Remote Work Has Exposed a Fundamental Truth
If you drive to an office, wear a suit, and operate in a corporate environment small differences in behavior can start to build little walls, knee-high, that grow and grow until they are large can't-see-over-it stone walls. After a few years your professional life and personal life are so separate that you act differently in each. You use your work voice while on the phone, and make or tolerate jokes you never would at home. You likely think this is fine because it is being professional. This might not seem like a big deal, but many of us spend as much time working as they do anything else, and it can warp your identity.
It is hard to wrap your entire self up in work when you are home; you can't compartmentalize as easily. You have to deal with it all, and sometimes in front of your family. And the details of your life might leak a bit more when coworkers hear and see things in the background of your life.
Remote work exposes the fundamental truth that we are all whole, complete people with home lives and living spaces and troubles. We have distractions and obstacles; the current project getting done before the end of Q2 isn't, in fact, the most important thing going down in March for all of us. Some of us have daughter's struggling in school, dogs that get sick, family members that die. Some have terrible chronic worries outside of work; others appear to have their work as the central theme of their live. Others enjoy their home lives so much more than work. Remote work exposes this. There isn't as much posturing and posing. We are all complex humans.
