Here's What We Know About the Isolation Effect of Working From Home During the Pandemic
What’s the latest research telling us about the isolation of working from home?
Employees who were experiencing anxiety before the pandemic are seeing slight increases in anxiety in isolation.
Openness, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness have seen slight declines during isolation.
Curiosity, Trust and Organization are seeing small declines as well in isolation. All critical traits for emotional intelligence!
The researches make a strong point that the findings must be taken in context. These traits may continue to shift up and down as work-from-home isolation and the pandemic continue as a way of life.
What does this mean for leaders and teams? Communication can not be taken for granted. Every human in the world is experiencing the same psychological impacts. It’s to be expected that the stress will start to show for everyone. Focus on the collective work of the community and support fellow colleagues by asking open ended questions. Asking, "How's it going?" might generate a "fine" especially from your direct report who doesn't want to admit to you (or themselves!) that things are a little rocky. Instead ask, "How's it going for you this week?" or "What differences are you noticing working from home?" These kind of simple, focused, open ended questions help your co-worker to reflect and open up. And the more you extend help others, the more you bolster your own resilience.
Extend trust, empathy and understanding. You are creating the culture now, in this moment.
Start your meetings with a regular mindful practice of deep breathing. Deep breathing is the best way to calm and clear mind, while bringing focus and attention. And it only takes a few minutes!
Have fun! Find ways to lighten the mood, joke around and enjoy a laugh with colleagues. Laughter releases endorphins for creativity and positive mood and decreases stress hormones in the body. This helps the brain’s executive functioning to run at top speed!
Create a happy workplace. And for now, Zoom IS the workplace. Happiness relies on authenticity, finding meaning in the moment and empathy. Take time on virtual meetings to focus on these essential workplace happiness traits.
Want to know more about how to incorporate these practices into your workplace? Send me an email, susan@theeicoach.com I’m happy to help!
Reference: Change in Five-Factor Model Personality Traits During the Acute Phase of the Coronavirus Pandemic, 2020, Florida State University College of Medicine & University of Montpellier