and work.
Plugged in, but not connected
Meetup.com has many activities, meetups, and events listed in thousands of cities so you are sure to find something that sparks your interest or a new hobby you have always wanted to try. Yes, Facebook might be stale but you can still get value from the platform. Try joining Facebook groups of your neighborhood or city and attending their events or make a post about wanting to meet people and make friends. A chat messaging service is your go-to medium for remote work friendships. Whether you’re sending a text message or voice message through a program like Voxer, it’s the remote equivalent of popping into someone’s office to tell them a quick story on your way to the bathroom. Not having an in-person office environment doesn’t mean you can’t still have a lunch date or coffee chat to catch up or get to know someone better.
It was awkward for about a minute, but a single hug later we were picking up in real life where we’d left off online. After endless chats, years of liking each other’s Facebook posts, and hours of commiserating over everything from micromanaging bosses to the single life, we weren’t just colleagues. “Repotting,” according to Ryan Hubbard, founder of the Kitestring Project, means varying the settings in which you interact.
Just change a few of your habits and force yourself out the door. Reddit is a great source to find an open mic night in your area, and even if you don’t want to display your talent (or lack thereof), people are genuinely friendly and willing to talk to you. While Facebook is a source for these groups, more active interest groups appear on Reddit or Meetup.com.
At the same time, the main component is missing – socialization and the opportunity to make new friends when you work from home. It is becoming more and more difficult for remote employees to find friends on their own due to the limited social circle. My life is full of Zoom meetings, so when someone suggests a separate, non-obligatory Zoom hang, I almost always say no. Even if I like someone a lot, I just can’t hang out in that small rectangular box all day without feeling like I am becoming Siri or something. But you can have a little hang time with folks without committing to a whole extra meeting.
