| I've been working remotely for >6years. I go to office/customer once a month or less. how has it affected the way you interact with people? It did affect my interaction with people in general. I'm married and have a baby, but still think I suffered from working from home. Don't get me wrong, it certainly has a lot of pro's: - Don't need to commute to office - Don't need to iron my shirts to go to the office - Save at least 3-4 hours per day because I don't have to travel - Less likely to be interrupted by a colleague. Unless they call or email you, they don't have a chance to come to you or meet you in the kitchen and interest you to work with them in a new project. Now to the con's: - Your communication and interaction with people will go down (unless you invest your free time to be around people) - Promotion, promotion, promotion. It's difficult to be promoted if you never show up, never had a chance to network with colleagues and managers on a daily basis, never had face to face meetings to see and be seeing. Has it made some things more difficult to you? Yes and No. It made me relize that I need to invest more time interacting with people. Both for the sake of myself and for my career. It actually made me a bad husband and father. I'm less likely to talk and became more introvert than I'am.
I think if you don't train the communication muscle regurarely, you are bound to become more introvert whether you are single or not.
I made the mistake of buying a PS4 and playing games right after finishing work then going to sleep. It took me almost two years to realize that I basically didn't talk to anyone, not even my wife unless there is something to talk about. Moral of the story, if you don't invest your time in communicating and interacting with people you will become more introvert and used to be not "Interrrupted" even when you are not working. I sold my PS4 a year ago and started going to meetups and playing soccer. It made a big difference. For my next Job, I will be looking for a desk based job with a few days working from home. |