The last nine weeks have been a challenging time of uncertainty, isolation and anxiety. We have all had to adjust to new ways of living and working without knowing when this will all end and what life post-coronavirus will look like.

For a lot of people, this means now working from home. This brings a different set of challenges, and we were curious about how people have experienced this situation and keen to understand how to best shape our coaching and support to help. A couple of weeks ago we asked people to tell us about their experience of working at home during the pandemic.

What we found most interesting in the responses was that people were not overly challenged by technology or the logistics of working from home. What they did find particularly challenging were the more emotional aspects. We asked what respondents found to be the top 3 biggest challenges in working from home. Just 9% included poor internet connectivity as a problem. The top challenges were:
1: general anxiety about the impact of coronavirus on my life (54% mentioned this)
2: difficulties communicating with co-workers (45%)
=3: social isolation (36%)
=3: being motivated to keep a regular schedule (36%)

Others included:

• too many distractions at home

• childcare

• fear of the return to work

Interestingly, despite these being listed as common challenges, 91% of people considered that they could continue comfortably working from home with their current arrangements for three months or more. Given that the most commonly given concerns were job security, redundancy and the return to work, this is a curious finding. One possible interpretation is that the current lockdown situation has created a sense of psychological safety for people which might, for some, postpone having to confront the reality of the post-coronavirus world. This is an area we'll be looking at further.

These have been fascinating insights for us to consider as we continue to develop our programmes to support people in the workplace. Specifically, we have shaped a new resilience programme to incorporate these findings, which we are particularly excited about. The new programme will help people find strategies to bolster social connection, develop their realistic optimism responses and manage effective transitions to the world, post-coronavirus.
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You can see the results of our survey here.

​Managing Change provide specialist coaching and development programmes in resilience and well-being throughout the UK. For more information about how we can help you support your people, do get in touch - e: enquiries@managingchange.org.uk or call us.

​If you would like to take part in the ongoing survey series or wish to share it, the link is here. And we're always interested in your experiences, so please do leave your comments below.