
Ask HN: members of distributed teams, how do you cope with the loneliness? - ozh
Of course you&#x27;re collaborating on a day to day basis using email, skype, IRC or whatever, but how do you handle the physical loneliness throughout the day?
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JSeymourATL
Purposely plan regular 1:1 breakfast or lunch meetings with a long list of
assorted friends/colleagues. Engage in the lost art of live conversation. It
takes effort and forethought, people can get busy. That makes it all the more
important.

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peterwwillis
Find a cafe or coworking space. You're in Nantes, right? Check out the Nantes
Cité des Congrès and Nantes Route de Paris, they both have dedicated coworking
spaces. Personally I would find something right on La Loire or L'Erdre so I
had a nice view of the water; really any view of nature I think will help,
even if nobody's around. After work, get out and find something to do with
other people.

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Nanzikambe
Company wide IRC type chat with several non-business chat channels to
socialise in (eg. Tech, Food, Fun, Sport). Can use an IRC server, jabber/XMPP
or Hipchat for this.

Plus regular real world trips to meet/connect with the people you work with,
and an active social life outside work.

It of course helps if you're the kind of person that likes solitude.

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benji-york
I may be an outlier; it takes me about two weeks of not interacting with
another person to feel the least bit lonely.

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caw
Our IRC chat (flowdock) has a section which is basically water cooler
discussion and copious amounts of gifs. Normal work takes place in other
channels.

Other than that...

rdio subscription

Local meetups

"bring my dog to work" self-made perk :) He hangs out in the same room I'm in
for most of the day.

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trvd1707
I've been telecommuting since 2000 and definitely pets help. I have two cats
and a dog.

Sometimes I work at the library or cafés. Meetups are great too.

Volunteer work outside the house once in awhile.

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eswat
Unless you have a family, try working in coffee shops and coworking spaces
more than you work at home.

And really unwind with your friends on the weekends, to the point where you
wouldn’t mind not seeing another human being the Monday after.

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virtualteam
Have short meetings with your team every day. Make jokes and share fun things.
Implement a Social Network for your company/team. Join a shared office space
or go to a cafe where people are working like you. Exercise every day. Meet
with face to face with friends in the evenings.

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trvd1707
There is always the option of traveling abroad always staying in places with
good internet connection. You get to meet new people all the time:
[http://locationindependent.com/](http://locationindependent.com/)

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riaface
We use Sqwiggle ([https://www.sqwiggle.com/](https://www.sqwiggle.com/)) which
is almost like being in the office - everyone's there when you need them.

Would totally agree with caw about getting a dog though!

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acd
Join a shared office space. It's difficult, spend more time around family.

