Employees Feeling Fatigued?
No matter a company's environment, whether it be virtual or hybrid or all in the office one thing organizations need to do is to look at time allocation. Time allocation is to look at the virtual and the hybrid world and look at the time savings of not having to drive into the office or to have uninterrupted meetings walking down the hall and having idle chit chat, even though people are missing those type of things.
When we talk about just simple work production, I was talking to a client the other day, who was talking about their hybrid world, and we did some math together. What we discovered is people typically saved about six hours per week, not coming into the office via not having to travel or park their car or walk from the parking lot, or what have you. What was interesting is this came out to about 20 to 24 hours, monthly per employee. My client kept telling me how fatigued and exhausted people were and I do believe people feel that way. I am not discounting how people are feeling yet, I am wondering if we need to draw attention to the fact that people need to reinvest that time? I asked her, how are people reinvesting that time saving? She looked absolutely stunned. She said, what do you mean? I said, well, if people do not have to drive into the office, what are they doing with that time? She responded putting their kids on the bus or getting their kids ready for school or things like that. I said, but they are already doing that. She said, you know what you are right. We started to think about different things that we could do with that time. Some of the things that we found that we could encourage our employees to do were the following:
What was amazing to the two of us is that there is very little education has been done on how to reinvest that time. Believe me, people are truly fatigued and just simply exhausted from this whole thing. With that being said, we must encourage people and remind people there has been a true hard time savings and reinvestment of that time can be extremely valuable.
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She and I kept producing more and more ideas. I thought what a healthy thing for organizations to do, not just to simply remind people, but even to organize activities such as virtual coffee breaks or people even physically meeting in coffee shops, facilitating people reconnecting with people yet using the time savings. One of my clients said at the start of the pandemic, they absolutely hated working at home. Two years later, he told me he absolutely loves it because he sees the savings in gas and car expenses along with the time savings. And I remember albeit two years ago, I said, what else do you do with that time? He uses it strategically every day and hates the thought of going back to an all-in person at the office environment. He said I have never been more productive yet miss seeing my co-workers. What a great lesson!
Time is obviously valuable and its precious yet if we are in this new virtual or hybrid world and we simply sit and we talk and we think and collaborate with other people on how fatigued we are, we are going to feel fatigued. We must fuel our brains positively and reinvest that time and provide activities and outlets for our employees to do things that are creative and fun.
Checkout Our Podcast Episode on Fatigue: https://www.buzzsprout.com/705024/10197084
Training and Development | Training Specialist | Curriculum Development | Public Speaker | Facilitation | Career Counselor | Inspiring people to discover and leverage their "PIE"! Do you want PIE?
2 年I think this falls in line with a larger conversation about how we use our time, whether working from home or in the office. Studies have proven that small breaks from work actually make us more productive and creative, so we should be practicing these in both work settings. To each their own. When I work from home, I love that I have a full kitchen to make myself a better breakfast (although I try to meal prep healthy breakfast for in-office days too), I take breaks to love on the 4-legged cutie who lays on the couch and snores most of the day (she's 12 and she's a bullador), I have met coworkers who live near me for lunch. When I am at the office, I take breaks to talk with my colleagues that are in the office (I am big on relationships) and I go to our free gym and get in some killer workouts. All of these things help with my productivity and my mental well-being!
Lockheed Martin Aerospace
2 年I love this, so true. There is no right time like the present. If we have the privilege to save time, we have to prioritize, and our health can decline when too much time is spent sitting at a computer or watching our social media. Beautiful valuable context. Well done!
Helping people do the best work of their lives ?? | Follow for ideas on Leadership, Culture, Engagement and Performance | Employee Experience & Talent Development | Growth Mindset | Mentor
2 年This concept of reinvesting time reminds me of the book "Dealing with Darwin" by Geoffrey Moore. In it, he poses the idea of a company (or a person) investing in "core" or "context." Whenever we have new resources at our disposal (like a raise in pay or available time from no commute) we have a choice of where to invest the resource. We can point it toward the "core" - the activities that are associated with the unique value we provide, or "context" - all of the junk that fills up the space, much of it necessary, but little of it truly valuable. Personally, I gained 3 hours per day by eliminating my commute. In the morning, that time has been absorbed by my context, but it's deliberate. I'm performing contextual activities that allow other members of my family focus on their core. In the afternoon, that's my personal core investment. I've doubled my personal reading - 39 books in 2020, 67 books in 2021, and I wrote a novel. That's not a brag. I'm just pointing out what deliberate choices in our investment of time accomplished for me, personally.
Organisational Development, Leadership, Career Coaching, Recognise Staff Potential
2 年This is so true. The amount of time saved from driving, making lunches and what other things people have to do to get out the door. Working from home for many, not all, releases stress and tension. Thanks Tim for making that point.
Organizational and Business development consultant who ROCKS THE HOUSE!!
2 年Remedies to fatigue are available from a host of different perspectives. Dr Gundry focuses on Leaky Gut and the body aches and fatigue you get from this condition, while Dr. Oz had a program that focused on heathy eating and sleep deprivation. As we get older, we need to investigate the onset of fatigue and body aches and pains. Osteoarthritis is a condition that effects many of us and this influences the need to replace joints and look to improving functionality. The Answer is in preventative health planning. The interventions might need to be multi-delivery because one is not enough to address all of the symptoms or conditions. Re-energizing yourself and your employee's is work in progress and that is what makes it work the best. We can all improve our health, well-being, productivity by developing a personal improvement plan and going after the objectives. Our health is a work in progress so is our productivity at work.