5 Ways to Make Work Friends When Working Remotely

As well as helping coworkers gel with each other, when leaders use humor as an interpersonal tool, it can lead to happier employees and better communication. You also get a rise in citizenship behaviors and voluntary actions that encourage organizational effectiveness. Virtual icebreaker games like “two truths and a lie” are one way to replicate that feeling in a remote environment. Everyone shares two facts and one false “fact” about themselves and others have to guess which is the lie. This game reveals interesting facts about your teammates and encourages team members to be creative and playful. Then, get everyone into a different headspace by taking them out for a bite of lunch or after-work drinks.

Get to know the people that are literally in your area by going out for coffee and walks, and being open-minded. Arrange virtual coffees or happy hours to connect with people. “Repotting,” according to Ryan Hubbard, founder of the Kitestring Project, means varying the settings in which you interact. The more friends we repot, according to one study, the deeper the friendships.

How to Make Your Profile Standout and Get Hired for a Remote Job

Let’s say you heard a coworker Megan mention in the all-staff meeting that she was late because she was putting her kindergarten son on the school bus for the first time. After the meeting, send her a message telling her you know exactly how that feels – you just dropped your three-year-old off at her first day of daycare. Learning how to make friends in a remote work environment is a good skill to learn. Dmitry is the founder of TopicRanker.com, an SEO tool which finds keywords your website can easily rank for on Google due to specific problems and weaknesses in search results. Over the last 10 years, Dmitry has helped 300+ brands rank #1 on Google through PR and SEO. Dmitry used PR & SEO to grow a startup from 0 to 40 million views per month, and got acquired by Google in 2014.

If you’re working or studying remotely and want to make friends, here are a few steps you can take to help you form a more meaningful bond with colleagues. Use dedicated channels to share memes, funny videos, or jokes, how to make friends when you work from home which can help lighten the mood and make the workday a little less stressful. For example, a channel dedicated to sharing pictures of pets or sharing favorite recipes can bring a little joy to the workday.

Use tools that make work more fun

Team bonding activities are a great way to build relationships with your remote coworkers. Create virtual gatherings, such as team lunches where everyone can get to know each other. You can also organize online games and activities that allow everyone to have fun together, such as trivia nights or group exercise classes. Finally, don’t forget the power of appreciation—acknowledge your colleagues for their hard work and celebrate wins together. Donut is a fun and easy-to-use app that can help virtual teams stay connected in a casual and lighthearted way.

• The chance to spend time with similarly situated colleagues is priceless.
• The key to productivity is to manage these “willpower points” so you have more energy for making hard decisions (and ignoring distractions).
• Just because there’s no seltzer dispenser to gossip around, no cafeteria to gather in, or no office to go to, doesn’t mean you can’t make friends with your colleagues.
• You can learn about someone by seeing what objects they have sitting in front of them all day.
• Kahoot is a game-based learning platform that allows team members to create and participate in quizzes, surveys, and other types of online office games.
• A marketplace where current and aspiring remote workers find new job opportunities and up-skill with online courses.
• We’ll email you 1-3 times per week—and never share your information.