Laetitia Vitaud
Future of work author and speaker
Future of work author and speaker
Remote workers are generally more exposed to stress and anxiety. But in a period of crisis, they are even more at risk. Here are some ideas and tools to adapt your communication and display more empathy towards your people, in order to preserve a level of emotional safety that’s conducive to trust and productivity.
Forced, full-time remote work in a situation of extreme, global uncertainty is not the same thing as part-time, voluntary remote work in a normal situation. Almost overnight, millions of knowledge workers used to working in an office have been asked to work from home. But let’s not forget that most workers can’t work remotely: cleaning men/women, cashiers, waiters/waitresses, nurses, and maintenance technicians can’t work from home. And many of them are now temporarily out of work.
Furthermore remote work in the context of a pandemic comes with a particular set of challenges: not knowing how long this situation will last (and whether or not it will get worse), not knowing what the consequences of the current crisis will be on our health and the economy. Most people find it hard to keep their usual focus. Last but not least, in the countries where schools are now closed, parents need to work, look after their children and prepare meals during the day, all at the same time! To my knowledge, there is no study, book or report that deals with remote work under these very special conditions.
Interestingly the subject of balancing work and raising children, which is rarely tackled by managers, is now receiving all the coverage it deserves. In fact there is no separating work and family life, even under normal circumstances. So there’s an upside to the measures taken to contain the epidemic: they make the intersection between work and children suddenly visible, for men as well as women.
To manage scattered teams (and office teams too), empathy is always critical but it is all the more important in these unusual times.
Not being able to touch and see people “in real life” will take a toll on employees’ mental health.
Most people started changing their greeting habits a few weeks ago: handshakes and kisses are now non grata. But with 100% remote work, it’s a lot of other small gestures and all our body language that can no longer be used for better communication. Alas, physical distancing comes with emotional challenges. Without the (huge) input of body language, our communication is poorer. There’s more frustration and misunderstanding.
The office is not just a place designed for work, it’s also an essential playground for the social creatures we are. It comes with opportunities to share rituals and bond with other people. The physical dimension of our work relations is more important to our mental health than we know. 100% remote work is rarely ideal. It is emotionally challenging.
Even before the epidemic, a “crisis of touch” had been distressing more and more people in all age groups. In this remarkable article titled “No hugging: are we living through a crisis of touch”, a Guardian journalist explains that we are less and less touched by others, and this deprivation is detrimental to our mental health. Among the people who live alone, many rely on work exclusively to satisfy their social and emotional needs.
“The gentle touch of another individual soothes the effects of social exclusion, one of the most emotionally painful human experiences”.
UCL Research
Colleagues may not be family members, but all the physical interactions that occur at work do play a huge role: eye contact, handshakes, high fives, taps on the shoulders, and hugs keep us mentally healthy. According to UCL research, “the gentle touch of another individual soothes the effects of social exclusion, one of the most emotionally painful human experiences”.
Without physical contacts with their colleagues, and in a context of extreme uncertainty, employees asked to work remotely require extra empathy from their manager. Isolated from their team, they are more likely to feel lonely or lost.
There are three components to communication: words, tone and body language (in particular facial expressions). In fact, words play a relatively minor part in communication, whereas tone and body language are essential elements. There are more communication problems when you can only rely on words (chats, emails) to communicate. Unless you have incredible literary talent, it’s harder to have nuanced, layered communication (irony, humour) in writing.
Emojis can help convey some emotions but the range of emotions and nuances they enable is quite limited. The person who receives the message will always wonder what the tone of the message is and what the sender had in mind. They may even become paranoid and imagine their colleagues don’t like them, their manager is profoundly dissatisfied with their work, or their position is under threat. Therefore you should:
Today’s remote workers are more exposed to stress and anxiety. Now suddenly they no longer receive all the little belonging cues from their colleagues that they need even more today. In short, they are emotionally insecure. As Daniel Coyle explains it is in his book The Culture Code, “emotional safety is the very foundation of culture”.
Emotional safety depends on all the small day-to-day social interactions we have at work —eye contact, smiles, coffee time, chats, etc. That’s why even more empathy is required when you’re deprived of these interactions. Here are some tips on how to display more empathy:
Future of work author and speaker
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