Remote Jobs Depression

Does anyone already felt that remote job does not worth it?
Ive being working remotely since 2014 and when I started was really nice, work in your pijamas, dont wast time in traffic and so on, but after a while I realized that it wasn`t good for me, I felt so much isolated and depressed, solving problems only thourgh IM or conferences, with no “Face to Face” contact, and also the most important I was feeling that I was not progressing and learning with the most experienced people once in a remote job you talk only the necessary and Skype helps but is not the same thing.
I woud like to know if anyone here already felt like that.

Thanks (I`m from Brazil sorry for my english)

I have felt what you are feeling. My recommendation is try to do it part-time only, the isolation needs to be compensated with other activities in your life, paid or not.

I’ve had that feeling as well. You start to miss the commute and the watercooler chats with co-workers. What helped was for me to give myself reasons to go out mostly every day. Don’t let the remote job keep you home all the time. You can also try co-working spaces, meetups and conferences. Also try suggesting a weekly or bi-weekly meeting for your discipline on Skype at work - so everyone can talk about all the cool new things they’re doing and break the routine a bit. I used to have a meeting like this bi-weekly where we each person had talks about something new they learned.

I also agree with @maxtoroq - sometimes having an in-office job with flexible schedule options can be a compromise versus completely at home. I don’t mind coming into the office so long as I’m not forced to every day at a set shift I can’t control. Hope these suggestions help, good luck!

Thanks guys,

Those suggestions are very important for me and I’ll try for sure, and it is also good to know that I’m not the only one with the same feeling.

Here are some more specific things I would suggest:

  1. Don’t work in your pyjamas. Get cleaned up and dressed like you would for a proper job.
  2. Have separate work and non-work spaces and times. Since you don’t have a commute or an office, it’s easy to let work slip into everything else in your life, and so any problems you have with work can also spread.
  3. Some people have already suggested joining a coworking space so you can gain some of the social benefits of having a physical office space.
  4. Make sure to have a vibrant social life outside of work. Go to social events in your city (meetups, dance or sports classes, etc.) That way, even if you don’t meet a lot of people through work, you’ll still have lots social interaction with other people.
  5. If you feel like you’re not learning or growing professionally, try to make that part of your work day. You could set up specific meeting maybe once or twice with senior people to get a better understanding of the systems you’re building or working on. You’d have to prepare specific questions in advance so that it’s worth their time. It’s not as easy as just having conversations around the office but it’s definitely doable.
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I work remotely and while it’s a positive for me in many ways, I’ve definitely had to ramp up my self-care game to counteract some of the other sides of it re: isolation, etc. You’re definitely not alone.

Others’ suggestions covered most of my thoughts so far. I also read a paper recently released by Human Made (remote WP company) on ‘Dealing with the causes of stress in remote teams’ that maybe you or your employer could find useful?