Eight remote working lessons from Covid-19 that can help teams work together through the cost of living and energy crisis

Thrust into remote working in the spring of 2020, we’ve all now learned a lot about how to work online. Whether it’s feeling more at ease about blurring the home-life backdrop with the work-life screen or learning new social etiquette for meetings and calls, the things we now take for granted have moved ‘normal working’ for many from a predominantly in-person affair to at least a hybrid set up. This is no bad thing: ‘new normals’ develop and they evolve and reach a new equilibrium.

The problem is that approaching a new normal makes us complacent in the face of future shocks. We forget the path we’ve walked and the issues we needed to overcome; we just act and forget to reflect.

The cost of living and energy crises that loom are shocks waiting to happen. Despite knowing they’re coming, they’ll still have the power to destablise our lives, shift our preferences, and change our behaviours. These shifts will stress our new normal, they’ll throw what we think we know about each other back up into the air again.

In the hyper-connected world of remote working we need only to cast our minds back to the spring of 2020 for some pointers to keep in mind. People may change their behaviours over the coming months and will need extra support, empathy, and flexibility. We can avoid the pitfalls we all fell into as well as apply the lessons we’ve learned since 2020 to provide genuine online leadership to colleagues. We just need to pause, remember, and reflect.

1. People might not want to turn webcams on to begin with. When the pandemic hit and we all started working from home some people were understandably reticent about turning their webcams on for meetings. Perhaps they weren’t comfortable in blurring that boundary between home and work. Perhaps they were self-conscious about the situation they were working in. The same may well be true as people try to keep warm — their situations change and so their behaviours change. The best way through this is to create the right team and organisational culture that allows this space and respects the decision. Only with a strong and trusting relationship between colleague, line manager, and team can issues can be discussed and behaviour change happen.
2. Colleagues may change to warmer rooms or different home locations more often. At the start of the pandemic people were working out where would be best to work from. Only a few would have dedicated rooms for this — most people had to use an existing room to set up their home office from. As energy becomes more expensive people may well choose to heat only parts of their home and may move around the house chasing heat. It could be the kitchen or a sunnier room or it could be from their bed. Counsel here would be to not make a big deal — however well-intentioned — about frequently seeing different rooms. In private, a trusted colleague or line manager should connect to ensure they are coping.
3. Colleagues may wear different clothing. The initial transition back in 2020 meant we saw fewer suits and a more casual style. The upcoming months may take that to the next level — hats, scarves, gloves. Worth reflecting that pointing these things out in a public forum may make people pull away so avoid commentary. Empower team leaders to build that trust to ensure colleagues are managing their situation while also engaging at work.
4. People may work from other external locations to keep warm. When cafes and coffee houses started to open up in the middle of the pandemic some people took full advantage to get some physical and emotional space. This winter these places may serve another purpose — warmth. Having an open and empathetic culture where colleagues can work from home or ‘roam’ will empower people to make the best decision for them. Work with colleagues to ensure they know this is an option — potentially with additional budgets if possible — and internally co-design and revisit online meeting etiquette such as muting microphones to ensure meetings can work as well as possible.
5. People may be living with a larger household to save on bills. During the pandemic we saw people move around the country to stay with different friends and family members to provide support and safely socialise. During these cold months we may see colleagues living under one roof with more people for similar reasons as a result of higher energy bills. Again, it is worth avoiding public background commentary as things may change frequently. Leaders that see or hear problems should reflect upon the best way to have conversations that explore issues.
6. Colleagues may need to shift working patterns. Without commuting time the possibility of reshaping the working day became more apparent. Some preferred to start early and finish early; some wanted to take a longer break in the middle of the day to run errands or get exercise; some needed to work around assisting family, friends, and neighbours in difficult times. With energy bills rising to high levels, some people may choose to work at different times of the day once more — perhaps it is cheaper to have heating on at a certain time, or people want to do more exercise to keep active and warm, or people may more time to help loved ones cope. The best firms will be mindful of this and will keep an open and flexible culture to help people fit in as much as they need in order to cope. Colleagues will want to continue to work and do a good job so leaders need to find the best flexible way to achieve this — co-designing working practices and redesign new working agreements will go a long way to avoid miscommunication.
7. Do not underestimate the emotional and wider psychological impact. During the pandemic, our emotions changed a lot. There was initial confusion and concern, wider health panic for them and their families, frustration and being in their own homes for most of the day. These wider factors impacted us all as humans and we learned ways to cope — working closely with teams and other colleagues; setting up mental health awareness support; providing flexibility for working patterns and outputs. The cost of living crisis will hit in similar ways — there will be caring responsibilities, broader concern about finances and health, worry for the future. Organisations should get out ahead of this issue by establishing the culture (and upskilling managers) where these discussions can be had, where additional support can be accessed, where internal groups can have a dedicated role in providing advice. Helping overcome smaller issues early will help but there will always be a need for professional assistance. Start planning for this early.
8. Does it require a meeting or can it be an email? With good intentions at the start of the pandemic, colleagues would make an extra effort to create a new normal and would set up meetings for everything. It was a way of checking in and building a sense of engagement and empowerment. The problem with this is that the number of meetings increased and people’s working day become more about calls than other activities or tasks. With all of the above lessons in mind, it is worth co-producing with your team a plan for how everyone would like to receive information — things that don’t need a discussion can go in a bulletin email, for example, so save those meetings for genuine collaboration.

What do you think? Are there ideas or lessons that I’ve missed? Do you disagree?

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