How to keep a sense of community while working from home

Our digital age gives us the opportunity to work from anywhere. It’s a breath of fresh air, when you just checked-out of the land of cubicles. All we need is a laptop, power outlet and a solid internet connection, right? Not quite. As having a sense of team spirit and community feel is crucial to staying productive. So, although working remote can feel liberating with its flexibility and zero commuting hassle, in its turn it has its challenges too. Sometimes it can make you feel somewhat isolated, disengaged and even a bit lonely. How to keep the spirits up?

We say: let’s stay connected and stick together in the virtual world. Here’s 5 tips to keep a sense of community while working from home.

Let’s boost the morale, people. From wherever you’re working today.

Hello from the other side

As you might’ve yet grasped: at Spaces we highly value the community feel. By keeping in touch with your fellow workers, you can minimalize the feelings of loneliness. And we’re not just talking about business chats: don’t be afraid to go off-topic and show some sincere interested in colleagues. Just check in every once in a while, be fully in the conversation and pay attention. This 1-on-1 screen time can actually be way more valuable than sitting in a full meeting room or cafeteria, where you get easily distracted from the conversation. Let’s use this time to our benefit, get to know one another, build stronger relationships.

Let’s have virtual lunches

Co-workers who lunch together, stay together, we like to say. When you value your lunch breaks with your favourite coworkers when in the office, why stop now? Let’s be a little creative. Set up a Zoom meeting, ‘share’ a bagel together and, who knows, show off your cute Corgie’s wiggly butt. Oh, and if it’s Friday… well, let’s just have a virtual happy hour, shall we? Cheers, everyone.

Ready, set, learn

Probably everyone in your team has its own specialty and expertise and we can always learn new things, right? Why not use the opportunity to learn from each other? Set up a live stream and let your coworker give a small lecture on the key takeaways of his or her expertise. Tap into their wisdom and let’s get those virtual learnings going.

Virtual coffee RendezVous’

Nowadays, in our digital age, there are countless options to stay in touch with your team or coworking friends. You can have virtual meetings via tools like Zoom or chat via Slack (and send a zillion GIF’s of course). But besides business meetings, you can also just catch up with (work) friends, like you normally would during your breaks at our barista coffee bar. Never underestimate the social importance of taking regular coffee breaks. Aside from the burst of energy due to the caffeine shot, the social contact has proven to boost your mood, manage stress levels and improve productivity. And yes, science has our backs on this one. Let’s rendezvous.

Find a work bud

As working from home can get a bit lonely sometimes, it’s important to have work friends and create close bonds. So, go find the Lilo to your Stitch and never let him go. But how to keep a good working relationship when you’re not always around? With Whereby – a tool you can use without downloads or passwords – you can just share a personal link with your favourite co-worker and keep the video chat running the whole day. This way, you’ll always have someone to talk to. Now, how cool is that.

Curious what’s more up on our online magazine? Check it out, right here.