If It Helps: COVID-19 in the New Normal at Work and At Home

Like many of you, I’ve been spending my fair share of time reading and watching what I can regarding the global spread of the Coronavirus.

We are experiencing a black swan event on a larger scale than the 2008 financial meltdown. While it needs serious attention, I’ve experienced a few things recently that I’ve felt the need to do a brain dump of my thoughts on it.

Here’s only my take on it so far:

On Work

The odds are high that the Business Continuity Plan (BCP) you did five or more years ago should have been updated a few times over. You realize this now, and sadly you are not alone. Most consider their BCP a “one and done” corporate bucket list checkmark.

It needs to be updated as needed (that means more than once a year) with tabletop exercises completed annually.

As humans, we generally need frequent reminders of real peril to maintain BCPs. When I was working in the middle east, we had plans prepared for invasion and civil discourse. Working in the Caribbean and lower U.S., we had them for hurricanes, tornados. These are frequent and real enough to warrant consistent updates and practice exercises. That said, 52% of businesses have experienced a disruptive event in the past five years…the majority of which haven’t had a BCP or much less, one that was updated.

The message to deliver to stakeholders is simple. Not having a BCP will cost you more than having one. For most businesses, running around making an ad-hoc committee with well-intentioned but ill-experienced staff only provides a band-aid solution at best. More time is lost, solely upon discovery of just how unprepared you are and slowly finding out what you are missing critical to dealing with the crisis at hand.

The sad truth is that while this is top of mind at the moment due to mitigating circumstances, it will be set aside and ignored soon after the mitigation is no longer a threat to the company affected. I hope that to be wrong, once again.

On Remote Work

A couple of things come to mind here that I’ve seen recently. Mistrust and lack of preparation due to mistrust. Allow me to explain.

Remote work, to the uninitiated, is nothing like you’d expect. I direct this to company cultures, who assume that if they allow their staff to work from home, they won’t “work from home.” The fear is that without the team geographically nearby and monitored, they will not be productive. This comes from a culture of mistrust and micromanagement.

Now before I continue, this is not a slam on these companies; it is just that being unaware of another work style will narrow one’s focus and ability to understand it without further real-life exposure.

It is usually not a money thing that stops remote work (i.e., telework, telecommuting). It is a consensus of thought, whether by a few or the majority of stakeholders that without knowing what the employees are up to at any given moment, those employees will stop being productive. This could not be further from the truth.

I will not go into the technical needs of remote working, suffice to say that I am only talking about those organizations who do have the option to telecommute but are on the fence right now. For those who do not have the ability or infrastructure to give your staff the option for remote work, scrambling for it right now may be too late. This should have been identified in a BCP.

I could do a separate article with references if need be on this topic. Still, the following needs to be clarified if you are considering remote work for your staff during the coronavirus outbreak:

• To companies – Stop micromanaging and put faith in your team. You will find out soon enough that they will produce equal to a workday, and some will exceed this during the week.
  • Yes, there are programs out there that can monitor your remote workers’ activity provided they are dialed in through your corporate network (internet monitoring, app connectivity, etc.). Still, the whole point is that allowing trust works both ways. Trust in your teams to deliver, and you will be pleasantly surprised. Will you have an occasional chronic slacker? Yes, you will, and no doubt they are doing that at the office anyway. That’s not related to remote working FYI.

• Remind your leaders that their employees need to be treated as equals. That means reaching out daily for two reasons.
  • They are all doing something new as remote workers. They may have questions to ask outside of the routine work questions.
  • They are not in the office. Some may feel lonely. Touching base to say hello, how are you and thanks for your efforts go a long way.
  • Listen with your eyes. Pay a bit more attention to emails and to what they are saying if there is no video connectivity between you and your team. When working in the office, you will pick up quite a bit watching your team member’s facial expressions. You are the leader, so the extra work is on you during the temporary remote working situation. Listen more intently, probe for understanding, ask better questions.

• To new remote workers – Be mindful of your hours, while it may seem counterintuitive working from home, if you do not set hours, you may end up blurring work hours given the lack of commute time.
  • Wakeup as you usually do (or a bit later if you can as there is no commute) and do your regular morning routine.
  • CHANGE YOUR CLOTHES – don’t stay in the same pajamas all day. While it doesn’t have to be traditional work clothing, a pair of jeans, shorts, basically anything that isn’t what you just spent the past six to eight hours in.
  • Make sure to take your breaks. Take them as needed. You will get to a point where you realize you’ve been sitting in one spot far too long. You will be unproductive at this point. If it helps, make yourself a schedule as a daily guide.It is very easy to let work seep into the weekends. While I do the same thing on occasion, I personally try not to make it a habit….key word being try…
    
  • When at “work” at home, treat it like work. Cut down on any distractions as best you can for now. This is a temporary situation so building an office is not recommended. Find a spot or room where you live and designate it as your “offsite” office for now. While a closed-door would help, find a place where noise will not be an issue. 
• To a select few workers, including stakeholders – Coronavirus is a virus that will cause influenza type symptoms. It is contagious, and you may know of a colleague at work who was affected by its full-blown symptoms. If this is the case, please do me a favor and treat them as if they had the regular flu, you know the one we’re all used to.The anecdotes I’ve heard so far and what I have seen sucks. Those who have gone through this virus the hard way deserve credit, and not uncomfortable reactions, stigma, or discrimination. To some, they said it was worse than having the virus. Crisis brings cooperation, compassion, and support. Empathy is essential here.

 

On Home Life

Enough about work for now. Onto life at home. It is going to be long and tedious over the next two or three weeks with community activity, sports, and cultural events on hold.

My take on the next couple of weeks with everyone home.

• Use the ‘outernet’ every chance you can. Go for a bike ride, walk, jog, or run, either alone or with family or a friend. Respect social distancing and keep about six feet (two meters) apart from others.

• Introduce yourselves to each other at home. Play games, take the time to talk to each other rather than everyone sitting in the living room on their mobiles. While you don’t have to party like its 1899, it would be cool just to sit and listen to the kids or your partner, tell you about what’s going on in their world.

• Keep yourself informed about COVID-19, but don’t lose your day over it. Jump in, see what is happening nationally, check what’s going on locally then jump out. Here’s why.

• Anticipatory anxiety – this is real, and there is an uptick right now due to coronavirus.
  • In short, anticipatory anxiety is worrying about something that in the future may or may not happen. Because of all the attention drawn to coronavirus right now, you may feel a bit anxious that it is all around, and you will catch it. The odds are in your favor right now that you won’t catch it. The whole reason why you are at home, either because you are working from home, or your company is closed for the time being, is meant as a preventative measure and not because something is coming.
  • The next couple of weeks is to help stop this virus from spreading. It is ok to worry; it is not ok to become so fixated that it is on your mind 24/7. If you do notice that it is becoming an all-encompassing fear, please do call a close friend or your local mental health association to discuss.

• It’s ok to grocery shop like normal. Major supply chains are still operating very well. While it’s ok to stock up as you usually would, over purchasing out of fear is not recommended. There is a natural tendency in humans to gather things in a crisis that we think will not be around very soon. This is expected when natural disasters strike. This is not that kind of event.

If any of these above helps, great. If not, then apologies for wasting your time. I’ve only got one last thing to mention. Toilet paper and grapes….grapes people??? I’m still wrapping my head around toilet paper….

Kind comments are always welcome.