Our emotional response to work

I was scrolling through Twitter earlier this week and saw a post from Francesca Brown (Copywriter and curator of Stylist Magazine’s ‘Style List”). She asked how people were feeling at the moment and I thought the responses were really interesting.

People talked about oscillating between being ‘naively optimistic’ to ‘truly hopeless’, from ‘existential dread’ to ‘unfathomable optimism’ and from ‘relieved’ to ‘restless’. I also polled 400 people in our Instagram community about how they were feeling and saw a similar mixture of feelings.

It got me thinking about the impact of this emotional flux on our work and working relationships with each other.

What’s happening with our productivity

Covid’s impact on our working patterns means that we are working longer hours with “job demands filling spaces previously reserved for personal downtime”. Interesting data from Microsoft shows that the lunch break is more elusive than ever.

However, more hours doesn’t seem to equate to more work with 4 in 10 people feeling less productive since Covid impacted our ways of working (and living).

2 things to support your productivity during this time:

• Schedule ‘time out’ in your day – use the Time Out App if you need a prompt
• Write ToDo ToDay Lists – limit the number of things on your to do list to what is feasible today! Personally, I’ve dumped the tech (sorry ToDoist) and gone retro with a written to-do list to boost the ‘to do = done’ feeling of crossing through actions!

What’s happening with our emotional health

Loneliness, anxiety and disconnection are having a significant impact on our emotional wellbeing. 3 times as many people report feeling symptoms of depression and anxiety during Covid vs. the same period last year. Michelle Obama reflected the experiences of many when she said "I'm waking up in the middle of the night because I'm worrying about something or there's a heaviness" (Michelle Obama Podcast) 

When people feel emotions there is often an urge to express them with others, to seek further information, make sense of those emotions and form a common reaction (useful article here on collective emotion). As a result of ‘emotional contagion’ these emotions can be transferred and worry and anxiety can effectively be ‘caught’. It's not all bad though, collective emotions can spark collective action. There have been many positive examples of this over the last 6 months – rainbows in windows, BLM movement, clap for carers.

As well as supporting people through the challenging affects of emotional flux (see ideas below) there is also an opportunity within teams to recognise shared emotions and come together for collective action.

2 things to support your emotional health during this time:

• Develop a Wellness Action Plan and talk about it with someone you trust (great resources at Mind to support this)
• Increase self-reflection and self-support. The Youper app is a great tool

What’s happening with our relationships

The Kingsfund, a charity focused on improving health and care in the UK, says that “Covid-19 has changed the balance of power in many teams... [with some people] left feeling frustrated, undermined, voiceless and side-lined.” Some people are thriving in the current environment and some people find themselves in survival mode, with personal and professional pressure mounting up.

Our work friendships are a vital source of meaning and belonging at work. However, informal conversations now require more planning and different personal circumstances (parent vs. non-parent, furlough vs. non-furlough etc…) all contribute to emotional and physical distance that may not have existed before.

Maintaining our work relationships is as important as ever, but requires a different approach in our current context.

2 things to support your working relationships during this time:

• Use the Donut app to schedule 'serendipitous' coffee conversations
• Be generous with your time. Share your ideas, information and opportunities without an expectation of reciprocity. Be a mentor and proactive sponsor people and their work to increase the visibility and impact of their efforts.

A final recommendation on the topics of emotions at work is to listen to a podcast we recorded with Mollie West Duffy, co-author of 'No More Hard Feelings':

Hope you’ve found this an interesting read. Please do share/tag anyone who you think would benefit from the insights.

Helen