I have been working remotely for 5 years now. I enjoy it since it allows me focus on what I need to do for the day. I don’t lose time nor enthusiasm by commuting.

Our team at Rejoiner works in several cities across the USA. We mostly communicate through Slack and do team calls every Monday and Friday—which help us see ourselves as “one team”, instead of separating us by what our main tasks are.

I have gotten to meet most of the team in person. I get giddy when I do. Like one of the questions in my head whenever someone joins the team is “how tall are you?” Then I can place them on my tallest to shortest coworkers imaginary scale. Seems dumb, but it makes someone feel a little more real. I also love it when team members share pictures of their pets. You learn a bit more about them when you learn the names they have chosen for their pets.

With COVID-19 many are entering the work from home space. It can be tough at the beginning, and specially right now. I know that communicating digitally only can also take a toll on some people who love face-to-face interaction. And I get it. Having a sense that there is a REAL someone on the other side of the screen is VERY important.

So if working from home is new for you, do use the 1st minutes of your day to ask your coworkers how they are doing and if there is anything you can do to help.

Back in my art days, I made work that revolved around how the digital world was actually divisive and could alienate people. I even made videos that attempted to show people how to connect. I livestreamed me in different cities with different friends doing actions while people watched us live* from a museum.

Now I am waiting to see if this crisis will prove my MFA thesis wrong and we can REALLY become more connected by being remote and digital. A lot of my work also focused on language and I can tell you that language is KEY—specially right now since it can certainly help lessen the distance.

Language has proven to make people come together. It has also served as tool for war and divisiveness so I beg you to really focus in on what you say and how you say it.

Empathy is really a verb that should resonate more and more while we are all remote.