Returning to "Normal Work"

After two years of an unprecedented global COVID-19 pandemic, many people are returning to work after either exclusively working remotely or finding themselves balancing a hybrid work style. As some employers ask employees to head back to work in person, there’s a looming feeling of re-entry anxiety and stress.

Having spent the last two years in isolation from coworkers, it’s understandable that people have anticipatory social anxiety about being around people they haven’t seen in a while or people they have never met. Like a college kid returning to their hometown after being away at school, or an astronaut returning to Earth, it takes some time to re-adjust to the life they knew before and the person they aren’t anymore.?

A 2021 study from?McKinsey?found that one-third of respondents noted that the return to work – or even the anticipation of returning to work – negatively impacted their mental health. Additionally, safety and flexibility were employees' top two concerns about returning.

It’s no secret that there’s still a stigma around mental health in the workplace, which only exacerbates employees' hesitancies to seek help or advocate for their needs. For companies to succeed in return to work, they need to show their employees that they care about their holistic well-being by initiating the conversation around preferred work arrangements. Additionally, employers need to offer hybrid or remote work options for people who aren’t ready or simply don’t want to transition back to in-person work. If the job requires that a person is available in person and at set hours then that needs to be made explicitly clear up front so the prospective employee can make an informed decision.

Like an astronaut returning to Earth, the feeling of going back to work post-pandemic can be very disorienting. Reports have shown that when an astronaut returns to Earth they can continue to feel like they’re floating. They will experience vertigo, vision changes, and dizziness for up to several weeks after they return. They know they’re home, but their body hasn’t recalibrated to life with gravity again. It's no wonder we felt anxious the first time we ventured back out into the public post-quarantine.

We adapted to not having to leave the house, not getting up early to drive to work every day, being able to do house chores in between work hours, and sharing our house with kids, spouses, or dogs. Shifting back to the work routines we once knew is going to take time to readjust to should we choose to.

Let’s also discuss the essential workers who haven’t had a break in the last two-three years with the constant surges of work, and who are now adjusting to some semblance of workload regularity. The return to a steady or slower pace of work can be just as jarring for frontline workers after being on work autopilot since 2020. Before March 2020, we took for granted, first responders, postal and restaurant workers, etc. because the positions weren’t as glamorous or well-paid. However, these are the very people who provided us with critical services when we needed them most. They often put their health, and families at risk to ensure the safety of others.

Outside of the health risks, the most anxiety-producing thing about COVID-19 is that it fundamentally transformed work as we knew it. The gig economy was already booming, and arguable our collective conscious knew traditional corporate work wasn’t working, but the pandemic left us with no choice but to see that so much of the work we were doing, and the way we were engaging in work was “non-essential.”

Organizations and employees that are planning to return to work need to recognize that they’re not going back to “normal” and that we can’t return to the ways things were before the COVID-19 pandemic. Organizations can no longer claim that work can’t ever stop when it did for quarantine. Organizations can no longer claim that work can’t be done virtually after allowing employees to work from home during the height of the pandemic.We can’t go back to the way work was. Too much has happened, we know too much; gravity no longer exists. We have to move forward and use what we know to adapt to new ways of working. Some of us will still try to go back to normal, but if we're honest with ourselves, these last few years have asked us some fundamental questions about what we value and how we prioritize our time.?

Determining what personal and communal values are most important to us, and how well they align with our work lives can impact our overall health either positively or negatively. When our values aren’t in alignment with our actions we experience cognitive dissonance. Cognitive dissonance is the “psychological conflict resulting from simultaneously held incongruous beliefs and attitudes” (verywellmind.com). Cognitive dissonance can lead to persistent discomfort, stress, and, anxiety. Forced complaint behavior, or being forced to perform an action that is inconsistent with your beliefs is one of the main causes of cognitive dissonance (emedicinehealth.com). There’s power in prioritizing your own needs, just because the workplace is labeled a professional environment, doesn’t mean that you have to compromise your values or health for the sake of your job.

More than ever before, COVID asked us to consider what work was really important? On any given day during the height of the pandemic, our fundamental values were stacked against each other and we were asked “What’s more important?.” A paycheck or my quality of life? Health or lifestyle? Quarantine or community? Personal health or public service? For many of us, these questions are still lingering unanswered. And as we return to work, the question becomes will we try to return to the comfort of what we knew before? Or will we let ourselves be changed by our collective experience, and re-align our values to a new compass. Perhaps this is the reason for the Great Resignation; people are resigning from the belief that they have to compromise their values or their well-being to do their job.

There is no doubt that the pandemic has and continues to impact us. It's vital that we make time to reflect on this, and process the pandemic and its effects. In light of all this, we are offering a free 1-hour virtual Values Clarification Workshop for you, and 20 of your coworkers. If you are interested in this opportunity, sign up for a time here!

Remember, as you reflect on the pandemic and the changes it has brought, be kind to yourself as you return to Earth and adjust to yet another “new normal.”