How to Have Social Connection When You Work Remote

How do you find connection when you work remote? | Photo courtesy of Pexels

Working remote or working from home, whether you’re running your own business or are on a distributed team, can be lonely. You might have a team you chat with on Slack or via Zoom during the work day, but you might not have the opportunity to chat about anything lighter, like you would if you were in a traditional office, where proximity simply encourages socializing.

That isn’t to say that there aren’t any upsides to remote work. You have more freedom, such as the flexibility of managing your own time to even working in sweatpants all day. But when you’re a remote worker, you are often a team of one, so getting out of the home office to meet others or socializing with your team might not come naturally.

Being a remote team ourselves and talking to other remote workers, here are a few ways we’ve found to socialize and foster connections while we work from home.

Head to a Coworking Space

We’re big fans of the coworking space, if you didn’t know, and for us, changing our environment— whether that’s getting out of the home office for the day or a few hours— is a great way to encourage ourselves to meet other people. 

Whether this is lightly socializing with those in the kitchen when we’re making coffee or even striking up a conversation with the people around us at the communal table, coworking spaces are great because you’ll meet other people in the same boat: remote workers, consultants, entrepreneurs, freelancers, and creatives who know what working remote is like and are there to meet others and work too.

Tip: strike up the conversation first. We’ve found that coworking spaces are full of friendly people who want the same thing: to meet others, get out of their heads a bit, and to work. Speaking up to someone whether that’s about their laptop stickers or asking how their day is goes a long way.

Going to a coworking space or cafe for a few hours can help you find new people to connect with.

Join a Community

If hot yoga, or cooking authentic Chinese food, or learning French, or playing Pokèmon Go is your thing, most likely there’s a community for it. Search on Facebook groups, Meetups, or check out Eventbrite for meetings or events that you might be interested in.

Finding that common goal or interest can help you find your people. It also has the positive side of giving your day some additional structure, getting you away from your laptop, and giving you some events to look forward to throughout the week.

These might feel intimidating at first, but these events and communities are here for people to meet each other and find connection. Try it out and try striking up a conversation with the host or the person who sat next to you at the meetup. Putting yourself out there can be hard but is well worth it.

Tip: try a few different ones and try to go at least two to three times. Building a community is hard but be open to the experience.

Meet Cafecito 

Find fellow remote workers to grab lunch with. Cafecito helps you unplug from your desk and engage in fruitful conversations by matching you with local remote workers who are like-minded and share similar career and personal interests. Check it out.

Try looking for remote worker groups that meet regularly. | Photo by Afta Putta Gunawan from Pexels

Join a Coworking Group

What’s a coworking group, you may ask? Well, it’s finding fellow remote workers in your area and working together at each other’s apartments, at people’s favorite coffee shops or coworking spaces, and connecting and working.

I’m a fan of a good coworking group as it’s a great way to change up your work day with a little socializing, maybe exploring a new cafe together, but everyone knows you have to work and take calls too. So sometimes, you’re even more focused because of the change of pace.

Tip: don’t see a coworking group in your city? Why not start one yourself? Invite a friend and ask them to invite a friend. 

Remote Huddles

Every month or so the Remote Newbie community holds a live, virtual huddle with 3-5 remote workers. We also bring in one remote expert to join and teach us something new! Past topics included, how to find a non-tech remote job and how incorporating video within your team is crucial for communication. Join fellow remote workers (newbie or otherwise) for future remote huddles by subscribing for updates here.

Put Yourself Out There

As a remote worker, finding that social connection when you don’t have office mates can seem difficult at first. But by putting yourself out there, exploring other avenues or interests to find your people, or even starting something yourself to meet others, can help you on your way to fostering those friendships.