WLP223 Connection and Disconnection in Remote Teams: Discovering the Barriers to Connection
Welcome to part 2 in our special series of 7 episodes on the theme of “connection and disconnection in remote teams”, in association with our partners at Shield GEO - you can check out their blog here.
In this episode we explore how disconnection presents itself, and we started by talking to Laurel Farrer, remote work advocate and founder of Distribute Consulting.
In her work with teams Laurel has seen a lack of forethought and anticipation frequently lead to isolation problems for remote workers, in fact it’s a primary downside to the status expressed in every piece of research about remote work. This unfortunately means it’s a reason for seeing remote work policies as a failed experiment in many cases.
Developer Brian Rhea has identified this too, and is building an app to help — in response to an enquiring tweet which blew up into a huge validation of the existence of a loneliness issue.
Teresa Douglas, author of Working Remotely, is presently researching psychological safety in remote teams. She has discovered anecdotally that influencing circumstances vary greatly, in particular personal situation — such as whether the remote worker also lives alone, and also their individual level of need for human contact both personally and professionally.
Tim Burgess, ShieldGEO co-founder, first experienced loneliness and disconnection in his first job, where he worked alone in an office in a new country — not remotely at that time, but deeply isolated in his role. He particularly identified the way these feelings creep up insidiously over time, and indeed some of the factors initially attractive about remote work — the peace and lack of interruption, office politics and small talk — can eventually add up to sense of withdrawal.
Brian noticed this shift too, and Asia Hundley (also from ShieldGEO) pointed out the way that excitement can mask such feelings at first in a new situation (in her case, a new country). Only once the novelty wears off, you realise there are downsides, and that you have made sacrifices for your new remote lifestyle.
So if we can’t notice the symptoms in ourselves initially, can managers pick up on the early signs, and act more preemptively?
Occupational Psychologist Richard MacKinnon says it’s difficult to spot, because people can seem outwardly very happy, while reporting feelings of loneliness only if asked. And Dr Julianne Holt-Lunstad, who has researched this subject extensively, reminds us of the persistent social stigma and shame around admissions of loneliness and other emotional needs generally. These feelings are not easy to recognise and own, never mind bring to your manager’s attention.
Teresa suggests being alert to drops in productivity and focus in oneself, feelings of negativity about work, or an inability to log off with work undone, as important internal indicators that things are on the slide. It’s better to build your support network and strategies for resilience when times are good, but this does require a level of self awareness…
Marcus Wermuth has paid attention to developing this awareness in himself, and pushing himself into new situations like public speaking — then noticing how this impacts on how energised he feels. He uses this awareness to help his own team, and (as Julianne suggests too) knows that being alert to different characters and personality types within the team really matters — in terms of dealing with connection and disconnection issues, this affects each team member individually, as do their unique situational factors (which can include issues from language barriers to hearing problems).
This point illustrates the inherent complexities and dynamics, and how changes in anyone’s circumstances can impact the whole team. Brian has worked remotely since 2015 and once experienced a lack of collaboration and connectedness within a team in the past, which came about due to a lack of intention and forethought — but it was a team which had worked fine when they sat together in an office. After going remote, their engagement suffered, and disconnectedness set in.
It’s all challenging to define and pin down, but Julianne proposed one very useful definition of loneliness as the gap between the actual level of social interaction and connectedness, versus that which is desired/preferred — a great reminder that it is incredibly individual, and we all thrive in such different environments in this respect. Both life transitions (dynamic) and innate traits (mostly stable) influence this.
So if you’re feeling disconnected and alone as a remote worker, we hope this episode has been both reassuring and insightful — your situation is not uncommon, and we’ll have more to come in terms of how you can help yourself and your colleagues throughout this series. Starting from self awareness, you can begin to identify where you might be able to make changes in your total set of work-life circumstances, and use that insight to help others too.
And do keep your feedback coming, we really enjoy it - please contact us, or you can tweet Virtual Not Distant, or Pilar and Maya directly, with any of your thoughts and ideas.
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