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Social interaction ideas for at-home workers
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The fun of working from home – being your own boss, having a flexible schedule, working in casual clothing – is easy to see, but the lifestyle has its downsides, too. Even for the most introverted, working from home can seem like a lonely existence. You get up, get ready, and then commute 30 seconds to your home office where you work, probably eat lunch, and continue to slave away until the evening when you walk into the next room for some relaxation.
Getting out and enjoying others’ company is vital to keeping your mental health intact when you’re working from home and answers one of the 7 vital questions about working from home. Here are a ways you can seek out others when you don’t have an officemate:
- Make it a point to go out for coffee at least once a week. If you don’t like coffee, have dessert. Do something to get yourself out of the house just for a couple of hours. Even if you aren’t talking to anyone, being around others is refreshing.
- Join a club. Have you always wanted to learn how to ballroom dance? Are you enticed by the ads you’ve seen for gourmet cooking classes? Setting up a group meeting, even a monthly book club, will give you a much-needed social outlet.
- Volunteer! Charities all around you are scrambling for volunteers. Every nonprofit group has work a volunteer can do. Offer your services and get the added benefit of meeting new people.
- Network locally. Especially in the information age, many people who work at home are linked in to a global network of affiliates. It’s easy to forget the people down the street who may need your product as well. Join the local chamber of commerce or talk to other business owners about mutually beneficial exchanges.
- Visit your mom. Or your brother. Or your great aunt. Make family visits, even if by telephone, part of your weekly routine.
- Socialize online. Forums and blogs can be addicting, but for at-home workers these outlets can provide the same water cooler break office workers get. Monitor your time on them to make sure they don’t become too absorbing.
- Host dinner parties. Invite friends from various parts of your life to get together at your home every few months. Consider getting a small group together to rotate monthly dinners.
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