Do remote employees feel more isolated and lonely?

Question

I used to work remotely pre-pandemic and felt very isolated as most of my team was not based in the same country. I lost all motivation to work and wanted to quit my job because i felt isolated with zero connection to my team. That is when I decided to quit and do something about this problem and founded my current start-up.

Virtuelly helps remote teams build social connection through virtual and immersive events. I recently read a report that loneliness is the #1 concern with remote work. If you work on a remote team - how are you currently managing this? I fear that for hybrid teams, the folks that are remote might feel even worse if the rest are meeting daily in office.

Would love to hear what you all think and also would love feedback on what we have built - https://www.producthunt.com/posts/virtuelly

Jeetendra Gangele · Accepted Answer

very excited to partner with you and solve this unique problem to make employees more engaging, collaborative  in this era of remote work.

I still remember our first meet on Virtuelly platform... several team engagement issues you mentioned all of them i observed in Ola where i was leading large team. We used to do these team events every Friday and EA used to be our host :).I have faced similar team engagement  issues at Lowes as well. I am very excited to make something unique in this space which will help people come together in this era of remote work. Virtuelly should be one stop shop for all team engagement activities.

Aashish Lamba · Answer

It's the involvement and enrichment of user experience of your platform that makes loneliness disappear from working remotely. Kudos to the team for building something very interesting and futuristic.

Anusha V · Answer

Yes remote work does get lonely at times. In my previous company, I never got to meet my colleagues. I was on-boarded remotely and exited the company remotely as well. It was so driven on generating revenue, I think we could have definitely done some kind of virtual team bonding activities.

Qudsia Ali · Answer

The workplace can be isolating, especially when you are a remote employee. To prevent this, some remote employees initiate social get-togethers with their colleagues or they include other remote employees in their work life by making them feel as if they are part of the team and part of their daily activities.

Btw congrats on your launch.

Tanya Channa · Answer

@jeetendra_gangele Kudos! Hoping that Virtuelly solves this underlying problem that goes ignored in many corporate set-ups, and also gives a refined experience to the corporates that are open to team building activities but can't find something that works well..

Tanya Channa · Answer

Remote working does get lonely at times. To be honest, a hybrid work environment sounds even worse as some team members meet in the office while others don't. This may leave the remote half feeling out of place..

Saif Ullah Khalid · Answer

I think the products to connect remote teams today are not the perfect solution for isolation, but yes, they can help in decreasing its severity. Nothing can take place from the experience of working in an office.

Answer

I believe this is the case. In my opinion, I believe it's important to be working with a team so you feel like you're a part of a team. I used to work completely remotely and in that job, I used to feel demotivated some days and there was no one that I could talk to about it.

Now I work in a remote, but our team comes to office on some days and even when we're WFH, we decide to team up at someone's home and work. I feel this is extremely helpful to stay motivated and build a strong team bond.

Shubham · Answer

I have been a part of multiple remote teams and I can vouch for the experience of discontentment. Hopefully, more organizations will see the value of having engaged teams in the post-COVID era.

Santa · Answer

@ivet149 That sounds like a great way to team bonding.

Ankit Dhawan · Answer

@ivet149 That is amazing Iveta. Our team only meets once a year for an off-site but we try and use our own team events to keep the engagement going. I would love your feedback on our offering - https://www.producthunt.com/posts/virtuelly

Santa · Answer

Hello, Ankit,

Well, it's quite a complex matter. 
Isolated - definitely, lonely - not really.

It would all depend on both - company culture as well as what`s going on in one's social life outside of work.

I find it's more difficult to get to know your colleagues, bond with them  and truly feel as part of the team if you have never actually met them and only communicate through PC (my story anyway). However, regular video calls and chats help to build connection, team spirit and trust among team members and it's crucial for remote teams.  Regular meetups would be even better, but we are spread among multiple countries,so it's not that easy.

Apart from that, to have an active social life outside of work, is even more important for remote workers. Not everyone craves social interactions the same way, but we are all social beings wired to connect. So if you have at least one good friend to catch up from time to time and share your mind, it should counteract the feeling of loneliness.

Ankit Dhawan · Answer

@work_hub Being aware is a great first step! Humans are social animals so the feeling of isolation is natural but with more tools not available we can hope the gap between in-person and virtual with reduce. We are building some immersive social games taking into consideration these inputs.

Ermes Tavares · Answer

Hi! For me it is working very well and on the contrary, I became more productive and I have time for my family.

Do remote employees feel more isolated and lonely?

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