Leadership during Work from Home
Its been 6 months since I saw the inside of a plane, office, taxi, hotel or even for that matter shook hands, hugged a friend. Instead its been staring at laptop screens, switching from one MS Teams call to another Zoom call to even a Whatsapp video call at all times of the day or night. Instead of turning your head as you looked at different people and things in a room, swiveling in a chair, getting up, stretching, grabbing coffee, joking and arguing, using the white board and large screen for PPT meetings we now stare at one small screen, eyes flickering from one participant to the other. Life has changed so much and it doesn't seem like life as we knew it is coming back anytime soon.
I am not pessimistic and know that things will be back to normal but then it would be the new normal. Many companies including even those in manufacturing are finding that business can indeed be done even when working at home. This is giving many the idea to make this system, even if partially, as a permanent feature. It saves costs in multiple ways and so life will never be the old normal again.
These changes will create HUGE HR challenges and I am sure there are many experts who will device ways and means to handle this. But the key is that Leaders must drive the changes so that they become more human, more humane, more empathetic, more tolerant. What we so far thought was human, empathetic will no longer hold true. I am seriously doubtful whether Leaders and even HR experts have given sufficient thought to issues that I call are the underbelly of life.
A middle class white collar worker, not classified as poor, but when he/she comes to office - catching maybe the office cab/bus, dressed neatly and then spends the next 8 to 10 hrs in a plush, air conditioned, carpeted place, with a canteen, a comfortable chair, conference room - leaves behind the problems of home at home whether they like it or not. They remain in the brain but pushed back as work and office occupies the mind. At best things are shared with a friend and colleague during the break. The boss and leader sees the neatly dressed person and sometimes may or may not know his problems let alone even be sympathetic to it.
But now working from home, the person lives in a 2 bedroom apartment with a wife, 1 or 2 kids, 1 or both aged parents. The parent may be old, sick, have other issues. A child maybe challenged in some way. Earlier when the person went to office, the home knew that they cannot depend upon the person and somehow lived their life. But now he/she is there, few feet away. The infirm parent, the challenged child demand "attention" NOT because they want it, but they cant "hide" anywhere. The video calls will show the grime, dirt, sickness. Every facade is missing. He/She cannot push anything to the back of the mind, it is impossible as the challenged child or aged parent are there in front of you esp when having a bad moment.
The worker cannot escape the situation and the office, customers, vendors will see or hear what is happening. They may or may not ask questions but they are now seeing life for real, they are seeing the real person who they always thought was smiling and helpful now looking helpless, harassed and trapped. The views, experiences, attitudes of the viewer towards life in general and issues in specific will guide their perception and behavior towards this person and others based on what they see.
All home life need not be a worst case scenario. But not all home life is escaped office life either. Neighbors will drop in, maids come, other come and go, someone wants to watch TV, someone else wants to talk to a friend. Not everybody lives in plush bungalows, flats with large space to create a private space for their office work. As a friend said today, he, his wife, 2 kids need to be online together attending to office, school and they don't have 4 rooms to lock themselves in. The daily disturbances of life continue and who will attend to it ? Who will take the break from that important Teams/Zoom meeting?
The sheer physical space helped create a mental space too. You could say no to a employee whatever his personal problem was, organisations weren't really responsible even if sympathetic. But now the office is at home, you are seeing, feeling and listening to the problems. You can still say no, you still have to say no, but its that much harder now. Be it colleagues, customers, vendors, others their personal attitudes and life is now merged with our own attitudes and life.
At the same time an employee can feel ashamed at what he thinks his colleagues, senior, others may see. Not everybody will have the confidence to be comfortable with their own reality. How many you know have openly said - I was fired ? I am diagnosed with cancer ? My child is mentally/physically challenged ? and a zillion other stuff. Humans live in denial and love to hide stuff and hope that if they do that, things will go away.
Work and life, they have merged and unless organisations become more human, more humane than ever before the risk of business disasters that can befall a organisation are high. THIS is where leadership plays a role.
Leaders must encourage and actively seek to get a glimpse into the lives of their teams as it really is - warts and all exposed. They must once in a while make small talk with the family, create a comfort zone where those who work for you become comfortable in standing "naked" in front of you so to speak. Help in getting rid of all inhibitions, learn to ignore/adjust to others problems, encourage others to do the same. Is a child demanding help because the tablet isn't working? Don't let the poor parent ignore the child, get into panic, feel embarrassed etc. Instead tell him/her to take a few minutes break and resolve the issue. This will be the key for a leader to help his organisation to survive and succeed.
Now into this whole conundrum bring in a global multi country scenario, confidentiality, IP, IT security, hacking, and many other things that we have taken for granted for so long. Add to this the lower level sales, purchase, finance folks who are the front line face of every organisation, likely living even lower in the food chain, and you have a literal nuke button that can get pushed.
Discipline as we knew it can no longer work. Life for many will become a 24*7 combination of work and life even if they don't like it. Leaders must adjust to this but at the same time encourage staff to focus on family. Customers come first, yes, but maybe organisations need to tell customers also to behave better and customers in turn need to know how to behave and treat their vendors better. As I said there are a zillion things that will need adjustment, reworking, reorienting and these cannot happen and then FORCE change in organisations. They must be anticipated, predicted, observed in advance and course correction initiated. This can be done only if leaders get involved hands on and are sensitive to issues and tackle them before they become a crisis that's out of control.
Professionally building relationships online, obtaining information, transactions, problem solving and many other day to day challenges will need new solutions and new behavioral talents. Be it purchasing day to day items, healthcare, transportation, every aspect of life will change and move in a altered direction, speed and form.
The bottom line - Leadership is the key and those organisations that evolve faster will survive and others however old will fall by the way side. Organisations that follow capitalism with a human face will succeed and others will flatter to deceive. By mid 2022 by when the world will likely be seeing the new normal, this opinion piece of mine must be revisited for review.
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