Ever since the 🦠COVID-19 pandemic outbreak started to become a real deal even in the eyes of people who dismissed it as being a mere cold/flu — myself included — tons of companies have allowed their employees to work remotely.
For a self-proclaimed remote work advocate like myself this was great news!
It probably sounds like great news to the people who wanted to work remotely and see this as their chance to do it.
Unfortunately, everything so-called influencers show on the Internet, about remote work being all Pina Coladas on beaches, and working for two hours a day, and financial freedom through network marketing, go down the drain.
First, because for the vast majority of us they're not real and they'll never be real — we have kids, pets, old parents, other commitments which prevent us from moving to Bali and live the dream.
Second, because we're in a situation where we get to work remotely, but we're confined to our living room, or the kitchen table.
So there's no glamor in working remotely right now. We're going to be doing all of these ⏰🏋️♀️👩💻🥗🛋 🚽🚿🛌💤🔁 in our homes!!
Q: Can it get worse?
A: It might.
Many of us don't realise how much of a social animal we are, until we can't go gabbing at the watercooler with our colleagues.
Dealing with social isolation is no easy task.
For an extrovert like myself, it's even harder.
You see, I draw my energy from the people around me — often draining it from them, but that's another story — and I need to be out and about. This often causes problems with the people I hold dear, because it seems like they can't understand I have to be out there, otherwise I'd go crazy. And I would probably drive them crazy in the process, since I constantly talk to people and bounce ideas off them.
Imagine being my sounding board all day everyday 🙃🤪🤯.
⬆️⬆️⬆️⬆️⬆️If this might be you, in the morning, read on!
How are things different now?
In a normal setting, if you work remotely you would be able to jump on your scooter, or go for a quick walk to the nearest coffee shop and work there. You get your fill of java ☕️☕️☕️ and people and conversation and then you can head back to your productivity den and knock those suckers off the list (TODOs, that is)
But that's not the case, now. Every government that has some sense, is advising their citizens to stay inside and only head out if they absolutely, positively have to. This is why many companies decided to allow the employees who can work from home, do just that — but they only did it under the gun, as a last resort.
So a question started haunting me ever since I heard that the Romanian Government is instituting the State of Emergency for 30 days, starting today, Monday, March 16th, 2020:
How are all these people, thrown into remote work, going to cope with social isolation?
Then another one:
Who is going to let them know that whatever they're experiencing is normal?
And yet another one:
Who can they reach out for help, who has experience with this type of work?
That's how the idea for #CoronaDiary came up! I instantly called my co-founder Cristi and asked him if he thought I was crazy. He said I was, so I started working 😅!
What's it all about?
#CoronaDiary is nothing fancy. It's a movement for remote people sharing their daily experiences working remotely.
I am actually going to be the first one to share my thoughts and my co-founder Cristi will also take part in this.
Whoever wants to also participate can do so using this Google Form I've put together to make it easier to share your thoughts — also inlined below.
How do I join?
Submit the Google Form with your updates, every day, before 11:59PM.
I will personally collect all the updates from people and put them into a nicely formatted article, which I will publish under the #CoronaDiary category, the following day.
If you feel like writing full articles, and don't think you can limit yourself to a 500word-ish post — kind of like an obese Tweet — let me know and I will create a blog author account for you and post your updates as separate articles under the #CoronaDiary category of our blog.
Or, if you're the more visual kind, we can also post your videos instead of an article.
But I got questions!
I'd love to hear from you so feel free to use the customer support chat, the support page or email me directly at adrian[at]weremote[dot]eu
Can't wait to hear how was your first day of [remote] work!