“Live/Work housing offers end to commuter blues.” I recently saw this headline in the local business journal. As you can imagine, I got a big chuckle out of it. As a veteran virtual worker, I know better.

There are definite advantages to working from home. You pick your own brand of coffee, set your own dress code, play whatever background music you like and best of all . . .there’s no commute. However, if you work from home 3 or more days a week, you have probably become familiar a distinctive set of challenges I call the work at home blues or WAH.

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If you work at home, you know that isolation is sometimes a good thing.

When you’re working on a project that requires concentration and focus, the peace and quiet of a work at home arrangement is intoxicating. Particularly when compared with sitting in an office cubicle overhearing co-workers candidly discuss their mortgages, hairdos and marriage troubles.

However, that peace and quiet soon turns to loneliness and deafening silence (Think Jack Nicholson in The Shinning) when it’s all you know day after day. Here are a few quick fixes that help me counteract the inherent isolation that accompanies the virtual workplace.

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In our blog series exploring 4 Signs that you might have the work at home blues, feeling isolated or detached from your business colleagues, clients or work teams is probably more common than you’d like to admit.

I mean c’mon, with e-mail, instant messaging and chat rooms, Web-Ex and video conferencing, you’re just about as connected as if you were in the corporate office, right?

Err, not quite. People are looking for better ways to counteract the inherent isolation that accompanies the virtual workplace. Virtual assistants and other remote workers miss out on water cooler conversations and other social aspects of office life.

Don’t get me wrong. Isolation can be a good thing. When you’re working on a project that requires concentration and focus, the peace and quiet of a work at home arrangement is intoxicating. Particularly when compared with sitting in an office cubicle overhearing co-workers candidly discuss their mortgages, hairdos and marriage troubles. However, that peace and quiet soon turns to loneliness and deafening silence (Think Jack Nicholson in The Shinning) when it’s all you know day after day.

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