In year 2020 organization have seen a rapid shift towards
working from home and this has created a new set of challenges leading to a
significant psychological impact on employees. But experience in year 2020 have
shown that with the right leadership and management approach, these can be
overcome.
The worldwide lockdown of businesses, industries, and school
closures took place to contain the outbreak and prevent a health system
overload and fundamental challenges for both employees and employers across the
world. The working environment has significantly changed with thousands of jobs
lost, disappearance of some occupations, and dramatic growth in new
occupations and employees were turned overnight into work from home.
The sudden shift to a remote work setup has been stressful
for many employees, partly due to the challenges of information technology
systems that were implemented to facilitate working from home. The restriction
caused by the privacy setting, connectivity capabilities, and server limitations
caused employees much anxiety and restlessness to the point that they are
unable to be productive.
Employees also faced challenges in managing time due to the
work from home initiative. In most cases, employees were no longer confined to a
8.30am to 5.00pm schedule as employees found it difficult to demarcate the office
and personal time. They had to work beyond 5pm even sometimes without knowing
that they are consuming personal time for office work and also sacrificing
relationships, family and health.
Working from Home made everyone to accept certain behaviors where the line between someone’s professional
and personal life has disappeared. Therefore,
it’s vital for people and organizations to familiarize themselves with the best
practices to incorporate in order to sustain a stable and productive pace of
work that takes everyone’s wellbeing into account.
How will we change productivity to this new set of
circumstances? It will be our personal challenge to find the balance between
work, leisure, childcare, and chores. A main organizational challenge will be understanding the
different realities and
create flexible processes to accommodate these circumstances.
How do Organizations Create better Working Environment
for Employees Working from Home?
To overcome these issues, the companies have made few changes
to their day to day work by introducing policies like requiring a ten-minute
break between meetings, implementing meeting-free days each month, avoid
scheduling meetings after 5.30 pm and during holidays, etc.. These helped to
reduce the psychological pressure of being constantly online.
Besides looking for a solution form employers to resolve some
of the current problems faced by those working-from-home, individuals who are working-from-home,
may also need to do something for themselves to stimulate productivity. For
instance, stretching or doing yoga in between work hours. Exercising has been
found to stimulate endorphins and serotonins so that employees are not feeling
depressed or overwhelmed by their work demands. A regular exercise of 20 to 30
minutes a day would drastically reduce their rate of anxiety, as has been
proven in many scientific studies (Erica and Jackson 2013), thereby eliminating
any psychological and mental influences.
Further, some organizations have implemented
- Hosting / promoting virtual social events such as online quiz, games, sharing your personal talent etc.
- Establishing casual platforms where employees can share work-from-home selfies, stories or experiences.
In my opinion, these simple changes could boost the psychological impact
on employees, and I believe that in the long term wider systemic change is
needed.
Reference
1) https://blog.workana.com/en/entrepreneurship/teamwork-identifying-each-members-potential/
2) Erica M. Jackson (2013), Stress Relief: The Role of Exercise in Stress management, ACSM’s Health & Fitness Journal.
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ReplyDeleteI think work from home concept is new to Sri Lankan context but most of the well developed countries are already practicing this in their organisations.
ReplyDeleteBecause of that they could manage their duties well during the Covid19 situation too and there is no much physiological impact on them regarding work from scenarios.
They are used to doing it and their normal routing includes all exercises, activities, social media using, online work and so on. So they could manage the work life balance their own way.
But in Sri Lanka both government and private sector employees faced a new work life pattern due to this Pandemic situation and impacted our mental condition too.
Some employees could achieve more productivity on this but some employees failed this due to high stress levels.
Humans are social creatures and they always like to interact with each other but this situation created isolation.
Some organizations are taken below actions to protect their employees
1.Holding a casual short meeting to focus on staff members’ wellbeing at the beginning or towards the end of a workday to accentuate a sense of the on-and-off.
2.Encouraging workers to take a walk to switch their brain to on and off. Having a daily routine with these types of activities included may help workers to feel that the boundary between work and life is maintained.
3.Fatigue and increased mental demands may be mitigated by setting a timer to take a short break.
4.If an employee has a high table, he or she can work while standing. Sitting all day can exhaust your brain, and the negative health effects (both physical and mental) have been reported. Changing the scenery is also helpful.
This is a timely topic.
ReplyDeleteThis is a problem we have experienced and many countries in the world have been working from home since before the emergency and Sri Lanka started working from home after the COVID pandemic situation. Since we had to adapt to this all at once, it would be worthwhile if we could analyze the problems, advantages, disadvantages associated with it and implement it in Sri Lanka.
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ReplyDeleteAs a working Mom these adverse psychological effects aside, working from home has also been beneficial to many working Moms, who have used this time to spend quality time with family members and learn new skills, which elevates their sense of self and emotional well-being. According to the Oracle, the study showed that employees felt that 51% of them could spend more time with their family, 31% getting more sleep, and 30% finding that they were more productive.
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ReplyDeleteSudden shift to work from home due to covid -19 has been stressful for many. Global studies show the psychological impact of work from home is complex.It has both negative and positive impacts depending on working environment, organizational support and external associates.Most of the organisations are implementing actions to optimise workers mental health.I believe as employees they too have a responsibility to take necessary actions like keep a routine, take breaks, work-out to avoid the stress and to maintain good mental health.
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ReplyDeleteI see it in both ways
On the plus side, workers have found they can be more productive by not having the stress of a commute, by not dealing with the disruptions of a typical office environment, and by customizing both their home office environment, as well as their work schedule.
On the minus side, the lack of in-person, human connection can lead to isolation and stress caused by the decrease in communication and engagement. Also, a blurring between work and home can increase stress for workers who have trouble disconnecting and feel they are on-call around the clock
ReplyDeleteI see it in both ways
On the plus side, workers have found they can be more productive by not having the stress of a commute, by not dealing with the disruptions of a typical office environment, and by customizing both their home office environment, as well as their work schedule.
On the minus side, the lack of in-person, human connection can lead to isolation and stress caused by the decrease in communication and engagement. Also, a blurring between work and home can increase stress for workers who have trouble disconnecting and feel they are on-call around the clock
Organizations and institution leaders have been struggling to review their plans, policies, and regulations to create new guidelines around their fluid work dynamic, involving more remote working and classes, for the foreseeable future. This situation has left employees and students in a flux state, adjusting and adapting to this new dynamic, whilst continuing to work with efficiency and productivity. Finding a balance while juggling work, childcare, virtual schooling, and in some cases, struggling finances due to salary reductions, while staying at home have taken a toll on these working individuals’ mental health. According to the United Nations, this pandemic shed light on the urgency of organizations increasing investments made in time and providing mental health services.
ReplyDeleteGood topic Tania. But there are several disadvantages are connected with this. A lack of community and different in culture, Maintaining accountability, Loss of productivity, Low reliability and retentions are some of disadvantages are existing with this. But these all are can sorted out if we manage well.
ReplyDeleteHome working theoretically provides opportunities for healthy eating and more exercise. However, so far, more people have tended to eat unhealthy food, exercise less and gain weight, causing less satisfaction and wellbeing
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