A Leader Who Cares
Many of us have been working at home for almost a year with no end in sight. We were suddenly expected to juggle work with childcare, personal relationships, household chores, and other family demands. Our home became our place of work. Dining tables became desks, sofas became office chairs, and we struggled to carve up space in our home for others to work or attend virtual classes. However, the most significant challenges we face are related to the blurred lines between work and personal life. A recent survey (Routley, 2020) found that the biggest challenges of working at home are:
Inability to unplug from work during non-work hours
Difficulties in collaborating/communicating with team members
Lack of motivation
In an earlier blog, I provided ideas on reducing the stress and fatigue associated with working at home. If you are interested in reading that blog, click here. The purpose of this blog is to provide thoughts on what you can do as a manager of employees who primarily work remotely.
As a manager, it is critical to actively engage in practices designed to help employees effectively deal with working at home. Indeed, productivity is essential. However, the primary goal during crises should be to maintain productivity while concurrently protecting employees' mental health and wellbeing (American Psychiatric Association, n.d.; Giurge & Bohns, 2020; Van Buggenhout et al., 2020). Employee burnout is a long-term risk that employers need to be concerned about (Giurge & Bohns, 2020). Numerous studies point to the fact that employee wellbeing is beneficial to both staff and employers alike. That's because it enhances organizational performance through higher employee engagement, decreased health costs, reduced absenteeism, and reduced turnover (Danna & Griffin, 1999).
As I described in a previous blog, mindfulness practices may help employees disconnect from work, improve their attention to work tasks, and better manage stress. However, as managers and supervisors, you play a role in helping your employees and team members navigate this challenging environment. Here are just a few ideas for you to consider:
Help your employees prioritize their work. This will help them use their most productive hours on the most critical tasks. Also, this will reinforce the need to schedule time for breaks and to unplug at the end of the day.
Educate your team on how mindfulness practices can help. There are many ways to do this. One is to begin the meeting with a 2-3-minute practice that allows the team to engage in a practice that will bring them together and remind them of their shared humanity. If you aren't comfortable doing this, find a resource that you can use either in the form of an audio or video practice, or ask someone on your team to lead this practice. Third, share what works for you. When you share your challenges and what you do to address them, it tells the team that it is ok for them to do the same.
Schedule one-on-one time with each member of your team. Make this a time to discuss work projects as well as a safe place for team members to share their concerns. This isn't meant to be a counseling session but one where you seek to understand the challenges and then explore ways to deal with them.
Lead by example. If possible, do not send emails, texts, or phone calls outside of regular business hours. If this is too difficult because of time zone differences, set the expectations for responding.
Avoid scheduling back-to-back virtual meetings. If possible, reserve one day with no virtual meetings. This provides the team time to clean up tasks and prepare for the next round of meetings. You may also make it acceptable for team members to join by phone to get a break from face-to-face interactions. This may be especially appreciated by team members that are joining from different time zones and may not be “camera ready” very early in the morning.
This pandemic came at a unique time in human history. If this had happened even 20 years ago, many organizations would not have been able to operate at all. Just think, two decades ago, in-home Wi-Fi was not a reality, much less the abundance of virtual meeting technologies.
We are all learning how to deal with our new environment's challenges, which will not end when we emerge from our current reality. Now might be the time to emerge as the leader known for getting results by taking care of his/her employees' wellbeing. Below I've included one of our practices from Mindful Moments for leaders that might give you an idea of the type of things you can do to jumpstart one of your virtual meetings.
References
American Psychiatric Association. (n.d.). Working remotely during COVID-19: Your mental health and well-being. Available at http://workplacementalhealth.org/Employer-Resources/Working-Remotely-During-COVID-19
Danna, K., & Griffin, R. W. (1999). Health and well-being in the workplace: A review and synthesis of the literature. Journal of Management, 25(3), 357e384.
Giurge, L. M., & Bohns, V. K. (2020, April 3). 3 tips to avoid WFH burnout. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2020/04/3-tips-to-avoid-wfh-burnout
Routley, N. (2020, June 3). 6 charts that show what employers and employees really think about remote working. World Economic Forum. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/06/coronavirus-covid19-remote-working-office-employees-employers