Business
Think back to the small rewards that came from in-office work. Being able to comfortably settle into the more traditional, but often unofficial codes of office conduct. Codes that included regular start and end times, boundaries, body language, understanding how people were behaving that day. Then fast-forward again to March. Covid-19 appeared, and shutdowns happened virtually overnight. People who had no experience working remotely were thrust into makeshift offices or perched beside dining-room tables. MarketWatch reported that “…that nearly 70% of workers claimed that this is the most stressful time of their entire professional careers, even when compared to major events like the September 11 terror attacks, the 2008 Great Recession and others.” We all attempted to adapt and adjust to this new way of working, but eventually, reports of Zoom-meeting fatigue, complaints of burnout, workloads doubling, or increased anxiety and loosening of business etiquette norms came rolling in – no matter your businesses size or vertical. Why? It turns out, those aforementioned workplace “codes of conduct” are extremely important, as important as the codes of conduct one follows at a restaurant, on the subway, or at a social event. We spoke to Tony Vargas, Global Head of Workplace at customer experience management platform Sprinklr, about the Covid-19 phenomenon of missing social/business cues, and the impact it’s had on our workplace satisfaction. As he says, “The way our brains work is that we compress these combinations of sounds, signals, symbols or any additional information, and it creates codes to make it easier for itself to work and operate in any particular situation. That helps us make an instant analysis of that situation and decide what a safe, appropriate, and most successful manner to act and perform. Cultures, organizations, and groups have their own sets of codes of language, etiquette behaviors. And then came the pandemic and boom, everything that we knew in terms of how we worked in offices together completely changed for everybody.” He shares a particularly great analogy: think of it this way – you’re driving – and suddenly all the road signs and traffic lights vanish! Now try and get from point A to point B, calmly, quickly and safely. That's what happened to the way that we work - everything is harder, everything takes more time. And sometimes “accidents” happen. Cue increased stress, anxiety, and workload, as well as a breakdown in trust. This conversation is fascinating and will make you think about just how abruptly our work-worlds were turned upside down, and the impact that had on all of us. Have a listen.