Prior to the UK lockdown in March I was pretty active attending various tech meetups in the north west, we were even in the final stages or preparing for hosting the first Liverpool Tech Talks scheduled for the end of March. Obviously that was cancelled as the pandemic was taking hold in the UK and all face-to-face meetups have been cancelled ever since. I knew quite a few of them went online to become virtual meetup events but for me a large part of attending the meetups is for the social side, the pre and post discussions with the speakers and other attendees. I attended a few as a spectator and found them good but not as good as the real thing but something that I was interested in was being a panelist so that I could be part of the discussion. Luckily for me The Very Group are active in the 'early talent' area, and have great ties with the University of Liverpool. Our early talent partner reached out to ask if my awesome colleague Ben Kadel and myself would be interest
Up until the start of this year I'd been working 100% from home for over a decade as a remote software developer. The key to staying sane whilst never leaving your home? Not feeling isolated. It's great at first, longer in bed as you've no commute, you get to wear what you like, start preparing your evening meal at lunchtime, get some washing on, all of this whilst doing way more than you'd normally get done in a busy office. However all these 'great things' don't make up for the isolation. You send emails and IMs but don't feel connected. You wait for the phone to ring but it doesn't as you've no meetings that day. You wonder what your co-workers are up to but for some reason you struggle to pick up the phone. Isolation (or 'cabin fever') hits ALL remote workers when they transition from an office-based job to 100% at home. Working at home one day a week is not 'working remotely'. Visiting the office three times a year