[PerryCox]

Honestly I don't have any issues with this. Most of my team is in Europe and I'm in America so even before COVID and WFH became the norm, I was still talking to people via Slack, Teams, etc.

I think the best advice I can give is to reach out to people and have normal conversations when you don't need anything. If you only talk to people when you need something from them, they are going to be less likely to talk about things that they have going on outside of work. Talk about anything that they are interested in. Plus the beauty of messaging apps is that people can respond when they have time and if they are busy they can ignore the messages.

Also if you get some downtime in meetings or join early, ask how things are going, what the weather is like, or if they have any weekend plans. There usually is a bit of time before or after meetings where you can still socialize.

[syed_h5]

Hypothetically, do you think it would be nice if you found out common things you shared with you co-workers right from the start? For example not going 5+ months not knowing that they support the same soccer team that you do. That is 5 months worth of convo that could have happened from the start.

It seems that you are pretty social and take extra steps to build the connections. So, wondering if it would be easier for you to not have to do the leg work and be able to get into the main things you and your co-worker can talk about for hours.

[ngc248]

Exactly. I actually call up people when there is downtime and shoot the breeze. We talk about ideas, office politics, anything under the sun. So even though we are all WFHing I was able to bond with my new team this way.