I’m finding one of the unexpected challenges of my new job is the loss of social interaction. When I worked at the helpdesk, interacting with people and keeping in touch with the folks I considered my friends, was easy. Just as part of the job I’d have to talk to them on a regular basis, so it was easy for someone who is naturally as shy as I am, to be pretty social. I really had no choice but to be in order to be good at my job.
Now that I’ve moved into a different type of work, and moved into my own office, I am finding it difficult to keep “in touch”. I don’t have the normal day-to-day interaction with people as part of my job, there is some, but not anywhere near as much. I have to make an effort to go and talk to people, in a social sense, as opposed to just chatting while I was working with them.
I’m not very good at that, but I’m going to have to learn to be better at it if I want to keep the friendships I developed while working at the help desk. We’ll see how it goes.