In, Out, In, Out...

Oh me! The online experience has been a whole new way of working… at least for some of us!

Here’s another O word that has taken centre stage for me this year.

Traditionally many of us have followed the cultural norm: left school, gone to Uni, gone out in the corporate world and worked in an office environment.

We have… GONE to work!

There was a whole wee world that constituted our work environment.

It required that we show up appropriately dressed for work which, depending on your role, was likely a suit or at least smart attire. Shoes on, hair (and for some of us) make up – we looked the part!

We put on that persona for work, which, let’s face it is maybe very different from the one who shows up at home!

The commute was our transition time!

Time to let go of the domestic to do list: shopping lists, events to put on the calendar, birthdays to remember, maybe children’s appointments/school events etc.

Shift gears…

Now it’s work time!

Mr/Ms Professional with my work head on!

… And then COVID hit!

No more commuting!

Working from home! Remote working!

Something many had been requesting from their bosses for ages, unsuccessfully…

For some, this was an anxious time.

How would I manage to adjust to not GOING to work?

This is where I met with colleagues and had a social circle here – coffee breaks were part of what kept me going!

For the extroverts, this really hit hard!

There was a shift in mindset required. I’m out of routine!

Now I’m not GOING to work…

Is there the same need to get dressed up for work?

How does this software work for meetings?

What about managing my hours if I’m not physically in the building?

So many questions as we came off Auto-Pilot and had to consider things we… well just did! Without thinking about it!!

Then there was the “Zoom Etiquette” to learn…

Online meetings required an understanding that everything you did was seen by the group and likely recorded too!

If your phone rang and you turned away to answer it when you were in a meeting, even when muted, it was clear you were not present to the meeting! Uh-Oh!

If you turned up in track pants… well, as long as the top half was professional you could maybe get away with it, as long as you didn’t have to get up!!!

However, part of the ritual of getting dressed for work is that you put yourself in the mental space for work too, which unless you are a personal trainer, I would argue track pants are not de rigueur!! It really DOES make a difference to how you show up mentally, just as your posture affects your mood/confidence, so your clothes affect your mental space.

We then learned that “Zoom fatigue” was real!

Studies have shown that we tire more easily sitting in front of a screen. When we are faced with a gallery view it is even worse.

You see, we are hard wired for novelty so any movement in one of the “squares”, however subtle, would alert us to that box.

Imagine being on a call with a team of 20+ for an hour…

The opportunity for novelty is IMMENSE so our eyes are darting around the screen constantly and, not surprisingly, we get tired so much quicker!

Which leads me on to the whole “managing my time” situation!

Right enough, I am not wasting time and energy commuting. √

So, I can come and go from my desk as I please, have morning tea, lunch, bathroom breaks whenever I like with no one looking over my shoulder! √

For some, this was really hard to manage their time in a productive way, that also allowed for home schooling in the early days of lockdown, or sharing space with a spouse who was also working from home.

New circumstances called for new thinking!

And yet we did it!

Just about adjusted and then were told to come back to the office…

… except on alternate days or in different configurations to allow for social distancing!

We ended up doing the hokey cokey/pokey (depending on where you’re reading this! ??)

So, at the end of a year where we started off business as usual…

We knew what we were doing!

No sweat…

I want to honour you for your flexibility of navigating the online-office hokey cokey, for setting up virtual teams and the learning re the new social rules around that.

What will 2021 bring?

I, for one, am not going to assume ANYTHING!! ??