She joined IV seven years ago to take care of finance and administration. Having a dedicated role for these issues had become a necessity by then. I put considerable effort into going through all processes in detail with her.
Somehow though, I forgot to elaborate on the fact that the time between 10 AM -12 PM and 1 PM - 3 PM is considered a “Quiet Time.” This is when we mostly communicate online to induce a Flow state. She did not get my Slack invitation on time, either. This was her very first workplace in the IT sector, so it was a bit odd for her to be surrounded by so many people staring at their screens. How could they just sit there without talking? She could not detect any trace of the jokes that had been going around in the noisy chat rooms. Later she confessed that she had not even been sure if she could tear a piece of paper before lunch or better wait until the quiet time was off.
Virtual communication has been a part of our life even before the pandemic. Nonetheless, in the last few years, we have been working hard on putting more emphasis on personal connections, e.g., cooking lunch for each other. Having lunches together and grabbing drinks after work contributed to a robust and friendly community.
Because of the pandemic, we are forced to work from home. A month has passed, which can be seen as a beneficial change in the environment. But more weeks of quarantine are to come. We can be prepared for some consequences, yet not for all. Communication with colleagues will be harder. I am expecting mood changes, less transparency, hardships on sticking to issues we committed ourselves to, which may result in a lack of trust and growing tensions. If these couples with financial difficulties, an emergency situation can take place that includes control, micro-management, and loss of trust.
I believe that this scenario can be avoided. We should be aiming for clear values, policies that are approved by all of us, commitments we can agree to abide by. According to ROWE, the following criteria should be followed in order to get results-oriented work indifferent to location or working time. All employees must understand:
- Their role in the company and what they are responsible for,
- what the measurement for success is,
- the repercussions of failing to meet the set measurement of success and,
- that the repercussion will be metered equally among other employees.
I am sure sometimes I will wake up feeling demotivated. Sometimes I will feel disengaged at work. Sometimes I will stress about overdue invoices. What can I do to be able to cope with these experiences successfully? Will I be able to spot if someone is going through difficulties and needs support? How can we adapt ourselves to these situations?
István Marhefka invited me to have a chat about the mandatory home office (available only in Hungarian):
Also available on Spotify and Itunes.
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