When my company announced we were going fully remote in March 2020, I was thrilled. No more commute. No more packing lunches. No more fluorescent lighting and awkward elevator small talk. I could finally work in sweatpants and have the perfect work-life balance everyone kept talking about. Fast forward three years, and remote work did completely change my life - just not in any of the ways I expected.
I want to be clear from the start: I am not here to complain about remote work. I still work remotely and have no desire to go back to an office. But the reality of working from home full-time has been so different from what I imagined that I feel compelled to share my honest experience. Maybe it will help someone who is transitioning to remote work set more realistic expectations.
The Isolation Hit Harder Than Expected
I am an introvert. Like, a real introvert who genuinely enjoys being alone and recharges through solitude. So I figured remote work would be perfect for me. No forced social interactions, no open office noise, no colleagues stopping by my desk to chat when I was trying to focus. Paradise, right?
What I did not anticipate was how much those small interactions actually contributed to my sense of connection. The casual conversations in the break room, the quick chats walking to meetings, the lunch invitations I usually declined - they were all providing something I did not realize I needed until they were gone.
About six months into remote work, I noticed I was feeling genuinely lonely. Not in a dramatic way, but in a low-grade, persistent way that colored everything else. I was going days without seeing another human being in person. My video calls were all work-focused, leaving no room for the random tangents that used to happen naturally in the office.
I had to actively rebuild social connection into my life. I joined a local hiking group. I started going to coffee shops to work sometimes, just to be around people. I scheduled monthly dinners with friends and actually kept them instead of canceling at the last minute. These things sound obvious, but when you are used to getting your social needs met passively through work, you do not realize how much effort it takes to meet them intentionally.
The Productivity Paradox
Here is something nobody tells you about remote work: you will probably be more productive, but it might not feel good. Without the natural interruptions of an office environment, I found myself working in longer, more intense stretches. I could knock out in four hours what used to take me six or seven in the office.
This sounds great until you realize that your brain was not designed for sustained focus like this. By 2pm, I would be mentally exhausted in a way I never was in the office. But because I was at home with no commute and no clear boundary between work and not-work, I would often try to push through and keep working anyway. This led to burnout faster than I have ever experienced it.
I eventually learned to take more breaks and work in shorter sprints. But it took me almost a year to figure this out, and I went through a pretty dark period before I did. The flexibility of remote work can easily become a trap if you do not set firm boundaries with yourself.
My Body Changed In Ways I Did Not Expect
In the office, I walked to meetings. I took stairs. I walked to the parking lot, to the cafeteria, to other buildings. I did not think of these as exercise, but they added up. When I started working from home, my step count dropped from around 7,000 per day to about 2,000. Sometimes less.
Within six months, I had gained fifteen pounds. My back started hurting from sitting in the same position for hours. I developed tension headaches that I never had before. My sleep quality declined because my body was no longer tired in a physical way at the end of the day.
I had to completely restructure my approach to physical activity. I now take a walk first thing in the morning, before I even check email. I have a standing desk that I actually use. I set hourly reminders to move around. I go to the gym three times a week, something I never did when I was commuting. These changes helped, but they required deliberate effort that the office environment had been providing for free.
My Relationship With My Home Changed
This is something I hear discussed less often, but it had a huge impact on me. My apartment used to be my sanctuary - the place I came home to after work, where I could relax and decompress. When it also became my office, that separation disappeared entirely.
I would finish work and still be sitting in the same room, looking at the same walls, sitting in the same chair. There was no transition, no commute that served as a buffer between work mode and home mode. My home started to feel less relaxing because it was also the place where I stressed about deadlines and sat through frustrating meetings.
I dealt with this by creating very clear physical boundaries. I set up a dedicated office space with a door I could close. When the workday ends, I leave that room and do not go back in until the next morning. I also started taking a short walk at the end of each workday to simulate a commute - something that felt silly at first but genuinely helped my brain switch modes.
My Career Developed Differently
In an office, visibility matters. People see you working late, they notice when you come in early, they observe your interactions with others. This passive visibility contributes to how you are perceived and can impact your career advancement.
Remote work requires much more active self-advocacy. Nobody sees you working; they only see your output. This is arguably more fair, but it also means you have to communicate your contributions in ways that feel unnatural to some people. I had to learn to share my wins more explicitly, to speak up more in meetings, to make sure my work was visible to the people who mattered.
On the positive side, remote work gave me access to opportunities I never would have had otherwise. I was able to take a job with a company in a different state, working with people I never would have met if geography was a constraint. My career has grown in ways it probably would not have if I was limited to companies within commuting distance of my apartment.
What I Would Tell Someone Starting Remote Work
If you are about to start working remotely for the first time, here is what I wish someone had told me: It will be different from what you imagine, and that is okay. Give yourself at least six months before you decide how you really feel about it. Your initial honeymoon phase will fade, and you will need to actively design your new work life rather than letting it happen to you.
Build routines that create structure. Take care of your physical health deliberately. Invest in your workspace - a good chair, proper lighting, and a dedicated space make a real difference. Protect your social connections. Set boundaries with work hours and stick to them. And most importantly, be patient with yourself as you figure out what works.
Remote work can be wonderful, but it is not automatically wonderful. Like most things in life, you get out of it what you put into it.
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