TwoCents | Working Remotely is no longer working

Working remotely as an introvert is slowly weighing down on my mental health. I was already socially awkward, having skipped the part of the ‘how to be social in the 21st century’ part of the human manual, and now that I no longer have to physically be amongst humans, it has gotten worse. I love working remotely. But do I love it because my natural instinct as an introvert is to avoid human interaction or because it is a better option? We know the era of the pandemic led us to the glorious transition from onsite working to hybrid and sometimes completely remote working and it made perfect sense…Well, it still does. There’s work freedom and flexibility, businesses can save money, and then for Nigerians who live in Lagos, it takes away the whole drama of Lagos traffic and the madness that comes with working in Lagos. I can’t remember the last time I sat in traffic or experienced public transport insanity…but despite these beautiful benefits, remote working is not all smooth sailing. Employers of remote jobs are no respecter of time or your personal life. I remember having meetings at 10 pm because ‘you’re at home anyway, what else could be doing with your life?’ but that’s not even the worst of it all. And I am not the only one that thinks so, According to Buffer’s 2019 State of Remote Work report, the most common problem remote workers have apart from finding it hard to unplug from work is loneliness. Yes, I said it….and whether we admit it or not, this is a major issue. We are already in the era where people have seemingly connected with people online but are far away from even the person closest to them in real life. It is a daunting reality and I worry that is only going to get worse from here. Work is where many people have the bulk of their social interactions. This is especially for people with limited social life, I know we like to pretend otherwise but think deeply about it, when you have a job that takes up Monday to Friday, how often do you interact with people outside the office? Remote working breeds loneliness and isolation, taking out that precious workplace interaction that kept a whole lot of us more alive than we realize. Working from home may have formerly been considered a nirvana where we could easily make the school run, exercise during our breaks, and prepare nutritious home-cooked meals. But, the reality is not as we imagined. I remember being so excited when I first started working remotely ‘Finally, I will have more time to do things. I’ll be able to go out more, have more time for my personal things and…many more imaginations’. I can now confirm that none of those things happened. And I am sure this is the same for other people. The fact that we can work from anywhere means we never stop working…At family functions, I find myself checking slack and answering emails. I can imagine there also others who find themselves working nearly 24/7, you’re on call every time and when you finally find the time to unwind and relax, it becomes hard because you feel so detached from the world, you struggle to let yourself really have that break and social interactions just become harder. During work hours, when you are frustrated and you need to share with likeminded people, the thought of having to call a worker just feels burdensome…and this is only if you are somewhat close to them. Most remote workers hardly know each other or even have any form of relationship beyond Zoom meetings. We miss out so much on the social cues of a busy workplace and much-needed social encounters. In some cases and for some people, the loneliness begins to turn into mild depression, and their productivity is seriously affected. In my case, social interactions became even harder than it was. I worked in an office for a whole year with only 4 colleagues who were either old enough to give birth to me or old enough to adopt me and I remember being very lonely at the beginning. Through the months, I developed solid friendships that I didn’t think were ever possible. Now that I work from home, I appreciate that friendship even better…the feeling of resuming office, talking about frustrations of the job, sharing food, sharing opportunities, having similar goals, and even sharing special office codes. So what is the solution? Should we all just restart the pre-pandemic world? Should companies offer more hybrid options?  Are we even ready to restart the 100% onsite work lifestyle? I for one will say I am still not ready to give up remote working so what then should we do? This is a call for ideas, to be people who have somehow made an art out of remote working and appear to be doing well, perhaps you can share your tips and tricks. Until next time!

Other insights from Esther Omemu