Energage conducted this year’s Top Workplace survey just as the pandemic was ramping up in the spring and summer and companies were racing to adjust to social distancing, mask wearing and COVID-19 outbreaks.
But after a few months of disruption, employees and their bosses have begun to adapt.
“It’s about four months before ‘hedonic adaptation’ kicks in,” Energage founder Doug Claffey said. He was referring to the theory that humans typically return to a state of relative happiness after a period of dislocation.
Still, this experiment in working from home and balancing work and with family duties may result in some permanent changes.
Claffey said managers have learned to work with workers who are no longer within sight.
“The expense of people working in offices is high,” he added, and companies realize they can get along with less space and gather everyone together only occasionally.
Other lessons learned during the pandemic so far:
- Rick Marshall, Brady SoCal: “I think it brought our team closer together. You needed to have empathy and not everybody’s beliefs (on the causes and solutions) are the same on COVID … I’m proud of our team because of the respect they’ve shown others in common courtesy, whether they believe it or not.” He also said some employees were distracted or depressed after working so long at home. “Once they returned they felt part of the ‘team unity’ once again.”
- Jeff Hansson, Scout Distribution: “We learned you’ve got to be upfront, honest … We’re not out of it but we’re definitely a stronger company than when we got into this.”
- Jennie Brooks, Booz Allen: “When people talk about returning to normal, I like to think about returning to carrying forward with what we learned in 2020 in new ways of working in the future.”
- Tina Nguyen, San Diego Humane Society: “This is an example of how we can challenge the process and be innovative without having a pandemic.”
