Remote, Burnouts & Other Trendy Stuff
I love remote work. In fact, I love it so much I’ve been working exclusively remotely for over three years.
Long before Covid was a thing, I decided to ask my now boss if I could apply for Advertio’s open positions and keep working from Braga although the entire team was in Lisbon. He said yes, I got the job and here I am — working from Braga at what has since become a remote first company.
This said, I’ll admit I’ve struggled a little bit with it over the last few months. Contrary to what it used to be for me, remote work during the pandemic meant working from home. I’d stay home all day, work, cook, eat, sleep. All my days were the same, and that was exactly what kept me away from an office-based job.
Routine doesn’t sit well with me. I like to work remotely but I also want to have the option to work from a café, from a friend’s house or wherever I feel like that day. For obvious reasons that wasn’t possible during lock-down and while we’re not in that situation anymore, my habits didn’t change. I got used to being home.
I can wake up 30 minutes before work and do the laundry, have breakfast, brush my hair and put on some sweatpants before joining my first video call. At home I can also guarantee that there are no distractions or noise while I’m doing my meetings or completing my tasks. I’m in control. Or am I?
Back in February I started feeling funny. I didn’t have the energy to do my job so the simplest task would take me forever and I just couldn’t be bothered with some things that I used to love. That control I thought I had, went out the window.
I would no longer wake up 30 minutes before my first call and do some chores. I would rather lay in bed or just stare at my phone until I had to join a meeting. This bothered me.
I was never one to stall around work. I would usually get all my tasks done pretty quickly, but now even writing an email took forever. I felt this for over a month without mentioning it to anyone — not because I didn’t want people to notice but because I was frustrated at myself and I was sure that would go away just as quickly as it came.
Well… that didn’t happen.
In March I turned 30 and booked a trip to unwind and escape my daily routine. When I came back I was sure I’d be back to my normal self. Except I wasn’t. At this point I was really frustrated. I liked my job. I liked the company and I liked my colleagues so why did every day feel like Monday morning? That’s when I decided to reach out to some of my peers and let them know I wasn’t at my best. I wanted them to know that my work wouldn’t be at my usual standards and that I was trying my best to get out of that headspace.
Everyone was great about it and I really appreciated all their patience and kind words.
Fast-forward a few months and I’m much better.
Among other things, I decided made some changes to my routine and that really helped. Now, I give myself one day a week to stay at home and on the others I work from a cafe around town or go to the office. For me, this is the perfect balance: I get to be on my own most days, but I see people and feel the city moving around me.
I’m energised by what others are doing and just the fact that I get to put on some nice clothes puts me in a better mood. In fact, it makes me more productive and creative even though I still don’t feel 100% back to ‘normal’.
When I look back, I didn’t really experience burnout but I was close. I guess all the stress from having experienced a pandemic added to the current state of the world was just a little too much for me. I was lucky to have a great support system and a job that allowed me to take a step back when I needed it.
I’m one of the few (or so it seems) that still hasn’t caught Covid, so I guess I would have to catch whatever that was?
I’ll end this by saying: Whether you prefer a hybrid model, full remote or fully office-based, just make sure you do you. Don’t hate on specific productivity models and let people choose what works best for them — if that’s working everyday from an office, great. If they rather work from an island, awesome as well.
Let’s not make remote work just another trend everyone feels they have to love, but rather something that’s here to help us have a higher work-life balance, without forgetting to weigh in the social aspect as well.
