The Water Cooler Effect
“These in-between spaces that can result in awkward conversation
with someone you don’t know very well
play an important role in building community between colleagues,
which fosters commitment to a company.”
The Rise of the Virtual Water Cooler
The Water Cooler Effect
When I started a blog in 2010, I recognized that bloggers who typically worked at home sometimes felt isolated. They did not have the water cooler experience of people who went to work at an office. So I set out to build Community in the Blogosphere, and bring people from all over the world together.
It was a successful experiment and a wonderful experience and taught me a lot about building Community online. The bloggers who gathered back then still reminisce about the camaraderie we enjoyed.
Who Knew?
Who knew that so many of us would be in this position today?
Working from home is wonderful – I have always worked from home – but for those who did not choose it, it can come with a feeling of isolation and disconnection. This can have an adverse effect on motivation.
We need Community in all areas of our lives, but especially in the workplace when the workplace is our home.
What we found was that cohesion among employees, your “tribe,” if you will, is one of the largest factors in both productivity and job satisfaction. Alex Pentland, Psychology Today
Let’s Do Something About It
If it was possible to build Community online twelve years ago, it is possible today.
We just need to create the water cooler experience.
How?
We can create the watercooler experience by having virtual morning coffee breaks, lunchroom chats, and afternoon coffee breaks with colleagues or with friends who are working from home.
We can collaborate and brainstorm in Zoom rooms or Teams or Slack or just enjoy an “I need a break!” moment together.
There is No Greater Antidote to Isolation than Community Building
Learn how to build Community at your workplace.
Belonging to a Community matters – a lot.
We are all in this together, and together is how we will get through it.
Photo by manu schwendener on Unsplash