RWL202: Feeling Isolated? This Is For You…

Hey, it's Alex from the remote work live podcast. I hope this finds you well, wherever you may be in the world, and on today's episode of the remote work live podcast, I have another quick tip for you that I hope is gonna help to enhance your work, your lifestyle, your wellbeing, I hope, if you do work on a remote basis or you're working from home, wherever you may be working. What I'm going to do today is explore and well talk about significance of staying connected with others and holding your employer accountable for support in the remote work environment. I'll do this by sharing a personal anecdote and hopefully provide you with some tips that you can then put into action yourself to help you with any improvements that you feel that you need to make. You all know that I'm a big advocate for remote work and I've experienced how remote work has essentially transformed my life, has transformed my career. So, as I said, big advocate for remote work and along the way, I've had my fair share of ups and downs, trials, tribulations, good times, bad times, and all of these points, all of these times, for me have been points of learning. Whether it's been a good moment or not so good moment, I've always been able to learn and improve from these different situations.

Speaker 1:
1:36

And when I moved into remote work myself this was going back 2008, 2009, I really really got isolated. I struggled with those feelings of isolation. I felt a lack of support and that was self-inflicted because I not necessarily deliberately, but through my work and through the way I was working that particular time, became isolated. I just essentially focused on what I had to do. I made myself, I guess, the focal point of everything. I didn't delegate any work, I didn't necessarily communicate any of my problems, any of my issues, and one thing led to another and, as I said, it led to, again, a lack of productivity on my part. It led to points where I just came to a standstill and, yeah, I didn't really reach out in the way that I should have reached out, and it wasn't until I consciously prioritized staying connected and making new connections, and LinkedIn was actually a massive part of this for me. Linkedin, for me, has been fundamental to my, I guess, my means, my methods of staying connected and one of the methods of staying connected and keeping connected meeting new people, making new friends, making new contacts. It's been fundamental and I mean from there as I learned to connect and as I learned to stay in contact with team members, past and present. I was able to then apply what I learned on LinkedIn and use that in my day-to-day methods of staying in communication, staying in contact with my team.

Speaker 1:
3:29

But in the world of work, when I moved into working in a remote team, I also bought with me the idea and the actual experience of staying connected and the benefits of doing that. So that was something that I wanted to apply to my work. I wanted to teach my colleagues, because some of them were new to remote work and didn't necessarily understand the importance of connection until they themselves reached a moment of isolation or reached a moment where they became stuck themselves. So anything that I learned, as I said, I wanted to take it not just in my day-to-day life but share it with my fellow workers. But, as I said before, it was important and I felt it important to hold my employers accountable for providing the resources and the support that I used, and I began to experience the benefits of remote work, and so, too, I believed in my teammates and the intentional practices helped me feel supported, helped me to stay engaged, and it significantly improved my overall work experience, and I think I really firmly believe that it can do the same for you too.

Speaker 1:
4:55

Everybody has their own means of communication, and communication for remote workers is not just about online communication. For me and this may surprise a few of the soothsayers, should we say where remote work is concerned, I do a lot of connection and communication in person as well, so that's a big element of what I've implemented in my life. But here are just a few, I guess, a few tips for you. I guess there's five key tips that I'd like to share with you to see if any of them resonate with you and anything that you would like to do, either with yourself or within your team or within the, I suppose, the groups of people that you work with.

Speaker 1:
5:40

So tip number one is regular check-ins, so scheduling check-ins according to how your team member wants to work or how your team member wants to use that particular function. So regular check-ins with your team to maintain open communication, staying connected. This can be done through video calls, instant messaging or virtual team meetings and, again, you don't want to every, I guess, person within your team may require some may require more communication than others. So it's not a one-size-fits-all by any means so, but regular check-ins, I think, is something that has really worked for me and I quite like the idea of doing that and that was, you know, that was made possible through the fact that I was in such a great team and we had very much open communication and we understood each other really well.

Speaker 1:
6:38

So number two is virtual socialising. I know I talked about the fact that I do like to meet virtually, but I also like to meet in person as well. But virtual socialising is something that I do enjoy doing and it creates. What you do is you create opportunities for virtual socialising amongst your team. It could be something as simple as a coffee break, it could be team building activities, it could be quizzes I know not everybody likes quizzes, but you again, you have to find what works for your team, what your team likes. You have to understand what your team wants. Casual conversations banter to foster a sense of community, a sense of belonging. So that's number two.

Speaker 1:
7:23

So feedback and support is number three on my list. So holding your employer accountable, as I was saying to you before, for providing regular feedback, support and necessary resources to ensure your success in the remote work environment. Feedback is such an important tool and that's not necessarily just one way feedback that could be two-way feedback, so it could be from you to who you're working with as well. So two-way feedback is always good. Number four is wellness programmes. So advocate for wellness programmes, mental health resources, professional development opportunities that should be provided by your employer. Not necessarily all of these, but at least some of them, or consider some of them to support your well-being and your growth. And number five on my list, which is closely linked to that, but that's professional development. You never want to feel like you're standing still, neither do your teammates or the people who you manage. So engage in ongoing professional development and hold your employer accountable for providing opportunities for growth and skill development, because if you don't do that, people will just move on for opportunities that they see in the market. So those are my five tips for you. I hope some of them are useful. I hope you can consider some of those for yourself or for your team.

Speaker 1:
8:52

I just wanted to say thank you again for listening to the podcast. Of course, as I said, feedback was one of my tips. I'm always open and I always welcome feedback myself, so if there are things that you hear on the remote work life podcast, please get in touch. I always leave my link, my details, in the show notes. If you look below, there's a link to my LinkedIn profile and that's where you can find me on most days. Message me, get in contact with me, let me know what you think. If you like the show, please consider giving the show a rating. And, yeah, I wish you all the best and I see you on the next episode.