RWL216 How to create a support system to avoid loneliness

Feeling isolated while working from home? You’re not alone. In this episode, we dive into the challenges of remote work loneliness and share practical tips for building a support system. Discover how to create meaningful connections with your peers, build a sense of community, and maintain your mental well-being!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, it's Alex from Remote Work Life and the Remote
Work Life podcast.
I hope you're doing well,wherever you may be in the world
, and today we're going toexplore the importance of
seeking support from youremployer or from colleagues,
from close friends, from yoursupport system, essentially to
address remote work challenges.
Challenges, um, and this stemsfrom my own personal experiences

(00:31):
where working remote isconcerned, and it's something
that has has touched me in in myI don't know how many years now
.
I've been working on a remotebasis for quite a number of
years, since 2008, 2009 and, asI said, it stemmed from my own
personal experience, but I'vealso spoken, as you probably
imagine, to other remote workersabout this, this particular

(00:54):
issue, because it's somethingthat, with any aspect of remote
work, that requires deliberateattention and it requires, more
often than not, it requires theindividual to be deliberate
about what they do.
So, um, from my personalstandpoint, it's been a journey.

(01:15):
Remote work has definitely beena journey for me and, by nature
, um, I'm well, I suppose, goingback 2008, 2009, I I was
naturally inclined to, uh, totry to tackle issues on my own,
try and get work done on my own.

(01:36):
I actually took pride in doingthat because I felt that that
was, that was the uh, the, thedefault method of doing work,
and sometimes it worked, othertimes it didn't work, and the

(01:56):
times that it didn't work, I wasfrustrated, I was tired, I was
lonely and it was yeah, it wasnot a good time and it made me
less, I guess, in many ways lessproductive, because the tasks
that I couldn't necessarily dealwith.
I ended up going around incircles or I ended up taking
longer than I should have taken,and all I really had to do was

(02:19):
seek support from my colleagues,from people around me.
In your instance, if you'reemployed, um, then it may well
be seeking support from your um,your employer, or people within
your, your direct team, andit's, it's good when you've got,
when there's a team that youcan actually lean on for support

(02:40):
.
So, and if you do have that inplace, don't you know, don't
take that for granted.
So you all know, as I saidbefore that in many other
episodes, that I'm an advocatefor remote work and I've myself
have experienced the effectsthat remote work, the positive

(03:01):
effects that remote work canhave on my life.
But, as, as I said, you have tobe quite deliberate about
certain aspects in order toreally experience the real
benefits of remote work, inorder to avoid that isolation,
in order to avoid impostersyndrome in many cases.
And there's just a few optionsthat you can take, there's a few

(03:21):
suggestions that I want to giveto you in order to help you if
you do need support, either fromor for any aspect of your
support system.
So the first aspect, or thefirst point I want to share with
you is have open communication.
So, especially if you're amanager, if you want to create

(03:42):
an environment where your teammembers feel comfortable to
discuss the issues that theyneed support with If they don't
necessarily do that out in apublic forum or in a team forum,
you need to create that safespace for them in order to check

(04:03):
in with you, create that safespace for them in order to check
in with you, to create thatopen dialogue with that where
they don't feel as thoughthey're being judged, where they
don't feel as though, well,basically, you're, you're
approachable, um, and it couldbe that person who that they
lean on.
And if, if that person is notyou, then delegate somebody.
Delegate, uh, somebody who hasgot experience of mentorships,

(04:26):
experience of, of, of coachingwithin your team.
And that leads me on to pointnumber two, which is mentorship.
So either you or somebodywithin your team offers that
mentorship opportunity to learn,offers that mentorship
opportunity to learn fromsomebody who's more experienced

(04:46):
and is a bit further down theline than the individual that
they're mentoring.
Mentorship can help you or yourteam members gain valuable
insights into the area of, orthe sort of topic in which you
or that particular person whoneeds it is interested in.

(05:09):
So you know, seeking outmentorship or providing an
opportunity for your teammembers to be mentored, or at
least giving them the tools andknow-how in terms of seeking
mentorship, is something that isreally important when it comes
to developing a support system.
As well as that, help your teamand help yourself to continue

(05:36):
your learning With remote work,especially learning it literally
.
It never.
The opportunities for learningare far and wide.
You know you, there's so muchthat you can learn.
You don't want to beoverwhelmed with all the things
that you can learn, so it's bestto perhaps seek the um, seek
guidance from somebody who hasdone that learning or knows

(06:00):
where to access the bestresources that are relevant to
your needs or to the needs ofthe person within your team.
Dedicate time to continuouslearning, put time in your diary
to learn what you need to do,do to learn and develop your
skills to stay relevant, andbecause that relevance and that

(06:23):
continuous learning is requiredfor you to to stay relevant and
competitive in your in yourfield um, online courses,
webinars, attending networkingevents, industry-related content
can all help you with thatcontinuous learning.
And, like I said, there's somuch opportunity to learn these

(06:43):
days.
Professional development isn'tis number four on my list, so
you can engage in ongoingprofessional development.
It's a bit different to thatcontinuous learning.
Professional Professionaldevelopment is where you're
holding your employeraccountable for providing

(07:04):
continuous opportunities forgrowth and skill development,
and that may require that youidentify, alongside your
employer, those areas where youwant to upskill, alongside your
employer, those areas where youwant to upskill.
Obviously, that requires youunderstanding where the gaps are

(07:26):
in your skills first, and thosegaps are usually evident when
you review what you've done andunderstand the challenges that
you're having in work.
So you know something that mayseem quite negative.
It could be an opportunity foryou to enhance your professional
development.
What I would say is number fiveis delegate people who you can

(07:49):
add to your, to support, to yoursupport network.
So it may be immediatecolleagues at work.
It might be people who you'veworked for in the past.
It might be trusted friends.
You might even delegate a coachoutside of work.
It might be family members.
So that support network, itshould pull from different types

(08:17):
of people, but they should allbe people who you, you can talk
to, you can you know who arewilling and able to support you,
who have some form of knowledgein the area that you're seeking
to to gain that knowledge, andyou have to again be proactive
and deliberate about buildingyour support system.

(08:38):
So so that's it for today.
I mean, I'm sure there areother areas that I've missed.
If there are, please, you know,reach out, connect with me on
LinkedIn and share how you'vegone about seeking support, not
just from your employer or yourcolleagues.
It may be in your capacity as afreelancer or a business owner.

(08:59):
Let me know how you've soughtyour support, how you've grown
your support network, and youknow it's always good to hear
from other people and I alwaysappreciate the feedback.
So, if this episode has helped,please consider sharing it
amongst your your own supportsystem or your own network and,

(09:23):
as I said, connect with me onlinkedin and reach out if you've
got any queries or any feedbackor suggestions for future
episodes, and I look forward toseeing you or speaking to you in
the next episode.