Sense and flexibility: on remote work in an age of coronavirus

Note: This was originally published in April 2020 at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/sense-flexibility-remote-work-age-coronavirus-grace-chua/

As Singapore shifts to home-based learning this week for a month, I’m turning this post into an entire article with further thoughts…

Friends — this is a highly unusual time. If you’re a parent of small children or school-aged children, you’ve probably seen lots of reassuring posts that if you’re not homeschooling to perfection, *it is ok* to drop the ball a little, and to give yourself some grace in the parenting department.

But what about your employers? What are you hearing from employers about trying to work in a pandemic? I’m curious. What policies, official or unofficial, have you seen that are kind to parents and fair to others with fewer care responsibilities? What messages have you heard around this? If you run the business, what are you telling employees?

Here are some thoughts for organisations. They’re based on my experience, including five years as a remote worker while parenting with daycare as our only childcare and zero family nearby…

1. Who you are before coronavirus is who you are during coronavirus. How an organisation acted before coronavirus sets the tone and lays the groundwork for how it responds today. In my experience, organisations that treat their employees like responsible adults and focus mainly on results rather than facetime, are the ones that now have employees’ loyalty and trust. This adds an extra layer of resilience in their continuity planning — they’re not only logistically prepared, but they are culturally ready. Organisations that communicated well about difficult decisions before coronavirus are the ones that are showing leadership now when times are really hard.
2. But it’s not too late to start. Are employers really listening to what employees need? How are managers and leaders balancing individuals’ schedule needs, being responsive to everyone — and more importantly, communicating that their expectations accommodate those needs? In a contact’s email signature, I saw a line that struck me: “I support flexible working. Please don’t feel you have to reply straight away — I understand that you will reply during the hours you work.” That’s a pretty clear acknowledgement of flexible working needs — and also a sensible policy for any large global organisation where people are located all over the world. (By the way, research finds that a work-from-anywhere policy for some employees in some types of roles can make people more productive and potentially aid retention. That HBR piece also highlighted that new hires often benefit from the informal learning in an office environment. So when everyone is working remotely, it’s extra important to devote some time and attention, even in a crisis, to keeping newer hires connected.)
3. What not to do, based on horror stories I’ve heard.

• Assume everyone can be at 100% or greater productivity ‘because you have nothing else to do and nowhere to go anyway’. This applies whether they have care responsibilities or not. At Kite, we’re encouraging all team members to pace themselves and take time off when they need to. Burnout and anxiety may be especially acute in a global crisis (surprise).
• Panic-buy monitoring and tracking software to keep tabs on employees working remotely. (Not an April Fool’s joke…alas.)

I’m curious to hear what you think. When the Zoom cameras are off, when schools and offices are open once more, what cultural shifts in work will remain? How will employers’ practices and expectations change for the long-term good? (What changes could happen for the worse, and why? How can we create the future of work that we want to see?)

Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com.