While some businesses are tentatively going back to work, others are staying home, or even moving to permanent work-from-home first models. If you’re in the latter camp and still carrying on your career in soft pants, here are some things our team’s found to be helpful in our sudden change of scenery.
Honesty, to the Max
As we’re sure you’ve noticed in your own working-from-home experience, the people you work with know a lot more about you now. They may have seen your partner, your kids, your pets, just as you’ve seen a good deal of whatever working space they’ve eked out as their own. But, that’s all surface-level stuff.
We’ve found in this experience that the principle of “radical candour” – something our CEO Lisa loves and used pre-pandemic – is even more important now. We’ve been empowered with the courage to have hard conversations, or really say how we’re feeling above and beyond “fine.” We’re humans going through a crisis that continuously challenges us, and knowing how someone’s feeling means that we can help support them or see them thrive as necessary.
Biweekly Beer o’Clock
We have a daily morning, work-related team meeting – a quick 20-30 minute touchbase to see what everyone’s working on and if they need any support. But, we’ve also started the biweekly beer social – a de-stressing thirty minutes on Friday afternoons to catch up on…sourdough recipes? Jigsaw puzzle progress? Likely all of the things you’re also doing to keep busy.
Amazingly, we’ve managed to stay off work topics on these afternoons, and they’re a chance for us to continue the good social relationships we’d normally have in person.
And, of course, Cat Pictures
Everyone loves a cat picture, right? MarCom Lead Lauren and Lead Producer Sarah have been sharing near daily pictures of each other’s cats – something they would normally do in person at the office. It injects a little normalcy into the day, and it’s nice to catch up on something that isn’t work-related. Memes, gifs, and other share-ables are also abundant on the team Slack.
What’s your team doing differently while you work from home? Let us know on social media @MediaFace.