Island Working

I wanted to share a bit about happenings in my nine-to-five life. So we all know this is a different time, and there's a lot of adjustment - but I'm learning a new one again this week.

I'm used to being alone, and doing things on my own, nights, weekends, days off, vacations - used to all that. I'm used to working from home now - been here a month. What I'm not used to is being the only one working on my team. Unfortunately my other team member at my nine-to-fiver got laid off this week. I won't go on a tangent and tell you how much this girl has meant to me in my personal and professional life - because that could be a post in itself.

So this is new. Besides a couple small gaps, I've had someone on my team for the last 4 years; there every day wondering where our projects are going, checking in and caring more than anyone else what I as the marketing lead was working on and turning out. Now that's gone. I'm working completely alone now. And it sucks.

This would suck even in what we knew as the 'normal' world. But now it sucks more. In working from home - alone - and on my team, now - alone - I've got no one that is really caring what's going on - unless something goes wrong. I'm feeling truly like I'm working on an island. I'm one typically where this would start eating at me.

So I'm getting ahead of it - I'm reaching out to other friends for suggestions to stay connected. I'm trying to enjoy the Skype call that comes through instead of looking at it as an annoyance or disturbance. But what else? Got any ideas to share? I'm sure a few of you are in this position - and it's something you've dealt with a lot longer than me. What advice can you share?

(too bad my island isn't full of sun, sand and water)