Probably the biggest change for many people since the year Covid-19 came into their lives, is the ability to work from home. Me personally, I have had that opportunity since late 2017 so I am a 3 year pro at this, almost at the end of my rookie contract, There are some obvious things to love about it, like the ability to have a 5 second commute. Not having the deal with those days where your coworker decides to leave their bag of popcorn in the microwave for a minute too long, or when they decide warming their fish leftovers are a great idea. No one invading your personal space. There are a few things I won't say I necessarily miss, but I have noticed their lack of presence having an impact. Like not being privy to as much office scuttlebutt, or gossip mongering. Information is power, and too often I have found myself outside the immediate loop of being informed of certain moves pertaining to business and also just personal stuff, like promotions, and job changes. Now things just happen.
The socializing is probably the biggest thing I am on the fence about. I despise forced socializing, but when I am allowed the option to choose when, where, and how to socialize it is much more agreeable to me. A few months prior to Covid-19 I took inventory of my life and realized I was missing out on these moments, so I ended up signing up for a shared co-working space a few blocks from where I live at Transfer Food Hall here in Raleigh. I really appreciated somewhere to go that offered me an professional environment, plus great food was just a few steps away all within a short walk from my apartment downtown. It also gave me the chance to network with other professionals in the same and different fields, and I was able to accomplish a lot more work by mentally separating myself from my personal habitat that spoke mainly to comfort, and on some(many) occasions to goofing off.
Then Covid-19 happened and the hall had to shutdown as a safety precaution. So I was thrown back into the same routine as before. Comfort, but not the ideal situation to get any work done without a sharp stick poking me. That all change though once I took another inventory of what my environment was. Although I had a desk, I didn't use it much since I worked off a laptop and could sit on my sofa. If I was to be serious about this, I needed to be serious about my work setup. So I then I made the decision to start sitting at my desk, and went even further by buying two extra monitors along with a mounting assembly, and the cabling to definitely supercharge things. Now, I have plenty of space to keep track of work, my blogging, my cryptocurrency and many more things and it is less of a burden to be at my desk and I find my time being spent there more.
So motive of the story is definitely take stock of how and where you are working when doing it from home. There are options out there also if there is a need still to be away from home, and needing to be around people also.