Listening to staff, returning to a ‘new normal’

It’s being touted as ‘Zoom fatigue’ – back–to–back ‘in your face’ video meetings.

We’re all feeling the flipside of work–from–home novelty and flexibility, including lack of ‘people’ contact, missing those incidental office kitchen chats and the stimulation of being collectively energised towards a shared goal.

I introduced ‘no–meeting Wednesday’ to combat this feeling in my staff, a sense that they might be feeling overwhelmed by too many video meetings, combined with ‘Corona’ coverage inducing anxiety and uncertainty.

I’m finding we’re all more productive on Wednesdays now.

Shaking up work environments has also meant parents have been forced to juggle home schooling while doing their own jobs. Others may be dealing with the physical effects of too much working from the couch or kitchen bench.

In many ways, #WFH is taking its toll on people around the globe.

The Harvard Business Review discusses the need for businesses not to be concerned about productivity but instead, about the longer–term risk of employee burnout.

“The lines between work and non-work are blurring in new and unusual ways, and many employees who are working remotely for the first time are likely to struggle to preserve healthy boundaries between their professional and personal lives,” they say.

These blurring of boundaries include habits like checking emails and feeling the need to respond at all hours of the day or night, or working on weekends. As a CEO of three demanding companies, I’m familiar with these risks myself!

I guess this just reinforces the mental and physical health skills/behaviours I’ve learned over the past two decades. We need to take care of ourselves and compartmentalise some aspects of our lives.

While tech giants may be considering keeping their staff WFH for the rest of 2020, we are slowly planning a voluntary, flexible reintegration of staff back to the office.

My approach is to genuinely listen to staff about their preferences. I issued a whole–staff survey last week focusing on concerns and choices when it comes to returning to their usual work location.

Regional staff are better placed in many ways, as one of the major logistical aspects for the Sydney CBD head office is how staff can get to work – with public transport disruptions due to social distancing measures – and how they can access our office, with drastically reduced lifts capacity. We calculated a one–hour wait per person!

One bonus of the Covid–19 repercussions is that the cost of car parking in the CBD has nose–dived – but even this will have a flow–on effect of a return to road congestion in time.

I took heart from Associate Professor at the Macquarie Business School and member of the Centre for Workforce Futures, Dr Yvette Blount, who commented in this article that we need face-to-face interaction. “The only way you develop relationships and solve complex problems is if you're in a face-to-face situation – and technology just can't recreate that,” she said.

I’m looking forward to slowly bringing staff back to their offices. To lead by example, I’m making myself available in the Sydney office for two days a week. My business is built on being agile and staying informed.

Above all, I’m committed to genuinely listening to my staff and valuing their opinions, no matter what their position.

What are some of the ways you’re dealing with the #WFH or ‘return to the workplace’ question? I’d love to see your ideas in the comments. Remember, #togetherwecan.

Marcella.