---
title: "Working from home… but where is everybody? | Clara Solà Niubó"
description: "Remote work gives you freedom, but when you have just moved to Barcelona it can quietly remove the unplanned encounters that build a social life."
source: https://therapyinenglish.barcelona/reflections/working-from-home/
---

# Working from home… but where is everybody?

1 June 2026  Clara Solà Niubó

![Someone working alone on a laptop at a desk by a window at home](/uploads/reflections-working-from-home-desk.jpg)

Working from home makes life easier in many ways.

No commute. More flexibility. Fewer interruptions. The possibility of organising your day with greater freedom.

For many people, it has been a real improvement.

But if you have recently moved to Barcelona, some of its downsides may carry more weight.

At first, this may not seem like a problem. Your days are full. You attend meetings, answer messages and speak to colleagues, perhaps in several different countries. You are in contact with people all day.

But being in contact is not quite the same as having company.

Online communication is mostly purposeful. You speak because there is a task to complete, a decision to make or a problem to solve. Then the meeting ends, the camera goes off and you are alone again.

What is missing are the unplanned moments around work: a conversation while making coffee, having lunch together, hearing about something happening at the weekend or arranging to go for a drink after work.

These encounters can seem unimportant, but relationships are often built precisely in this way: through repetition, familiarity and small moments that are not arranged in advance.

When you work from home, most of them simply do not happen. And this matters particularly when the rest of your social life is still under construction.

Someone who has lived in the same place for years may already have family, old friends, neighbours and familiar routines outside work. Their home may be quiet during the day, but it exists within an established network. Much like the network you probably had back home—a network that is no longer close at hand.

Your friends back home may still care deeply about you, but they no longer share the ordinary details of your week. Meanwhile, the relationships you are forming here are still new. They require time, planning and initiative.

> “Working alone all day can mean that every social encounter has to be deliberately organised. You need to put yourself out there…”

Working alone all day can mean that every social encounter has to be deliberately organised. You need to put yourself out there, join that group, enrol in a class, send the message, suggest meeting and leave the house.

And after eight hours in front of a screen, you may not have much energy left to do any of it. So the isolation that makes connection more necessary may also make it harder to pursue.

It is worth becoming aware of what remote work does not provide automatically, especially when you are living abroad.

A coworking space once or twice a week. Working regularly from the same café. Attending a class where people begin to recognise you. Having lunch with someone instead of eating at your desk. These small routines can give your week a social shape.

Not every encounter needs to become a friendship. Belonging also develops through being seen, becoming familiar and feeling that you participate in the life around you.

Working from home does give you freedom. But when you are new somewhere, it can leave the work of building a life outside work entirely in your hands.