Introvert Pride

As technology has continued to expand, we've become more and more reliant on digital communication -- and the pandemic has only accelerated the trend. People are no doubt communicating more via social media, text, and instant messaging apps than ever before.  Let's enter a time capsule and go back to the late 90s/early 2000s, when America Online (now AOL) was in its heyday. While many people jumped on the chat room and IM train, it was nowhere near as ubiquitous as Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp are today.  We must acknowledge, of course, that smartphones weren't a thing yet. Now, thanks to the wide adoption of WiFi and data plans, we can keep in touch with friends and family at the push of a button, no matter where we are.  As I've addressed in prior posts, COVID helped to usher in a new era of remote work. Yes, some companies were already allowing employees to work from home, but it was more sporadic, on an as-needed basis. Now we're witnessing people -- introver...

If you asked any introvert to name the one thing they've appreciated the most about this new reality ushered in by the pandemic, working from home is sure to be a popular answer.  That being said, in light of the fact that Covid is beginning to recede, it's no surprise many fear this flexibility will soon be coming to an end.  It's not to say that extroverts don't value being able to work in their pajamas and binge on Netflix while crunching numbers.  But on the whole, introverts -- who are partial to written communication -- are less enthusiastic about a return to face-to-face interactions.  Because our social batteries drain more easily than those of our more extroverted counterparts, we haven't found ourselves in need of a recharge quite as often these past few years.  Sure, Teams and Zoom meetings aren't always fun, but we'll take them any day of the week over having to be present for pointless brainstorming sessions and water cooler conversations. Not o...

A pandemic sweeps the entire world almost overnight, causing businesses to close, schools to pivot to online instruction, and people to panic -- except, perhaps, for one small subset of the population.  It's as if introverts had been waiting for this moment their whole lives. No longer having to attend social engagements? Being able to work from home for 18 months? Enjoying a Friday night at home without being chided for it? Most of us probably thought we were having a dream -- one from which we did not want to wake up. It's not to say that introverts haven't missed meeting up with family at a busy restaurant for dinner, celebrating birthdays with co-workers, or attending concerts with friends.  The difference now is that saying "I'll pass" (if an outing is proposed to begin with) doesn't rub people the wrong way like it used do. It's become acceptable to decline if your concern relates to catching the virus, whether because of crowds, lack of social d...

If you were to ask most people at my company whether they'd want to retain the ability to work from home post-pandemic, they would give you an unequivocal "yes." And that includes extroverts whom, though they miss the in-person interactions characteristic of a traditional workplace setting, recognize the perks of working remotely, like working in one's pajamas, saving on gas, being able to get out of bed and walk right to work, and in some cases even spending more time with family. It's plain to see why introverts would be the biggest (maybe not the loudest, but definitely biggest) supporters of this kind of arrangement: We can leverage our preference for communicating in writing (via email, Teams, IM, etc.) -- which affords us the opportunity to think through what we want to say --without feeling as much pressure to be "quick" on our feet. It's nice not to have to attend lengthy in-person meetings where nothing gets resolved. Phone/Teams meetings ca...