No one trains for a triple ironman

“We’re living through something that started as a sprint, progressed to a marathon, and is now a triple ironman, ” is how one of our coaches recently described the pandemic. The problem is, none of us trained for a triple ironman. 

Given that description, it’s no surprise that lately people are talking a lot about ‘pandemic fatigue.’ The fatigue is real in every sense of the word. We are physically, mentally, and emotionally drained. 

One way that fatigue is starting to show is exasperation with our coworkers and teams (let alone our families). We’ve had several members share that lately they’re worried that their coworkers are growing weary of kid related interrupts. Patience is running thin and tensions are rising. It’s understandable on both sides. A lot of my calls are interrupted by my kids. There’s genuinely not much I can do about it. I also imagine it’s irritating for the person on the other line to have to continually repeat themselves or to “hang on just a minute while I….” (make a bottle, pick up a crying kid, change a diaper, you name it). We’re all tired of this situation, but unfortunately the circumstances haven’t changed for most of us. So what are we supposed to do when there is little we can change but our teams are being impacted by the current set-up?  As one member asked, “What’s next when nothing is new?” 

I’ve been thinking about that question a lot. The sheer mental strain and unfathomable exhaustion of this triple ironman are taking their toll on each of us, but also on our colleagues. We need something to break the tension. A year of virtually being in each other's homes while working has created some difficult dynamics. It will take time to adjust and correct that and it starts by investing in our team as people, not employees. 

This week, we asked employees at more than a dozen companies “What’s the first work related thing you want to do when you have the vaccine?” The most common reply by a landslide? Go to a team meal together. Lunch, happy hour, dinner - some even said breakfast. The response was overwhelmingly clear, people are hungry for connection with their peers outside of the office. The trouble is, our homes are our offices and we can’t meet up. 

In the beginning of the pandemic, companies got creative about how to keep morale up. We were focused on team building and bonding activities. As we’ve moved into “pandemic business as usual,” companies have shifted into maintenance mode - how can we give people what they need to sustain their current situation. Along the way we lost sight of the morale piece of the puzzle. It’s going to be a while before we’re breaking bread with our coworkers again, so in the interim, when was the last time you tried a virtual lunch or happy hour with your team? It’s incredibly easy and inexpensive. You can even make it family friendly. Send pizza to everyone and invite them to bring family into the call, or to enjoy a beer with it. Remember when your boss would take you out to a holiday lunch? It would be a few hours. No one would talk about work. It would be awkward at first, but people would eventually loosen up. Channel that energy into the virtual lunch. You might be thinking, “the last thing I want to do right now is spend more time on Zoom with my coworkers.” I feel you, I really do. But I also bet there were times you thought, “the last thing I want to do is go to this company happy hour,” and in the end you had an OK time. I guarantee your team will benefit from the time together. It’s a time when interruptions don’t matter, when you can find out what your cooking obsessed coworker has been making and what your fitness fanatic team member is doing for online workouts. It’ll ease the tension on the next call and build a stronger team, one more willing to give each other the continued grace we all so desperately need. 

We’re in the middle of this triple ironman, and we’ve got no option but to finish. So you have two choices, grit your teeth and muscle through on your own in pure survival mode, or try to find strength and support from your team along the way.