When COVID-19 first hit the US in March, 2020, most of us were only sure about one thing: a serious global pandemic was beginning, and we had to adapt in order to survive. I am lucky to work in tech, where an industry-wide pivot to remote work has occurred. While this immediate, unplanned shift was scary at the time for cultures unaccustomed to remote work, we were lucky to have many existing resources as a starting point¹. However, these resources tend to focus on the high-level, cultural shifts for remote work. But when it comes to the tactical execution of such a transition, well, that’s a whole other ballgame.
It was October, 2019 when I realized that I was going to change jobs (from Facebook to Zillow). I was excited, but it was bittersweet; I was working with a lot of great people, and it was going to be hard to say goodbye. On top of that, I was in the middle of a project, and I am not one to leave without having a strong transition plan. So, I pushed my start date to January 2020 so that I could have the time needed to wrap things up and leave my current teammates in a good spot. While I don’t regret this decision, it had unintended consequences that I only just learned about this week, more than two years later in February, 2022.
By summer 2021, I was hitting a wall. I was vaccinated. I had social distanced and minimized contact despite being an extrovert. I was exhausted. I had just changed teams, focus, and scope of what I was working on to regain the “spark” that I had lost. I was primarily working with people I had never met in person. I was optimistic that a change would help, but I suspected even more was needed.
