Working From Home, Lessons Learned
The year 2020 has been a game changer. Because of the pandemic, many of us who were used to working in an office, now work exclusively from home. Realizing a major change had occurred in the ways of working, as good change practitioners, we conducted an internal exercise to identify lessons learned and determine ways to mitigate the challenges as we pivot to the new normal. Here is what we learned.
Timebound Working Hours
One of the biggest challenges the team encountered was increased working hours. During April and May, I know my work hours expanded from ~10 hours to 12+ hours a day. I was starting work at 6:30 am and wrapping up at 7 pm. I also found myself tethered to my laptop over the weekend and during the evenings, checking my emails to confirm I didn’t miss a critical email I needed to respond to. My team shared that they were experiencing the same challenges.
Recognizing we needed to move back toward our regular 40-hour work-week, the team implemented the following mitigation strategies:
Designated specific working hours and communicated them to managers, clients and colleagues to manage expectations
Designated a specific working space and only work from that space
Turned off technology outside of working hours
Manage “Household Stakeholders”
With schools and childcare facilities shut down, and/or at limited capacity, spouses also working from home, and pets enjoying their extra time with us, it can often be difficult to hop on a conference call and have 100% focus. For example, specific challenges the team encountered during video conference calls were pets deciding to be vocal, spouses walking in wearing only pajamas, and kids half-dressed making guest star appearances asking for a snack.
Given not all of us have large closets we can hide in, which one team member did quite often in the beginning of the pandemic, and shared was quite effective, here are a few mitigation strategies we considered:
To alleviate the guest star on video conferences, reposition your chair to have your back to a surface where people or animals typically do not walk behind
Chat with your spouse, or others you live with, about conference calls you need to focus on at the start of each day or the night prior. This can be done via a note or via a calendar invite
Create a signal for when the coast is clear and you can be engaged. For example, I use a wave and head nod to my house mate
Feeling Disconnected
Prior to the pandemic, while working in the office, my team and I would take coffee and lunch breaks to catch up on life. Personally, now when I take coffee or lunch break, I talk to my pets. Despite enjoying the pets, I find myself feeling a bit lonely and miss that interpersonal connection. My team too shared that they felt disconnected, many of them not even taking a coffee or lunch break and working straight-through, contributing to the previously mentioned problem with working hours.
To drive connectivity, the team took the following actions:
At the beginning of the pandemic, we would have virtual happy hours. However, these soon became stale and so we found other ways to connect in person, such as socially distanced nature walks, to see each other
The team now uses video conferences more frequently, especially in one-on-ones with the specific intent to catch up on life
The pandemic has created a new normal—and let’s face it, it is here to stay for a while. Our team continues to implement our change management methodology (identify the changes, create mitigation strategies, and implement) to ensure we evolve and continue to be effective as 2020 continues to surprise us.