What does the online conversation around working remotely reveal?

userby Amy Rountree

January 2020 seems like an eternity ago. But three short months later we’re all here, finding ourselves in this strange new world. The way we live, socialise and work has changed over night and who knows for how long.  

For those of us in office jobs or running businesses, we’re all now doing this from home. The Maybe* team is remote by design, so we're used to Zoom calls, project management systems and written banter . . but that's not the case for everyone and it can be a tough adjustment. We wanted to know how you're all getting on, what your challenges are and how your kitchen table office is impacting your productivity and more importantly, your mental health. 

We listened to the conversation about #remote working across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to find out what people are saying and what the future of “office” work might look like.

The online conversation around 'remote working'

In the UK the majority of businesses started encouraging working from home from mid March. By March 23 it was mandatory. At the beginning of March there was an average of 30 posts per day using the #remoteworking hashtag. By the end of March that average was at 168.

The Maybe* Engagement insight tool visualising the number of social media posts about #remoteworking and engagement on them from March 1 - April 12 2020.through mid to late March 

How do people feel about remote working?

So now we know the content of the #remoteworking conversation is tips, tricks and sharing experiences, how do people feel about it? The Maybe* Sentiment insight tool reveals the conversation is largely positive, but that negativity has also increased throughout the period March 1 - April 14 2020.

The Maybe* Sentiment insight tool showing the sentiment of the conversation about #remoteworkingthrough mid to late March 

The most positive posts about #remoteworking feature businesses showcasing how they’re still serving customers and some great team building exercises from alternative Friday drinks, team quizzes to accidental guest appearances from pets and children.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Inspirational Venues (@inspvenues) on

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Leap (@leapness) on

The negatives?… Collective boredom, disconnection, weight gain, and even concerns over work life balance. All of which are intrinsically connected to emotional and mental well-being. 

Working from home: Positives and negatives

Working from home definitely has its positives. You save money and energy on a commute which frees up more time for exercise, family or an extra hour in bed. You can hang out with your dog, ride your bike over your lunch or bake banana bread before you’ve even had your breakfast (another trend we didn’t see coming for 2020).

But it can be isolating as you don’t get office banter, people to share stories with, and meetings can lack empathy without body language and faces to read. You might even feel unjustifiably guilty for working from your couch. Your boss might be a bit more hands on than usual because they can’t see you with your head down. Interruptions will be more abrupt via phone call or Slack in a way you’re not used to. And that pile of laundry will undoubtedly annoy you way more than when it was out of sight and out of mind.

For anyone who might have thought people who worked from home are having a ball, you might well have realised it can be very difficult to settle into, but like everything these days, take a breath, give yourself a break and do what you can.

The future of working remotely

At some point a picture of the future will begin to emerge, in the meantime we’re all navigating the discomfort of uncertainty and physical disconnection. And that discomfort may well be why you’re in the fridge every five minutes.

The future of work for those of us used to being office-based, may well see more businesses realising remote working can be a good thing that increases trust and flexibility rather than decreasing it. Those businesses who had a zero tolerance policy towards remote working may well have found themselves without the necessary infrastructure to continue operations. 

But above all the data reinforces that the human interaction between colleagues, often face-to-face, is what makes or breaks work. We all crave company, connection and the ability to mix up our space, changing our physical perspective as well as our mental. Love or loathe it, for the short term everyone’s hanging on in there, but the future may well hold a blend of the two. This blend may increase choices for the workforce and future proof solutions for organisations, offering them both a little more agility.

If you’re struggling to manage your team or stay inspired and connected at home, Maybe* is providing free business resources and webinars to organisations. Check out our Coronavirus help centre for tips on staying connected via social media, and managing your business remotely.  

Get started for free

Recent posts

Card image cap

Social media news roundup 23rd October – Instagram’s spicing up comments with polls, Facebook Pages hitting the airwaves, and more

Step right up and ride the digital carousel with us 🎠 As the wheels of the social media funfair whirl and twirl, platforms are aimin...

Card image cap

Don’t miss out on the ultimate guide to daily hashtags for social media success

Daily hashtags are a great source of content inspiration and a super way to increase your social media reach  Daily hashtags are a ...

Card image cap

Social media news roundup 16th October – Spook-tacular tools from TikTok, AI holiday magic from Meta, and more

🌊 Plunge into the digital deep with us 🌊 As the currents of the social media ocean ebb and flow, platforms are diving deeper to e...