I’ve worked from home for several years now. I honestly do prefer it because it allows me more free time when I don’t have to worry about a commute. And I know that some people think it’s lonely or that it’s hard to feel like you ever leave work, but I didn’t really have those issues (or at least didn’t until the pandemic). But because I work remote jobs, I really never work with others in the same space. For some of my jobs, I’ve never met my co-workers in person even though we’ve worked together for years!
With my customer service job, I do know some of my co-workers because I knew them socially before I started with this company. But I’ve never worked alongside anyone from that job until this week.
I do feel very lucky that one of the executives at my job (and in a way, one of my bosses) is a friend of mine. We’ve been friends for over a decade and we’ve worked together in union service for quite a while too. And we have joked on calls or in texts when we are talking as friends or as boss and employee, but we have a good way to keep things compartmentalized when needed. And I’m very open and honest with him about work stuff because I don’t have the same fear I’ve had with other bosses at other jobs. So when we were discussing work stuff over the summer, I told him he really needed to sit with me for a day at work because he didn’t understand why the issues I was running into were issues. It took a while to get this coordinated, but this week he was finally able to come over and sit with me for an entire shift.
It was interesting to have someone else sitting with me while I worked because I’m so used to being alone. And I did have to slow down some of my work so I could explain to him the systems and processes I use for different tasks. I also use different websites than what he has access to, so I went over those so we could brainstorm together on how we can make these things more efficient and streamlined.
It wasn’t that crazy or busy of a day, which made it hard to demonstrate what happens when things get very busy. But enough things were happening that he could see what it would be like if they were multiplied and why that may be an issue for us with managing it all. And he was able to see what processes could be automated so we didn’t have to be as hands-on when it didn’t require it.
A lot of the changes and ideas we went over are very big picture ideas, but at least someone higher up than me in the company has seen what I have been talking about and understands why we want things to be changed so we can focus more on what needs to have a priority over getting other things done. And there were some very simple fixes like setting a formula for automatically forwarding specific types of emails so we don’t have to manually do them every day.
Overall, I think it was a big win for work and what I will be able to do with the company moving forward. But equally as big of a win was getting to spend the day with my friend. Even though we have worked together for almost a year now and we text dozens of times a day, it had been almost 2 years since we had seen each other in person. Seeing each other in a Zoom or over text isn’t the same. And while we were focused on work and talking out ideas, we got to also have a little hangout time during the lunch break and before and after work. And just like I’ve said with a lot of other hangouts I’ve had, I don’t know if I knew how much I needed this until it happened. But I needed this social time and ability to connect with a friend in person, and I’m so grateful I got to do it.
I knew that having him sit with me while I work would be a very positive thing for my work, but I’m so glad I had a double win with it also being positive for my social life and mental health!
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