We're all human

Being "human" kept coming to the surface in my meditations over the weekend and again today.

Being human in the world of remote work is something I've been thinking about a lot over the last 3 years and when I think about the world of work in general, being our true human selves is something that we actually rarely do. How much time do we spend really getting to know the people we are working with? Do we know who they are as a person? Beyond their title, their responsibilities and OKR's. Why they do what they do? What drives them? What are their hopes and dreams? What are they afraid of? What they are struggling with?

One of the fundamental characteristics of being human is our need for connection with other human beings and belonging to a group that we trust. It makes sense as for tens of thousands of years before the agricultural revolution people lived in hunter gatherer tribes where belonging to and being connected with the group meant your chances of survival increased quite dramatically.

And what is our modern day work if not the meta version of hunting and gathering with your tribe? Instead of spending our time and energy on finding our food and building our shelter in the natural world, we spend our time and energy "hunting and gathering" for these tokens of value we call money that we later exchange for food and shelter. Mind blowing stuff, I know :)

So we are evolutionary wired to be surrounded by a group of people we trust and work together towards a common goal. In the world of fully remote work, the "being around other people" has been distilled to a 2D (unless you're experimenting with VR for work which I find is a fascinating topic), digital replication of the other people whom we are working with. It's not real and our brains know it.

Yes, we can still be productive, perhaps even more so than we were when we're together in person. But what price are we paying for that? In my personal experience that price is the human connection that is just so much more difficult to create and maintain in this virtual, digital world. There's something about sitting or standing across from someone and looking them in the eyes when you tell them about the project you're struggling with or the difficult candidate you've been working with that can't be replicated over zoom. There is something about an actual high five that you get from your teammate when you close the offer you've been working on for weeks that stays with you in a way that no emoji or gif over slack ever can (I absolutely LOVE gif's, I'm just saying it's not the same).

What has your experience been with being human at work?