Don’t people miss social interaction? I don’t understand how these articles are written. As a single man living on my own, this lockdown has made it pretty lonely.
I really don't... could spend a year without seeing anyone in person. I am married and absolutely enjoy my wife's company, but looking back at my life I've often enjoyed just being alone. It's so peaceful, I can't understand why people dislike it so much.
I definitely miss some people – mostly my parents. But I don't really need my coworkers in my life, even if they are great people
Outside the lockdown when I want to have a social interaction, I call a friend and go to a bar, or I organise a boardgame or roleplay session. I can choose my friend but I cant choose my coworker.
I do miss my co-workers and am currently working in the most fun team I've ever worked in. Now I wonder if that might be because for once I did get to choose some of my co-workers.
I've been WFH for 4 years and my social interaction is going to lunch with friends most days and mountain biking with groups when I can. Unfortunately, that's been halted with the restrictions in my state. You can still have social interaction while working from home, it just takes more effort than being in an office everyday.
The social interaction from working in an office? Not in the least. My work could mostly be categorized as SW development, and I've been doing it 100% remote for ~5 years. My wife has worked freelance editing from home ~15 years.
We don't see much of each other during the day, as we're busy with our jobs. Not commuting frees up time for social stuff like meeting up with neighbors, going for walks or cycling, meetups, practical pistol practice/competition, etc. The stuff involving larger groups is on temporary hiatus, but stuff with another pal or two are still happening.
Several of my friends live in different states and we don't see each other IRL that often. I have a couple one-on-one and group Telegram chats going with them where we discuss a variety of topics, which is a surprisingly good social outlet.
Overall social interaction or in-office social interaction or specifically with your coworkers?
As WFH for over a decade:
- overall social interaction is fixed by hobby groups, going out with friends and/or SO (either post-hours or for lunch) etc
- in office social interaction can be fixed by working out of coworking space. Not my cup of tea and I do enjoy silence, but it works for those who want it. Podcast over headphones may be good enough for some too.
- interaction with coworkers over online is fine IMO. Especially if you get to see them IRL once in a while. It may feel weird at first to just talk crap for 10 or 20 minutes before/after conference call. Random calls just to talk both work and life might feel out of place at first. But on the other hand that's what people do at office, eh?
For me, I enjoy social interaction with people I actually choose to be with. That's family and friends. Colleagues are nice, but if the only reason I'm interacting with someone is because we are getting paid to be in the same place at the same time, its not something I'm particularly missing.
I have friends and hobbies outside of work, but I still miss my "work friends". If you're going to be somewhere for ~8 hours a day, I find it's nice to have some company.
Yeah, and while one's "work friends" may not be the perfect kind of friends (otherwise they tend to migrate to being "regular friends", no?), they have on important property to me: they're around during work and they punctuate work with social/human interactions. Sometimes those interactions are annoying and disrupting, but my god I'm realizing how incredibly important they are.
A partner, kids, a family, those might last longer than work friends who will likely move on from the friendship once they change jobs. I used to be in a similar situation (living in an expensive city, my only friends were work friends, and home was a lonely miserable place). Started doing remote work, earning the same amount of money, own a pretty decent mansion, and have permanent friends and people around me. Isolation or not it doesnt really bother me. The notion that for a decent career one should sacrifice everything is a trap. While we slave away in large corps, earning money, our employers pretty much already do what i said i am. One can still be a great engineer or whatever without a shallow life.
