We know that the one of the biggest challenges for remote workers is social isolation. That’s why we believe in connecting them at the local level through social events. By building local communities of remote employees, we can grow the remote ecosystem in Ireland – joining the dots in towns and villages between companies hiring remotely – at the same time as strengthening the social and economic ties that brings communities together. When remote workers meet locally in local cafés, restaurants, pubs, sports centres or kayaking agencies, they support local business while getting to know each other; they discover the things they share, they grow closer together and inevitably become less socially isolated.
It sounds simple but it’s the stuff of community-buildling and takes planning, time and energy. Our local leaders are out there on the front lines every week trying to connect local remote employees and we are so grateful for their efforts!
For the first time ever, Grow Remote hosted a group of local leaders for an overnight retreat. On 25th October, we went to the impressive Cloughjordan House in Tipperary. The purpose of the gathering was to take stock of the successes and challenges of being a leader in your local community and to build relationships that will support each other’s community work locally.
In all, 14 chapters were represented in Offaly, Clare, Cork, Longford, Waterford, Limerick, Kilkenny, Dublin, Laois, Tipperary, Mayo and Wexford.
On the first day, we got to know other through games and speed-chats and we created vision boards for our chapters. On Day 2, we co-created resources that will be extremely useful for all chapters across our community moving forward.
Although we spent just 24 hours together, we all feel so much closer to Grow Remote’s mission and our role within it and the impact of these strengthened relationships can already be seen in our Local Leaders Whatsapp group!
Some highlights included Daniel (Laois) serenading us on guitar, Sean (Limerick) delivering a morning Tai Chi class, and all of us devouring the amazing food at Cloughjordan House!
“I thoroughly enjoyed every minute. What a fantastic group of people to spend two days with. It was an inspiring experience, and I just wish we had more time together.” – Anna (Cork)
