Dear manager, you can figure this #workfromhome stuff out

03 augustus 2020

Ok, picture this for a minute.

Joanna, your department’s most valued employee is due back in the office next week. Full-time. She has always been team-minded, constructive and has never caused any kind of difficulties.

On Thursday evening you receive a call from her. She loved working from home and found that it simply worked better for her. She doesn’t really want to come back in. If she can get the job done and stay home, what’s the problem? Right?

You tell her you’re sorry, but the office is reopening for everyone. It’s just how it is.

So the office reopens and against expectations your exemplary employee starts giving you a bit of a headache. Joanna is changing face-to-face meetings to Zoom calls, shows up late and comes up with excuses as to why she can’t make it to the office on several occasions.

F*ck.

You see, the office as we know it may need a R.I.P. sign at the local cemetery, if you ask us. Because when Covid-19 hit, it reshaped all of our day-to-day’s in ways we could’ve never imagined possible.

And one of the biggest casualties from that tsunami? Yeah, you guessed it. The good old office. Nowadays, old habits that were once written in stone are being questioned and turned upside down.

But it’s not just the employees whose daily reality transformed overnight. Managers all over the world are struggling too.

On the one hand, they need to figure out the logistics of how the *bleep* this is all supposed to work. On the other hand, they are responsible to support their team in getting the job done, while keeping everybody (as) happy (as possible).

Unfortunately, that is exactly as tricky as it sounds.

Because some employees might perform when they’re in the office, but don’t seem to achieve the same results when they’re not.

Are they lousy at working from home? Maybe. Maybe not.

What we’re getting at, is that more than ever it will be a manager’s task to know their people. Even when they’re no longer physically around.

Questions such as:

• Has their motivation changed?
• Are they capable of self-organization?
• Will they thrive or get bored at home?

They matter from here on out. Managers need to know whether their team members’ challenges are personal, logistical or if there is perhaps something else going on.

So if you feel overwhelmed while figuring out how this new reality works for you / your team / your company, know that you don’t have to figure it out alone. An assessment of your employees, for example, could provide you with the exact information you need to make sure that your office (version 2.0) will be a success. Give us a call and let’s figure it out.