With the overnight growth in Working from Home (WFH) owing to the pandemic, organisations and their employees have had to adapt work-related processes and practices quickly with a huge reliance upon technology. Everyday activities such as social interactions with colleagues must therefore be reconsidered. Existing literature emphasises that social interactions, typically conducted in the traditional workplace, are a fundamental feature of social life and shape employees’ experience of work. This experience is completely removed for many employees due to the pandemic and, presently, there is a lack of knowledge on how individuals maintain social interactions with colleagues via technology when working from home. Given that a lack of social interaction can lead to social isolation and other negative repercussions, this study aims to contribute to the existing body of literature on remote working by highlighting employees’ experiences and practices around social interaction with colleagues. This study takes an interpretivist and qualitative approach utilising the diary-keeping technique to collect data from twenty-nine individuals who had started to work from home on a full-time basis as a result of the pandemic. The study explores how participants conduct social interactions using different technology platforms and how such interactions are embedded in their working lives. The findings highlight the difficulty in maintaining social interactions via technology such as the absence of cues and emotional intelligence, as well as highlighting numerous other factors such as job uncertainty, increased workloads and heavy usage of technology that affect their work lives. The study also highlights that despite the negative experiences relating to working from home, some participants are apprehensive about returning to work in the traditional office place where social interactions may actually be perceived as a distraction. The main contribution of our study is to highlight that a variety of perceptions and feelings of how work has changed via an increased use of digital media while working from home exists and that organisations need to be aware of these differences so that they can be managed in a contextualised manner, thus increasing both the efficiency and effectiveness of working from home.

由于大流行，在家工作 (WFH) 一夜之间增长，组织及其员工不得不在高度依赖技术的情况下迅速调整与工作相关的流程和做法。因此，必须重新考虑日常活动，例如与同事的社交互动。现有文献强调，通常在传统工作场所进行的社交互动是社交生活的基本特征，并塑造了员工的工作体验。由于大流行，许多员工的这种经历完全消失了，目前，人们对在家工作时如何通过技术与同事保持社交互动缺乏了解。鉴于缺乏社交互动会导致社会孤立和其他负面影响，本研究旨在通过强调员工在与同事的社交互动方面的经验和做法，为现有的远程工作文献做出贡献。本研究采用解释性和定性方法，利用日记记录技术收集 29 名因大流行而开始全职在家工作的人的数据。该研究探讨了参与者如何使用不同的技术平台进行社交互动，以及这种互动如何融入他们的工作生活。调查结果强调了通过技术维持社交互动的困难，例如缺乏线索和情商，并强调了许多其他因素，例如工作不确定性，增加的工作量和大量使用影响他们工作生活的技术。该研究还强调，尽管与在家工作有关的负面经历，但一些参与者担心回到传统的办公场所工作，社交互动实际上可能会被认为是一种分心。我们研究的主要贡献是强调，对于在家工作时通过增加使用数字媒体而改变工作方式的各种看法和感受是存在的，并且组织需要意识到这些差异，以便可以在一种情境化的方式，从而提高在家工作的效率和效果。一些参与者担心回到传统的办公场所工作，在那里社交互动实际上可能会让人分心。我们研究的主要贡献是强调，对于在家工作时通过增加使用数字媒体而改变工作方式的各种看法和感受是存在的，并且组织需要意识到这些差异，以便可以在一种情境化的方式，从而提高在家工作的效率和效果。一些参与者担心回到传统的办公场所工作，在那里社交互动实际上可能会让人分心。我们研究的主要贡献是强调，对于在家工作时通过增加使用数字媒体而改变工作方式的各种看法和感受是存在的，并且组织需要意识到这些差异，以便可以在一种情境化的方式，从而提高在家工作的效率和效果。