WFH loneliness - Anyone else feel lonely working from home?

I’m WFH and I’m lonely but I don’t want to be friends with coworkers and I love WFH. I think we’re just in a lonely time period post Covid

When you have a job that doesn't turn off at the stroke of 5pm, WFH is a blessing. I would spend at least 2 hrs a day at the office getting distracted and chatting with coworkers about random stuff, only to realize my work still needs to get done. I would end up leaving the office by 630 and getting home by 7. Now WFH I can cut those distractions out, start my day when I want and still finish with 2-3 hrs extra in my day. I think I do spend too much time texting with people throughout the day so feeling lonely has never been an issue. Plus I can see people I choose to see on the weekends. Would not change this set up for anything.

I've worked from home for about fifteen years now. I do outside sales, so for many years, I was on the road a lot visiting customers during the day. However, even before COVID, the number of people that wanted to meet kept going down. Now, I am lucky to have 4-5 in person meetings a week (I used to have 12-15). Yes, loneliness can be a challenge with the job.

There are some things to look at when working from home. In the short-term. make sure you keep a solid schedule and be careful not to spend too much of your day doing errands or non-work appointments. Medium-term, you need to schedule social activities a couple of times a week.

If you haven't already, join a local running club or sign up for a Meetup group that does activities that you enjoy. There have been times over the years where I was feeling lonely and having a bad work day on top of that. I made myself go to a two hour hike with a group of strangers and even though I wasn't the best conversationalist those evenings, I felt a lot better afterwards. Other times, I actually made some friends.

Long-term, if you want to advance your career (meaning that you want something more than your current job), you need to strategically get around people that can help you do that. If you want to advance in your company, you need to get around other people in your company. If you want to move into another position, you need to get out and network with other people in your field.

Good luck with creating a better life for yourself.

Wilson!!!

I always worked hard if in my office but tended to goof off and snack more when WFH. I get the loneliness thing since I sometimes experience that, too. When I get feeling that way, I start something up outside of work- planning a trip, volunteering somewhere, reading at a coffee shop,…

I telework 100% some of the year and about 40% the other part of the year. I would go crazy if I had to be at home all day each of these days. My solution has been to spend the first 3-4 hours of each WFH day at a coffee shop. All the baristas know me, and I frequently run into other people I know there. Also, just being around other humans helps a lot. I am very solidly introverted, but humans just are not meant to be alone for long periods of time on a regular basis.