Remote work and social life, how to meet people outside work

There are days when we talk for hours without meeting anyone in person. A morning meeting, messages in the team chat, a phone call while making lunch. Then we close the laptop and realise we have been in the same space since we woke up.

For people who often work from home, this can change their social life. Work conversations carry on, while spontaneous opportunities to meet people become less frequent. By the end of the day, we may simply want to go out and spend some time with someone, without another screen between us.

The everyday encounters that came with the office

Coffee before starting work, lunch with a colleague, a quick chat on the way out. An office day can include social moments we never had to plan. Sometimes they remain brief exchanges. Sometimes they turn into an invitation made while waiting for the lift.

Working from home can leave fewer opportunities for those moments. Meetings have a start, a topic and an end. Once everyone says goodbye, we return to our own tasks. There is less room to linger over a conversation about the weekend or ask someone what they are doing later.

Eurofound’s research on remote work considers both the benefits of flexibility and potential difficulties associated with isolation. Experiences vary, and working from home does not necessarily mean feeling lonely. You can enjoy this way of working and still want more opportunities to meet people.

When work ends and you are already home

Remote work can save us the commute, the traffic and the morning rush. For many people, that convenience would be difficult to give up. Yet on some days, the transition from work to free time becomes harder to notice. We close the laptop, tidy the kitchen and find ourselves on the sofa, just a few steps from the desk.

Perhaps we feel like going out, but our friends are busy. Colleagues live in other cities, and arranging something for that evening feels complicated. So we stay home even when we would have preferred some company.

That is when having another option can feel welcome, without waiting for the weekend or finding a date that suits the whole group.

Tablo, an option when you feel like going out

Knowing you can open Tablo and look for a nearby table can come as a small relief after a day spent at home. Among the available gatherings, there might be a dinner, drinks or a theme that interests you enough to make you want to get ready and head out.

You do not need to have a group of friends to go with. The table is created to bring together people who want to share that occasion. You might arrive with work still on your mind and find yourself listening to someone whose day has been completely different.

Users propose and organise the gatherings, while Tablo provides the platform to find them and take part. For anyone getting started, our guide to how Tablo works and joining your first table explains the practical details in Italian.

For people who work from home, having this option means being able to decide that the day will continue somewhere else. Perhaps nearby, at a neighbourhood venue, with people they had not met just a few hours earlier.

A conversation that can go anywhere

After hours spent answering questions, solving problems and making decisions, it can be a pleasure to talk without needing to reach an outcome. To follow someone’s story, get sidetracked by a joke or end up discussing something completely unrelated to work.

An evening like this can fit into an ordinary week. It does not need a special occasion, and it does not have to become a regular commitment. It can simply be what you felt like doing that day.

The next morning, the desk will still be in the same place, and there will probably be more calls waiting. But when someone asks, “What did you do yesterday?”, you might have a story about someone you met, a conversation that ended in laughter or a place you would like to return to. Something that had not happened yet when you closed your laptop.