6.Creative Ways to Stay Connected to Your Coworkers When You’re All Working From Home

We don’t need to explain that it’s an unprecedented moment. While remote work has been steadily increasing over time, our current situation is a whole new ballgame with entire workforce going remote overnight. We’re sure you’ve seen the usual work-from-home tips, so we’re here to share creative tips and tricks for maintaining company culture and relationships while fighting isolation and loneliness during the coronavirus pandemic. While not all these will work for every team, we encourage you to take time with coworkers to try some of these or create your own.

 1. Reimagine Commute Time

Sweet, now that everyone is remote you can roll straight from bed into work! Not quite. You don’t have to commute to and from work at the moment, but you can reimagine this time. Schedule “coffee” with a different team member during your former car-ride or subway-schlep time each morning and take this time to catch up over the phone, video call, or even text chat. Get your team to sign up for coffee talks with each other and create a solid rotation throughout the whole office. You’ll gain social time, mentorship, different perspectives, and regain some of the spontaneous conversations that are lost in remote working.

2.Pomodoro With a Friend

Time management techniques abound—as does the advice to pick one in order to keep your remote workday structured. We’d like to take this a step further and suggest that you and a coworker choose one of these techniques to do together. For instance, if you’re using the Pomodoro Technique, set a timer for each interval of 25 minutes and “ready, set, go!” together. This will help gamify your workday slightly, and also ensure that you can take a guilt-free five minute break with a buddy, instead of with your laundry.

 

3.Make Video Mandatory

Okay, this one might seem obvious, but tons of people still default to soul-crushing conference calls or they just “don’t like” being on video. But skipping video just isn’t an option right now when no communication will be in person. Too many nonverbal cues are lost when we default to phone calls and Slack. For example, if you were in the office, your coworker would be able to see the friendly, non-scolding look on your face when you ask, “Can we talk?” The solution is to have video chats, have them frequently, and make video mandatory for all team members.

4.Group Video Chat—Even While You Work Silently!

This one isn’t for everyone, but we encourage you to try it. Basically, work as though you are next to each other in real life—that is, silently, but with video on. Believe it or not, just hearing someone nearby typing away and working diligently can be a huge boost for mood and morale (not to mention productivity) and is part of the reason why coworking spaces are so popular. While working from home is exciting once in a while, it’s actually not a great everyday situation for most people because of how isolating it can be.

Plus, within reason, this setup allows folks to ask quick questions aloud without the nonsense of wondering whether to call or Slack. Finally, “working together” will help regain some of the spontaneous ideas that come up when you’re all in an office together.

5. Improve Your Meetings

Now that meetings have become calls and video chats, we’re at high risk for everyone being in 47 tabs at once and simultaneously tweeting. Take the time to think about how to make your meetings more engaging, and make sure that different ideas and perspectives are heard. Play a game called “First and Worst” where everyone throws out their…first and worst ideas. Great ideas are often adjacent to bad ones and turning it into a game will keep everyone engaged and present—just not physically.

 

6.Encourage Casual Encounters

Not that kind. We hate to be a broken record, but working from home can be lonely and inevitably squashes those spontaneous moments that lead to closer relationships and creative solutions to problems. To make up for it, take your colleagues to the proverbial watercooler with you as you move around your home. In other words, travel with your computer. Stepping into the kitchen to make a cup of tea? Take a colleague with you. Doing a few victory laps around your living room to celebrate a win? Make sure your video is on widescreen.  Designate a Slack channel for “casual chatter” and drop your thoughts there.

Ultimately, finding virtual analogues for our most valued in-person interactions and being forced to get creative around meetings and events will make our teams more flexible and inventive. By the time you return to the office, it’s possible you will have even improved culture and relationships. Best of luck!