Have not thought about it much until now, but the pandemic and the telehealth, remote work revolution untethered us from geographic boundaries. Many folks in IT and informatics work remotely and meet remotely. A hidden cost: mental health.
https://current.fas.harvard.edu/stories/working-home-works-against-mental-health
This a sobering, academic look at the hidden mental health costs that come from the freedom of remote work. In hindsight, pretty obvious, but until it is pointed out, perhaps not so obvious. How is this affecting YOUR work, your colleagues, your workplace. Are your colleagues ok? Are you ok?
I think about the book Bowling Alone, where Robert Putnam described the precipitous decline in the percentage of US households who had members meeting at least monthly, in social groups outside of work, from the 1950’s through the 1980’s. This decline had profound impacts on our cohesion as a society.
Now, add the pandemic and remote work and the individual silos become even more pronounced.
Even this introvert has found social gatherings to be joyful, in the post-pandemic world. eg, the Ivory Room Piano Bar.
How are YOU handling isolation, loneliness and the mental health tax of remote work? Do you have at least monthly social gatherings? Should we all figure out how to be more connected? Can we start today? Want to hang out?
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