Outa my head

For most people in my industry (software) the idea of working from home has always been possible what with the advent of laptops & VPN’s, so when we had to work at home to help tide the COVID onslaught most people were more than happy to comply. All of us nerds & geeks who always looked at ourselves as nocturnal shut-ins who had to have all of the overhead lighting shut off at the office were more than happy to sit in our dark basements to work.

Unless you were already a remote software engineer working at home, when COVID hit, everyone liked the idea. But here we are, two years in and all of a sudden people has had to learn how to work from home and somehow be happy about that. All of a sudden people started to realize that they were able to do more than whatever their career actually was, they thrived being shut-ins and explored new avenues that made them happy. Inspiring others, motivating people. They were able to capitalize on the fact that through this pandemic, working at home, people now needed additional motivation. Everyone had to learn how to be happy with themselves and some people showed up teaching us all how to feel good about ourselves and each other. If you were down, someone somewhere would have all sorts of inspiring words to share with you, to help you cope.

Social networking is wraught with people who want to help you. Every post meant to inspire and promote wellness and to make us all feel better. Well, I’m starting to feel better about myself but not because of all these wellness-wishers. I think I’ve been living in my head for so long and only now realizing that maybe I don’t need the constant wellness wishing social onslaught anymore. Oh it’s fine to see it or hear it every once in awhile but I see the end of this COVID-tunnel and my apparent reliance on all of the wellness-wishers is diminishing. I feel the need to be living less in my head, to stop worrying about me all the time. It’s time to get back out there. Interacting with other humans again. Finding out who we were once again. Humans are social animals. We need interactions with others. Meeting with people online is fine for awhile but maybe shouldn’t be for any extended periods of time without also being able to meet in person.

At my previous job my team was a combination of people that were remotely located and people who were local. Several times a year I made it a point of visiting remote locations, bringing the entire team together when possible so that we could meet each other, we knew each other. We worked well together as a result.

At my current job I meet with my team everyday so far but have yet met any of them. We are geographically dispersed both in different locations within Canada and other countries. It’s been fine so far but I want to meet the team in person. Being in other countries makes it challenging but I’m hopeful one day it will happen. It’s hard work maintaining relationships with people whom you haven’t met. I’m finding i need to get outta my head, not being shut-in with myself. I need to get out and be around people again. I’d like COVID to be done with but I don’t want a hasty false end either. I’m patient, I will wait.