Working From Home Can Be Fun and Productive—When You Do It Right

When the pandemic hit, I thought remote work would simply mean “same job, different location.” I was wrong. Overnight, my team’s days filled with back-to-back video calls, blurred boundaries between work and home, and a creeping sense of burnout. Even the most motivated team members were running on fumes.

It wasn’t until I changed my leadership approach—becoming more empathetic, more flexible, and smarter about how we used our tools—that everything shifted. We not only got our productivity back, but we also found ways to make working from home genuinely enjoyable. In this post, I share what went wrong, what I changed, and how those changes can help any leader make remote work thrive.

Problem: The Turning Point

The shift to fully remote work during the pandemic was abrupt. Our team’s constant in-person collaboration was replaced with endless online meetings, and the lack of spontaneous hallway conversations slowly drained our social connection.

We were juggling deadlines with family responsibilities, operating in firefighting mode, and watching work-life balance slip away. The stress was real—burnout was lurking around the corner. I knew if we didn’t act quickly, our performance and morale would take a lasting hit.

Actions taken: The Shift in Approach

First, I became more empathetic. Everyone’s home life was different—some had kids at home, others were caring for relatives, and others were dealing with isolation. I made time to listen and understand what each person was facing.

Next, I became more flexible with deadlines. I realized that rigid timelines, even for small tasks, were a major stressor. Instead of pushing the team into constant urgency, we built a longer-term roadmap, broke work into realistic chunks, and adjusted priorities so everything fit into achievable timelines.

I also tackled our tool overload. Too many video calls were draining energy, so we swapped daily standups for asynchronous updates in chat. Only essential attendees joined critical meetings, and we reworked retrospectives to combine ongoing surveys with focused, shorter discussions. This cut meeting time in half while keeping collaboration strong.

Finally, I brought back the social element. We replaced one of our daily standups with optional coffee chats—no work talk allowed. People shared pet stories, introduced kids, or showed off baking creations. These informal moments rebuilt the camaraderie we’d been missing and gave everyone something light to look forward to.

Lessons for Leaders

• Trust is a productivity booster—give people autonomy, and they’ll rise to the occasion.
• Understand what drives each person—when you know their triggers and strengths, communication flows better.
• Don’t pass your stress downstream—protect your team’s mental space and promote mindfulness instead.

The Bottom Line

Working from home doesn’t have to mean burnout and isolation. With empathy, flexibility, and intentional team connection, remote work can be both highly productive and surprisingly fun.