New normal: Back into the groove

No one really knows what the new normal will look like as it is going to be new for everyone, writes Maullika Sharma

Getting back to work is now on the horizon. What will it be like? People have lost touch with their co-workers; there will be social distancing in the workplace; many have lost friends and teammates to downsizing; many have been through crises in their personal lives. Getting back to work will be emotionally challenging and it is a mistake to expect that we will immediately get back to business as usual. Traditionally, organisations focused on customers and on facilitating employees, infrastructural and procedurally, to do whatever it took to keep customers happy. Now, organisations will need to also focus on the wellness of their employees so that they stay engaged, motivated and aligned with organisational goals. Managers must facilitate and provide time to catch-up, debrief, acknowledge emotions, and talk about mental health openly. It might take a few months for teams to get back to some form of normalcy.

Making the transition

Traditionally employees worked physically alongside team members, learnt from them and felt connected to them. Social distancing and working from home, has led many to feel isolated and disconnected. Managers must recognise this to help employees transition back to connectedness. There have been some fundamental changes in the way people have been functioning over the past few months. Personal and professional boundaries have blurred as people juggled their personal and professional lives. It became acceptable to sometimes have children and noises from the household as a part of work-related calls. People are now used to more flexibility around their schedules. It may be a challenge to go back to a fixed schedule and demarcate clearly between work and home.

Not having to battle the traffic on the daily commute can also be addictive and hard to get used to again. For many people going to work used to be an escape and distraction from the reality of their lives, and sometimes even from themselves. It was their coping mechanism. This lockdown meant that some were working much longer hours with little else to engage them. For those who did not have as much work, it meant that their coping mechanism was taken away without any replacement. This resulted in many dysfunctional family dynamics coming to the fore.

Acknowledge fears

At an emotional level, the pandemic has forced us to confront our own mortality. With omnipresent fear and anxiety, and so much that is unknown and uncontrollable, we are experiencing more vulnerability than before. Employers need to acknowledge these feelings — everyone likes some control and certainty in their lives. In the current environment, there seems to be hardly any — whether it is one’s own life, the life of family and friends, one’s job, one’s career, or one’s financial stability. When anxiety is high, fear sets in and we tend to go back to the basic human responses of fight, flight or freeze. We are unable to function rationally.

Organisations must be mindful of this emotional load on employees and focus on helping build resilience. Not only organisational resilience in terms of business and balance sheets but the resilience of each employee. Resilience is like a muscle that can be strengthened by having a sense of purpose. Organisations and managers must help employees find this purpose. So, what does it take to become more resilient? Resilient people recognise, acknowledge, accept and manage their emotions. They focus on what they can control and on finding solutions rather than magnifying problems. They are flexible in their attitude and handle conflicts effectively. They are introspective, able to identify their strengths, move past their weaknesses, tap into what helped them through past crises, and identify opportunities for future post-traumatic growth. And, most importantly, they don’t shy away from being vulnerable and asking for help.

Preparedness

Resilience is also promoted by proactive and frequent communication which helps develop a sense of purpose. It is important that every team member knows what is happening and has a voice in the plan. Transparency helps dispel fears and involving people in decision-making makes them feel stronger and more vested in the plan. This may not be the last time we are going to face such a situation — pandemics, climate disasters and other crises are probably here to stay. Post-disaster work should ensure that we are better prepared the next time such a situation arises. So, managers must prep their teams on how to manage similar situations. This time we were thrown into this unexpected situation.

Making mental health support widely available to employees, not only to those facing a problem, is critical. It is abundantly clear that the mental health of employees will be the key determinant of our successful return to normalcy. While the virus will affect a relative few, the mental health of everyone will be impacted. And, even though everyone is in the same storm, everyone is in different boats, facing different challenges which may have different outcomes. Everyone will view the world, and the storm, differently. There is no right or wrong view, just different views, and everyone has a right to adequate support to weather the storm, no matter which boat they are in. If we can facilitate their post-traumatic growth in the process, that can be a win-win, both for the organisation and the employees.