Building Community While Working from Home

The working world is never quite going to be the same. Now that we’ve learned that we can work from home, many of us will want to do so more often. For working parents and caregivers, the flexibility this offers can be a game-changer. And many of us will welcome the ability to live beyond the commuter belt of major cities.

But what happens to work teams when we don’t have the built-in socialization of the office environment?

What has disappeared from our work lives are the seemingly inconsequential but nevertheless critical community-building conversations we have when we happen to run into a colleague in the elevator, debate menu choices for lunch, and spontaneously grab drinks after work. If the team is no longer in an office together five days a week, we won’t easily learn how our colleagues take their coffee, what they think of Wandavision's brand of feminism, or how long it took for their five-year-old to put on socks that morning.

I consider myself to be a life-long student of community, and this past year has given me and the leadership team of Tide Risers the opportunity to do some deep learning about how inclusive, resilient communities thrive. The good news is we have developed successful strategies that can help work teams, families, and friends continue to build community even when we're geographically distant.

I’m going to be talking about this in an online Tide Risers session this Thursday at noon ET / 5pm GMT. This session will be free and open to anyone who identifies as female. It will be a nice opportunity to learn more about how the Tide Risers community is designed to advance its members goals and intentions, and I hope you will join us for it. Register here.