18 Key Ways Managers Can Help Remote Workers Returning To The Office

Well, easy for me to write, not necessarily easy to put into practice. I also started a job (the one I have now, actually, here at WIRED) during the pandemic, and the first steps were hard, but I’m glad to say I’ve made more friends in a year here than I could have ever imagined. At Atlassian, some teams even have a virtual messy-desk faceoff https://remotemode.net/blog/tips-on-how-to-make-friends-when-you-work-from-home/ in Slack every week. You can learn about someone by seeing what objects they have sitting in front of them all day. My favorite example of this practice happens at the 10-person distributed company Lawyerist, which holds regular “Taco Tuesday” lunches. Simulating the communal meal, each person order tacos from their favorite local restaurant.

• Over the years, Meena has written for publications including The Wall Street Journal, Fortune, and Travel+Leisure.
• If split-screen does not activate, double check that your controllers are on and connected properly.
• That is to say, the best way to socialize might just be by involving others in your work-life balance.
• Use social networks and video conferencing tools to keep in touch on a regular basis.
• What’s more, employees who report having friends at work have higher levels of productivity, retention, and job satisfaction than those who don’t.

Don’t assume that the team who left the office years ago is the same team, even if the members haven’t fully turned over. Be prepared to manage a team with a history—and one that, at the same time, may just now be becoming familiar with each other. Eric is a NYC-based editor and writer, with years of experience in career-focused content development across a wide range of industries. Howe says it’s important to be a little more mindful in communication, as corresponding via messaging platforms or email may not convey tone or intent.

Initiate virtual coffees or cocktails.

It’s completely optional to join, but anyone who comes and shows their tacos gets the cost of the meal covered by the company. To practice this yourself, schedule a short time to chat with a colleague or classmate about non-work topics during the week. There’s no set agenda to a fika, but you can help seed the conversation by thinking about questions to ask each other ahead of time. For example, you might be looking for shows to add to your Netflix watchlist, or the best takeout restaurants to order from. While some people thrive in isolation, others need to feel like they are not alone to perform at their best. Partnering for work or study sprints is a way to meet the needs of both introverts and extroverts.

Starting a job remotely can make it difficult to build work friendships — casual “water cooler chats” now happen in a digital chat box. To help employees bond over their unusual remote-work experiences, some companies have made socializing a part of the onboarding process. As a result, workers organized weekly virtual hangouts, which they took offline as people got vaccinated. Some met one-on-one or attended company-wide off-site events like baseball games.

Meet People Where They Are

When we’re working in an office, it’s far easier to have impromptu chats with colleagues in the shared kitchen, or to get together for after-work drinks. Often, it’s these meetings in non-work settings in which we get to know our colleagues personally. Over 18 months, they interviewed 64 workers with varying levels of experience several times for a total of 114 interviews. The researchers also observed interactions between co-workers when they did meet face-to-face. It’s not embarrassing, desperate or clingy to ask someone if they want to get a drink or coffee, even if it’s over a video call.

But if you’re the new guy or gal on staff, a remote workplace might seem challenging at first. You can’t rely on the convenience of casual office interactions to help you develop relationships with co-workers. We have advice on making remote work friends when chatting in the kitchen or stopping by someone’s cubicle is out of the question. It’s been shown that being of the same race and gender has a greater influence on the likelihood to form a friendship than other factors such as role.

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