Businesses are using more remote workers than ever. The COVID-19 pandemic made it necessary for them to react and they did, but it has proven to have a handful of challenges. One of the most stark issues that remote workers face is the assault on their mental health. Most newly-remote workers once held several conversations with co-workers day-in and day-out and being isolated for 12 months has taken its toll. This shift is having negative effects on businesses from all over the world. Let’s take a look at a couple of things that you can do about it.
Staff Isolation May be a Productivity Problem
Chances are that a portion of your staff was tickled pink last March when they were told that they would be working from home. As time has gone on, and on, and on, the isolation that comes from being home all the time has started to have a negative impact on many people’s mental state. The funny thing is that people begin to miss “normal” when everything isn’t. Normal is having coffee spilled all over the place by your clumsy co-worker. Normal is singing happy birthday to people once a week over a Walmart bakery cake. Normal is getting up from your desk to walk into the next room to hash out a complicated issue with one of your coworkers.
Nothing about this is normal.
Many people didn’t realize just how important their working relationships were with the people that they admittedly couldn’t stand seeing everyday. Now they long to get annoyed by the person in the cubicle next to them that chews too loud.
It’s up to the business to make this new normal as “normal” as they can.
How to Improve Remote Socialization
Your business has probably deployed some pretty cool tools to help your staff collaborate over the past 12 months. If you’re still doing business from home, using some of those tools, like Discord or Zoom or Slack or Microsoft Teams to help your staff keep in touch for things that don’t necessarily pertain to work is nice. Whichever solution you choose to use, scheduling events that work to sustain their working bond, whether they knew they had one or not,is a great idea. You can have trivia outings, you can have team meetings, or you can simply promote discussions that keep that familiar feeling alive in your staff. When the new normal ends, you will be glad you did.
What do you think about the remote workplace and the strain it has on people’s mental health? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below and check back to our blog for more great business technology information.