Home vs. Office: have you got the balance right?
Are you a ‘hybrid worker’ now? Post pandemic, perhaps you love being able to work more from home but find yourself missing the social interaction that came with being in the office? Conversations feel less organic, more forced. You can’t just wander over to a desk to ask a question or chat through a problem, you’ve got to book a meeting. Colleagues on your computer screen say they’re okay, but you don’t know if they really are. Or perhaps you’re not okay, but you don’t feel comfortable saying that on Zoom or Teams. If any of that sounds familiar, trust us, you’re not alone.
We’re big fans of flexible working at Cosy Meerkat – at the beginning of the year we were celebrating that it looked to be here to stay – but if our recent round of client comms audits has proved anything, it’s that a lot of organisations haven’t got this new way of working quite right yet. Because what our audits found was that people want more face-to-face contact again. Whether that’s in an office environment or not doesn’t seem to matter, what’s important is that it’s in person. Take, for example, this comment from a client following a focus group discussing the importance of understanding the wider business. Having recently travelled for work, she found herself sat next to a key stakeholder on the plane home. They were in touch weekly, but in a less formal environment their conversation felt far more valuable:
‘We were refreshed and in a different mindset. We discussed some of the topics together and we covered so much ground in 45 minutes with a lot of alignment, a lot of opportunities to speak more honestly.’
Clearly, face-to-face interactions can make doing our jobs easier, but it’s also important for our mental health. At a recent event, the MD of an accounts firm we know well came in looking visibly heavy. We asked her what was wrong and she told us she was struggling; she was experiencing team dynamic issues, was taking too much on herself and was overworked. She also knew it was affecting her staff, who, like her, were feeling unhappy and unmotivated. We talked it through and she went away with an idea for a team picnic – and a spring in her step. Okay, the idea wasn’t revolutionary, but what had helped was being able to talk through her problems and then brainstorm improvements.
So, if you or your team are finding the hybrid-working balance a hard one to strike, here are some suggestions we hope might help:
Grab every opportunity to meet in person – and in different spaces. Just because you’re putting a meeting in someone’s diary, it doesn’t mean it has to be formal. Why not try going for a walk as you talk? According to researchers from Stanford University, it’s not only nicer, it makes you more productive too.
Fewer water cooler moments mean fewer opportunities to notice a change in someone. Make sure you ask your peers how they are, even if it’s just on the phone – and really listen to what they say.
Organise a team away day or lunch. People are often in the office on different days of the week now, so a big team get-together could be the first time many have seen each other in a while.
And, finally, if you’re a leader, stop and make sure you look after yourself. Because if you’re not okay, it’s not just you it’ll affect, it’s your team too.
There’s been a lot of change the last couple of years and we know figuring out how to best work in a hybrid way will take time. We also know other businesses will be coming up with great ideas and we’d love to know what they are. So, tell us, what are you doing to try and make
