Pandemic Parents: Lessons to Keep as We Head Back to School
If your family is like mine, the 2021 Back-to-School Season comes with a new wave of anxiety and relief. Families with kids will have consistent, full-time care for the first time in over a year. But the Delta Variant is reaching more kids, and we’re sending them indoors with their booger-laden peers. At the same time, we all remember when our kid had to be COVID-19 tested to get into school or when we suddenly needed to abandon our desks because rates were too high in our community.
It’s difficult to exhale and consider what a full 6 or 8 hours of focused work time can even look like. But I’m looking forward to it. Imagine, starting next week, writing an entire email without looking up to see a snack-hungry 1st grader peering at you. Consider that in just a few days, you’ll be able to read a paragraph to completion, remembering the point of said paragraph!
As we re-enter the world of the workforce, here are a few things I hope we keep from pandemic work culture:
Let’s keep remembering that each member of our work team has a family and responsibilities they bring with them. It’s true, even if they aren’t trying to homeschool their children during your weekly check-in meeting!
Checking in with our staff as humans - who may experience fear, sadness, anger, and more - is usually a healthy exercise. We aren’t cogs in a machine; we’re humans on a team.
Let’s hark back to when we physically couldn’t micromanage across the miles and leave it behind us altogether. Recall that the research indicates that at-home workers are usually even more productive from home and allow some space between managers and team members.
Why not leave video conferences in place for when it works best? Board members no longer need to commute an hour for a 90-minute meeting. Instead, they can show up having eaten dinner, with a cup of tea and a grateful grin.
Let’s dig our feet in on keeping the workplace healthy. During the pandemic, we realized that sniffles on the job are a danger to everyone around us, and we encouraged workers to stay put. I say we continue to value worker health on an individual and team level by encouraging rest and recuperation. That includes building policies and culture that keep us there.
So, there you have it - advice from a highly educated organizational development professional. Print this out and take it to your boss. If you are the boss, then tattoo this on your arm. You can leave out the references to boogers if you’d like.
