Prior to 2020, my entire work experience had solely been in an office setting. The thought of ‘working from home’ was viewed as a joke or code for employees to slack off. But 2020 turned everything upside down, especially the way we work.
The transition seemed easy for me at first, I quickly saw the benefits--no more sitting in traffic for long commutes, getting to wear comfy clothes and being able to get laundry and other home chores done in between meetings that were usually saved for the weekends. I thought it was great and couldn’t imagine ever going back to the old ways… I remember thinking ‘Why haven’t we been doing this the whole time?’
Soon enough, it was becoming apparent that the honeymoon phase was over and the burnout was starting to set in. I remember feeling tied to my desk for endless amounts of time. More and more I felt my recollection of meetings and details were starting to slip because the days and meetings were all starting to blend together in my head. I started to realize the value of the small debriefs our team had after a call, or ‘sanity checks’ as we called them, and how much I took them for granted.
I slowly began to feel isolated from other team members. Without those organic run ins in the halls or chats while making coffee in the kitchen, I felt disconnected from others outside of my immediate team. I constantly felt the urge to reach out just to say hi, but quickly talked myself out of it with the fear of being a burden… ‘I'm sure they’re busy, I don't want to bother them’ or ‘It’s not work related, I feel bad taking up their time’.
Those small interactions that make you feel connected within an organization were suddenly non-existent in the remote world, and even scarier, there was no solution in sight.
Recalling these feelings and experiences are what motivate me with Culturora. I’m constantly bringing myself back to that feeling of isolation and using it to power our vision forward to connect employees and help navigate through this newfound hybrid world.
