The new normal about working from home is not normal

​For months now, talk about the “new normal” of life under lockdown and, more recently, semi-lockdown, has become commonplace. Whereas back in the spring and early summer attention was focused on employee well-being and the need to build resilience for those working from home, now the focus has switched to “getting back to the office”. While this is reasonable and desirable, in the process many companies now assume that with the “new normal” everyone has settled down and adjusted to this new way of working. This is no doubt fostered by the apparent reluctance of many people to get back to the office. Based upon our experiences with clients, this assumption is wrong and may lead to problems.

​In coaching sessions with clients at all seniority levels, we see a picture of people working with greatly increased workloads (managing projects and people remotely involves more work) in sub-optimal conditions. While many of us have enjoyed the advantages of a nice home office, not having to travel, as well as nice weather, many have not.

​These conditions may not apply to you but they may be the reality for your colleagues: Take a moment to think of those who don’t have a spare room they can convert to an office or those working at home with a partner who also needs workspace. Throw in children who have been home schooled (or if younger, needed to be cared for and occupied while you work). Think of the broadband challenges presented with a family all trying to use the internet at the same time. Think of these challenges day in and day out. For five months.

​One of our clients has been working at home on his sofa with his laptop placed on the coffee table – he doesn’t have a kitchen or dining table or space to put one. After 5 months working long days in this position he now has back and neck problems. Another client has been sharing her kitchen table with her teenage children who have been home schooling while she works. She ends most days exhausted and with a headache.

People are now at a really low ebb. This is not normal.

​Sharing home space with partners who are also working from home has put a number of relationships under pressure – throwing in childcare challenges, has simply exacerbated them. A rise in family breakdown and domestic violence is real. The summer is behind us, we’re told there may be a second lockdown, and many people face the real prospect of job losses. People are now at a really low ebb. This is not normal.

​So, what can we do to help ourselves and our teams? Firstly, as team managers or HR professionals, we should recognise that many who may be struggling in this way will not share this information or ask for help. (At the same time we should recognise that many people won’t need help). So, ensuring a response that can be targeted to those who may be in need of support or at risk, enables more agile and cost-effective action. Depending upon the structures and culture in your organisation, support needs might be identified via surveys (see the Health and Safety Executive surveys or get in touch with us for examples) or through team managers in their one-to-one meetings with team members. It is important to be aware of overreach or intrusiveness, so keeping this in mind it can be helpful to guide managers to seek to understand the employee’s specific situation. Where the manager has concerns, asking specific, concrete questions is most effective, for example “what are you most concerned/stressed about with work at the moment?” or “how are you coping with project x/working from home/returning to work?”. Support should be offered but not insisted upon.

​Providing targeted support with resilience programmes is a proven, effective response. For maximum impact, programmes which have a practical approach and refer to each person’s personal experiences at work are known to be most effective. Compared with all kinds of resilience training programmes, coached programmes, which allow time to deepen and embed new learning, are found to be around 3x more effective than standard training programmes at building lasting resilience.

Finally, building and maintaining our own resilience is important too. Whilst it is not healthy or desirable to become self-obsessed it is important that we don’t ignore our own well-being. The PERMA model, a key component of positive psychology, provides a nice framework for building optimism and resilience:
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P – positive emotions (fostering positive emotions such as cheerfulness)
E – engagement (spending time in activities in which we ‘lose’ ourselves – a state of flow)
R – relationships (connecting with other people)
M – meaning (connecting to a purpose greater than yourself)
A – achievement (mastering a skill, accomplishing things)

What could you do to enhance or develop one or more of these PERMA items in your life?

​For details on our resilience coaching and development programmes do get in touch - email enquiries@managingchange.org.uk or call us on 01223 655667.