Well over 100 days of lockdown, and we have gradually adjusted to working from home. We’ve fallen into a good routine navigating both our work and our children’s schooling. Our pets are used to us being in their domain during the day, and we have learnt to block out the jarring and incessant sound of our neighbour’s leaf-blower and weed-eater, well… let’s say…almost. Who would have thought that grass grows fast enough in winter to allow for four straight hours of trimming every third day? We are now skilled at muting our mics, and turning off our cameras, and have also become highly skilled con artists – dressing just the top halves of our bodies whilst we sit in virtual meetings wearing our tracksuit pants or PJ bottoms.
Our gradual re-entry to the workplace means that along with finding our formal pants and skirts that were relegated to the back of our closets, we also need to dig deep to acclimatise to yet again, a new way of working.
Psychologists in the USA and Europe use the term ‘re-entry anxiety’ to describe the underlying concern or unease we are likely to experience as we return to the workplacei. After months of cocooning in our homes, the butterflies in our tummies at the thought of venturing out into the world again are to be expected.
There are measures that organisations can put in place to help ease the anxiety that employees experience as they re-enter the workplace:
- Firstly, organisations can focus on making employees feel as safe as possible in the workplace. The South African Government has provided a Consolidated Direction on Health and Safety in the Workplace that specifies measures that organisations need to put in place to prevent the spread of the virus. Organisations that go above and beyond the minimum statutory requirements, communicate their commitment to employee wellbeing as a top priority.
- Flexibility is a big part of the new way of working. With the uncertainty of the school calendar, employees with school going children might still require the flexibility to work from home on certain days of the week. Employers who permit flexible working arrangements will ease the anxiety that employees experience trying to juggle work and home commitments.
- Extremely challenging economic conditions mean that many organisations are downsizing or streamlining their operations. Employees might be anxious about their job security and in this climate, there are no guarantees. The best approach is to ensure regular and transparent two-way communication with employees – keeping them informed of the business’ performance and encouraging ongoing dialogue.
- On the topic of communication, the amount of misinformation that is being shared on the media is overwhelming and causing distress for many people. Excessive exposure to negative images and news can lead to symptoms similar to that of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorderii. Organisations would do well to summarise factual COVID-19 information from reliable sources such as the SA Coronavirus website (https://sacoronavirus.co.za) or the World Health Organisation (https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019) for distribution to employees.
- Finally, leaders are facing enormous pressure as they head up the re-entry to the workplace. Equipping them with the necessary soft skills and knowledge to help them to identify their own anxieties, and recognise apprehension in others, will benefit those reporting to them as well. As a leader, showing empathy can go a long way to helping employees make the transition back to the workplace!
In donning our work outfits again, let us also remember to put on additional layers of kindness, patience and compassion. Anele Mdoda, famous South African radio presenter and television personality, said it best in a recent Tweet – ‘Handle your colleagues with care. It’s wild’.
Sources
I Havard Business Review, Help your employees manage their re-entry anxiety, Clayton.S. & Hoyle. A. 24 June 2020.
Ii British Psychological Society. Viewing violent news on social media can cause trauma, Ramsden, P. 6 May 2015