Telecommuting

Not Even Close: Your Brain on Telecommuting

As we enter the third year of the pandemic, it seems ever more likely that remote work will be staying with us for a while too – with more companies than ever adjusting to having their employees telecommute from a distance. Consequently, this new normal inevitably has us working with strangers that we probably never met face to face without a screen between us.  or without COVID-19, remote work is likely here to stay. As a result, we increasingly find ourselves collaborating with people we have never met in person. You’re not imagining it – it is much more difficult than you’re used to – however long you’ve been with the company or in your current line of work. The good news is that once you realize that and come to terms with it, it’s just a matter of acquiring and exercising the right skills to deal with some of the extraordinary problems remote work can leave us with.

The Difficulty of Building Relationships From a Distance

Even before we found ourselves in the midst of a deadly pandemic, there were some troubling signs about the nature of remote work. Even with the notable benefits it had to offer, working long distance had the potential to jeopardize authentic and sustainable relationships. A study conducted back in 2017 showed that more than half of all remote workers feel they were not treated as equals by their colleagues. In summary, they felt perceived as “doers” (bodies up to finishing their assigned tasks) but not as the complex and unique individuals they were with various needs. Studies done since the COVID outbreak have lended support to these findings.

In March of 2021, Nancy Baym, a Senior Researcher at Microsoft, and fellow researchers published a summary article about remote work in the journal Harvard Business Review. After reviewing over 50 separate studies carried out by Microsoft in 2020, the summary underscored that some groups of people had a harder time than others when it came to making strong connections at work, and the research looked at both younger and new employees equally. Baym concluded: “The past year has made it harder for new employees to find their footing since they’re not experiencing the onboarding, networking, and training that they might have expected in a normal year. These employees say their relationships with their direct teams and access to leadership are worse than those who have been with the company longer.”

Remote Work and What It Does to Your Ability to Kick Start the “Mirror Neurons”

Mirror neurons are a fairly recent discovery, first described by the Italian neuroscientist Marco Iacoboni in the late 1990s. To tersely explain, the brain’s mirror neurons become activated whenever you perform a specific action such as smiling and you witness someone else carrying out the exact same action. Because the function of these neurons effectively blurs the  line between doing and seeing a particular action, they are thought to serve a crucial role in how the brain builds empathy and develops relationships with other people.

Iacoboni told Scientific American magazine during a 2008 interview: “Mirror neurons are the only brain cells we know of that seem specialized to code the actions of other people and also our own actions. They are obviously essential brain cells for social interactions. Without them, we would likely be blind to the actions, intentions, and emotions of other people.” So, what happens when you’re not physically face to face? Is a computer monitor enough to make up the difference?

It’s complicated – to say the least. When you interact with other people online, it isn’t that you have totally eliminated the possibility of activating mirror neurons. However, online interfaces aren’t quite the same as sitting in a room face to face – and they do have their limits on how many mirror neurons they are able to activate at once. Bear in mind that because mirror neurons are set off by observing other people, any type of interface that cuts off channels of sensory information is likely to stifle some of the positive effects.

Beyond just morbid curiosity, for example, people stop to look at accidents that take place nearby and tend to feel a somewhat unpleasant sensation that makes them wince if they see someone else injured or suffering. This is a natural phenomenon known among neuroscientists as “neural resonance,” and mirror neurons play a key role in this reaction. Some online communications networks – for example, the Slack app that companies like to utilize for meetings – are text-based and therefore employees are prevented from seeing their coworkers sigh or smile as they exchange messages back and forth. However, this problem with what mirror neurons perceive is hardly limited to text-based applications.

With platforms like Zoom, the observations an individual can make are often limited by the confines of the screen frame. For example, in the typical setup, we only get to see the head of whoever we are talking to, rather than getting full bodies. The image quality can also vary depending on interior lighting and buffering even with the fastest networks isn’t always reliable for clarity. Doing a presentation on Zoom takes out a number of crucial communication cues as well – if for only the reason that it’s a whole lot more difficult to look up and be able to read the room. Instead, you have to wait and look at each individual screen – putting a delay on how we release our mirror neurons. It’s even more difficult when your audience has their microphones cut off to avoid indirect feedback.

Hypothetically speaking, it isn’t that remote work wipes out the effect of your mirror neurons, but what it does do is diminish their overall effect. Consequently, this impacts our own ability to reach out to fellow team members and work on sincere and empathetic connections with them.

Reaching Out Across the Digital Universe

It doesn’t just feel harder – it actually is harder to connect with your team members online in a different setting from the familiar office walls. Here’s a few key strategies to build and maintain functional co-worker relationships online as you go:

• Acknowledge that there is a difference: Be candid and open regarding the unique challenges remote work has to offer and how these can impact day-to-day relationships. This will give some breathing room for you and your co-worker to start a conversation.

• Celebrate all the “ups”: As this pandemic has gone through various ebbs and flows, we’ve all gotten a stronger command for recognizing our personal lows and highs, days when we feel better than others, but a critical step is to make sure you also acknowledge the ups when they occur – the moments when you reach sustainable and ongoing degrees of success.

• Try interacting one on one using less data: When it comes to working in person, there is a treasure trove of information we can unlock and maintain when it comes to understanding our fellow team members and how they function. You generally have a fairly strong command of the work habits of those you share an office with and generally know when they are about to present you with bad news. When it comes to remote work, we may see inside their homes for a bit, but there’s a lot left to the imagination. How do you make up for it? The key lies in trying to have more frequent and meaningful conversations with your team members – even if you find yourself having to set aside time outside of work to do it.

• Make sure you enhance your focus: Whenever you engage with your team members online, do whatever it takes to maintain focus. Presuppose and tune out any potential distractions ahead of time (for example, you may want to shut down multiple open tabs on your screen and shut off notifications on your phone as these make a difference), make sure your camera is only targeted at the person you’re speaking to and not yourself, and even think of different places to maintain conversations other than your desk, such as a comfortable chair.

There’s probably no substitute for mirror neurons, and probably won’t be any time soon in the near future, but becoming aware of how they are affected by working remotely and making small changes accordingly – to our knowledge of relationship-building, are critical ways towards making things last.