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For most of this year we’ve been learning how to lead our lives in isolation. How do we get through that from a psychological perspective? And how do we unlearn it?

More than 200 years ago in the United States, Quakers championed solitary confinement as the humane alternative to corporal punishments such as flogging. The thought was that instead of being beaten, criminals would sit with themselves and reconnect with God. These days, solitary confinement is widely regarded as one of the worst punishments for prisoners. It’s psychological torture and is supposed to be reserved for those committing the most heinous of offences.

“We are born to be social,” says Dan Auerbach, an organisational psychology consultant at EmployeeAssistance.com.au. “We live in care for longer than any other species. We spend a good 18 years in the care of other adults, and we learn to rely on those social interactions. That need for connectedness lasts throughout our life.”

There is a vast difference between the isolation everyone has experienced due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the isolation imposed on prisoners. We’ve been able to enjoy some of the creature comforts of life – the view from a window, short trips outdoors and video calls with loved ones. And those of us with families or roommates weren’t so much as isolated but confined. 

The conditions we’ve been living in are less than desirable, but (for most of us) are in no way dire. But even this form of confinement and isolation has changed us because it’s so far removed from what human beings are used to.

Life is almost back to normal in Australia now. We can have groups of people in our homes, we can head to the pub with friends and most of the services we enjoy are back up and running. While this will make the world of difference, we’re not out of the woods yet. A second wave of infections could be just around the corner, infected people will continue to be quarantined and vulnerable people will choose to remain in self-isolation. So how should organisations be dealing with a workforce experiencing the short-term and long-term psychological impacts of isolation?

Lonely brains

Feeling isolated affects the human brain in many different ways. It can cause negative shifts in our mood, it affects how we sleep, and it has even been linked with death and increased exposure to disease.

Expert in social neuroscience, the late John Cacioppo, formerly a director at University of Chicago’s Center for Cognitive and Social Neuroscience, studied the effects of isolation for decades. Much of his work was dedicated to differentiating between objective isolation and perceived isolation (loneliness). He found both to have significant impacts on physical and mental health, but the latter is far more damaging.

In a 2009 research paper, Cacioppo and co-author Louise Hawkley found that, when compared with the objective experience of isolation, the subjective experience of loneliness is a stronger predictor of changes in things such as life satisfaction, elevated blood pressure and peoples’ perception of their environment.

They point to other research which suggests loneliness is linked with a negative “lifetime change in IQ” and depressive symptoms, and it can even change gene expression.

In one experiment, Cacioppo and his team placed  participants under hypnosis and made them feel lonely.

He talked through the results in a video for No Isolation, a Norwegian startup that creates communication tools to help combat loneliness and isolation. He said they proved that when you make someone feel lonely, they can become more depressed, shyer and hostile. They can also develop poorer social skills and a greater fear of negative evaluation.

“The effect of isolation on mortality is four times larger than obesity and it’s more prevalent,” says Cacioppo. “So when you think about obesity as a major health problem, think about felt isolation having four times the impact on your health.”

While this research suggests those feeling lonely are worse off than those of us who are simply frustrated from being confined indoors, what happens when there’s crossover? It’s very likely that many cases of objective isolation will lead to loneliness.

“Perhaps during isolation you feel you didn’t have the level of contact or support that you needed,” says Auerbach. “Or perhaps you lost the skills or confidence to connect with the people around you. Going back into the social environment could lead us to develop that sense of perceived isolation.”

He says it’s interesting to look at the reactions of infants and young people to isolation to better understand the adult experience.

“When they lose connection with somebody who’s caring for them, they become very distressed. There’s an outcry and eventually despondency and a collapse into a catatonic depression. Adults have other ways of coping and of masking what’s going on inside. But we often go through similar stages of feeling very, very frightened when we feel isolated – we’re clamoring for connection. And if we don’t get it for too long, we also become anxious and potentially depressed.

“When you think about obesity as a major health problem, think about felt isolation having four times the impact on your health.” –John Cacioppo

“Our primary motive in life is to seek a good, functional relationship. Quality connectedness with others is essential for good mental health.”

Expert isolator

Isolation experiences vary. Those who are more introverted are perhaps relishing the alone time. But for those who are struggling, what makes for a better isolation experience? There could be plenty of answers to a question like this – a strong Wi-Fi signal, living with others, easy access to essential services – but what stands out as particularly important is meaningful work. This is the opinion of Canadian Chris Hadfield, a former International Space Station astronaut.

There’s isolation, and there’s being locked inside a tube and hurtling through the emptiness of space for months at a time. Astronauts (and a selection of animals) are the only ones to know this feeling. 

Hadfield says it’s a matter of perspective. From one point of view, our lives are much narrower than we care to believe. While being in isolation feels restrictive – and let’s be clear, it is – we already operate in a very limited portion of the world.

“You’ve not seen everything; you’ve not met everybody; you haven’t done everything. Even if you’ve travelled a lot, you have still only seen a tiny fraction of the huge variety of the world,” he says.

Hadfield has circled the planet from space about 2,600 times. When returning from his longest mission, his perspective was expanded both figuratively and literally.

“I got to be as far away from the little room I was born in as nearly anyone ever has. I was able to truly see the world for what it is. In that time, you get to see a perspective that becomes a part of you.”

Cultural and religious differences, which are often magnified on earth, fade away in space, he says. He returned to earth with an optimism about the “proven resilience” of both the planet and its inhabitants. He’s viewing the COVID-19 pandemic through this lens.

Things are abnormal right now, he says. “There’s this weird danger – a virus that no-one is immune to. It doesn’t matter if you’re Australian or an Intuit living in northern Canada, we’re all vulnerable to [the same thing] and that’s a weird position to be in. Everybody’s life is threatened… it’s like a creeping fog in a bad movie. That’s very unsettling.

“The beauty of it is, for one of those rare moments in history, the entire world has a common enemy. That means we can have a common purpose. That’s an immensely unifying thing,” he says.

Hadfield says he also returned from space with a new sense of time. That’s probably because he wasn’t up there laying around watching Netflix. He was engaging in rigorous scientific work. Doing that, he says, helped the hours, days and weeks to flow by seamlessly.

Of course, not everyone is lucky enough to have such meaningful work to do right now. Many Australians have been made redundant or their roles have shifted. 

Hadfield’s advice to those people is to make your own work.

“Keep busy with a million things to do, but make a bunch of those things fun or voluntary, so you look forward to each day. When we did that right on the spaceship, one of us remarked after a couple of months that it’s always Monday or Friday. That’s because we bought into the level of busyness and we balanced the huge workload with a necessary amount of ‘me time’ and sleep.”

Auerbach says that while work might play a role in helping some people get through periods of isolation, in Hadfield’s case, isolation was in the job description.

“If you’re an astronaut, part of your role expectation is to cope well in that environment. That’s part of your sense of meaning. In this pandemic, we’ve been thrust into isolation without choice and without it being part of our core identity,” says Auerbach.

For those of us who haven’t trained for decades to survive long periods of isolation, like Hadfield has, Auerbach says it’s important we ease ourselves back in slowly.

“In a crisis, people rally and become quite focused on trying to cope.” – Dan Auerbach

Unlearning isolation

Speaking generally, the clients Auerbach has seen tended to follow a similar pattern in their response to the restrictions. There was an initial sense of fear and panic in the thought of having to prepare for isolation, followed by a brief feeling of novelty in getting to slow down and try a new way of living. When the shine wore off, it was followed by a few weeks of frustration, despondency and hopelessness.

Now, he says, many people are emerging out the other end with a sense of acceptance for this new normal. But what happens when the ‘old normal’ reasserts itself? When workplaces reopen, employees will have to readjust and perhaps unlearn the behaviours they’ve developed over the last few months.

People might come back to work feeling less motivated, anxious or perhaps even depressed. They might struggle to work with others around them. Managers might notice a drop in the quality of their work. They might be more irritable than usual or have trouble meeting their deadlines. Workplaces need to ease staff back in, because isolation can cause aftershocks.

“When we’re depressed or socially anxious, we find it hard to reach out and be with other people,” says Auerbach. “That can deepen this sense of perceived isolation. This can spiral unless we slowly reconnect ourselves and practice getting reconnected with others.”

Even though we’ve been working in the comfort of our own homes, we may come back quite burnt out. Not just because of the impacts of living and working through a crisis, but also because of how we’ve learned to communicate with each other.

“Ironically, because of all the communication we’re having on Zoom and Skype, we’re getting very close to [our co-workers] on a face-to-face level, which isn’t very normal in a social interaction,” says Auerbach. 

“We don’t stare at each other constantly when we are in a group of four people. People are feeling a little burnt out from the hyper-stimulating interactions.”

People are saying we’re dealing with two crises at the moment: the physical health impacts of the virus and the economic fallout. However, some experts suggest there’s a third tier that we should be equally concerned about – the mental health impacts.

“In a crisis, people rally and become quite focused on trying to cope,” says Auerbach. 

“It’s not until the immediate threat is gone that we start to see the most profound mental health effects. We know that from looking at situations like SARS, siege scenarios and war zones. When our mind is vigilant, it’s operating on a very narrow focus around how to survive. When comfort returns to life, we see other emotions come forward for processing.”

This is a completely normal response, he says.

“We might see some people being less social, or having a change in mood. Managers, friends and peers need to be prepared for how to manage mental health concerns that won’t raise their heads until people emerge from isolation.”

Many workplaces have seen a positive shift in dialogue around mental health during the pandemic, and HR managers should keep an eye on whether or not this changes as we go back to work.

Employers also need to expand their bubble of care as staff trickle back into the workplace. While an employee’s wages might not have been cut, perhaps their partner’s have been, says Auerbach. Their individual mental health might appear to be okay, but their children could be struggling. These external factors will affect staff, employers need to be prepared for that.

Returning to Hadfield’s experience, if we think of ourselves as astronauts, and our family and co-workers as crew mates, what are we doing to make sure our mission runs smoothly? What are we doing to ensure we emerge from this situation changed for the better?

Hadfield says we’re operating in unprecedented times, and people need a plan. “On landing day, you want to be able to stand up next to your ship and say, ‘That was an amazing experience. We survived. We thrived. I learned a bunch of things and I saw stuff I’d never seen before.’” 

The Fair Work Commission has said it will raise the minimum wage in Australia from July 1 to $753.80 a week, or $19.84 an hour – a $13 a week increase.

The General Retail Industry Award 2010 will not be affected by the increase until 1 February 2021, due to the inordinate impact the COVID-19 crisis has had on the retail industry. 

FWC president Iain Ross said the panel had noted the polarised proposals from industry groups, and had been given little direction by the Government barring that it be cautious and prioritise keeping Australians in jobs. 

“The Australian economy is going through a significant downturn and is almost certain to enter a recession,” Ross said.

“The shock to the labour market has been unprecedented… and the form and shape of the pathway to recovery is uncertain.”

Ross said the approaching cliff drop of Government wage subsidy JobKeeper, as well as the risk of a second wave of COVID-19 cases as the economy slowly opens up, helped to push the majority of panel members to come to the decision. 

ACTU Secretary Sally McManus said that it was a modest increase, and that the union was disappointed some awards wouldn’t see increases until November or February next year.

“However it is clear in the decision that this panel of experts recognise that cutting wages in the middle of this crisis would be a disaster for working people and the economy and they have rejected the arguments put by some employers to effectively cut wages by freezing the minimum wage,” McManus said. 

“Just about every cent a worker on minimum wages receives, they spend. This is money circulating to local businesses. It is the fastest and most effective form of stimulus we can have.”

According to the ACTU, almost 60 per cent of the economy relies on domestic spending – which is likely to go up as international borders remain closed.

“This is why we must not have wage cuts. Wage cuts are confidence killers which hurts business and job creation,” McManus said. 

National Retail Association chief executive Dominique Lamb said the decision was like Groundhog Day – retailers would wake up in February to find their concerns have once again been ignored, and that they are in a “continuing nightmare”.

“They will wake up to the recurring problem of widespread failure of retail businesses, which will be compounded by wage increases that many simply cannot afford,” Lamb said. 

“The bottom line is that businesses cannot pay money that they do not have and will likely be hit with two wage increases in February and July 2021.

“It is hard to reconcile this verdict with the events of the past six months and the current economic climate,” Lamb said. 

Ask Stef Bradley about her secrets to a successful virtual coffee and the KPMG partner channels the advice her father would give her before a date.

Always have three conversation starters just in case there's an awkward silence.

"I used to have to think about these conversation starters and they would be tested with my dad," Bradley says.

"I always think about that more and more in the virtual world."

In the shift to remote work during COVID-19, professionals have to had to adapt their communication skills as meetings have moved to video platforms such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams.

The office that workers once knew is unlikely to make a comeback any time soon and the same can be said for in-person meetings.

While the shift to online meetings has been a game-changer for some, experts say there is a craft to mastering the art of virtual communication – and that goes for the humble coffee catch-up too.

Although video meetings have been touted as far more efficient, they have their limitations. One of the biggest challenges is that it is much harder to read non-verbal cues such as body language over video.

1. Before you even meet ...

It can be useful to establish why you're meeting and provide a topic of discussion in your meeting invitation, says Jane Gunn, partner in charge of People and Change at KPMG Australia.

If it's more formal, it can be helpful to provide a short agenda to guide the discussion.

Fiona Roberston, leadership specialist and author, suggests going one step further and sending a 30-second introductory video before the meeting, especially if you haven't met before.

"Just to say 'hey, I'm me, really looking forward to seeing you'," she says. "That way people know what they're in for. That saves the sniff test at the beginning."

Just because you're catching up from the comfort of your bedroom or living room, doesn't mean you should treat it any less professionally than an in-person meeting, says leading body language and speech expert Michael Kelly.

He says ensure you have the basics down-pat before the meeting. These include dressing professionally, using a non-distracting background, directing extra light on your face, ensuring the camera is at eye level and putting a "do not disturb" sign on the door.

Regardless of whether the meeting is for business purposes or a social catch-up, Gunn advises starting the conversation by making a human connection to help engage everyone.

"Engage in small talk," she says. "What is your cat's name? How are your kids? Allow it to become a human connection rather a transitional, leadership interaction."

Robertson concurs.

"Always seek to connect before you convince," she says. "Particularly at this point in time when we've all got kids and pets and real lives that we haven't been able to hide. I think people really appreciate being able to meet the real human a little bit more than might have once been the case."

If you've ever been in a virtual meeting with lots of participants, you have probably experienced the frustration of people interrupting or talking over one another.

Gunn recommends being clear on who is facilitating the discussion.

"Leadership is vital especially if it’s a ‘social connection only’ purpose meeting. Who is responsible for making sure everyone contributes?"

Gunn says it is important to know who is on the call and ensure everyone is involved. If you need to, write down everyone's names.

Put a tick next to their name when they make a contribution.

"They can also record a comment or insight without having to actually speak," she says. "The main aim is to ensure everyone has a ‘voice’ – including more introverted participants."

4. Don't be anywhere else

Distractions are abundantly obvious during virtual communication, say experts.

"DBAE - don't be anywhere else," says Kelly. "It's so basic but it [works] because we all daydream, so you can even put a post-it note on your monitor and that seems to [help you] focus in the moment."

5. K.I.S.S (Keep it short and slow)

Robertson recommends keeping a lid on the length of a coffee meeting, especially in the virtual world.

"Human brains are not designed for interacting over screens, we're designed for face-to-face, so there's a whole lot of stuff that your brain does when you're in physically in proximity to another person," she says.

"It does all this stuff without us even being aware of it and when you're on the other side of a screen, brains get very confused because they see a person there but they can't do what they normally do and that's one of the reasons why Zoom meetings are so exhausting.

"It's like your brain is sending out a Bluetooth signal and hitting a brick wall. It's all much more stressful than if you were face-to-face."

Kelly says: "Being succinct is the currency of video meetings and that extends to coffee meetings."

Robertson says it's also important to slow down – especially when communicating virtually.

"Ask more than tell and allow silence to do more of the work because people need time to think and the social cues of who can talk when are much less obvious. Just slow the whole thing down."

Bonus tip: Keep smiling

"Smiling releases endorphins and makes everyone feel better connected," says Gunn.

Kelly agrees energy is a vital component to a successful – and memorable – coffee meeting.

"Energy is the secret sauce of virtual communication. Your energy is more memorable than your words."

In reality, we've all seen a dramatic increase in the number of decision points in the day requiring conscious thought. Things we once did on autopilot, like giving a hug or touching your face, have now become critical decision points.

And if behavioural economics has taught us anything, it's that humans generally suck at decision making.

Two concepts from the field - that of "decision fatigue" and "asymmetric loss function" – hold particular explanatory power to understanding the current sense of unease felt by so many.

The idea of decision fatigue is pretty much as it sounds and was coined by the American social psychologist Roy F. Baumeister.

His, and other numerous studies, have proved that decision makers make different decisions depending on how many decisions they have already made. Parole judges, for instance, are more likely to grant parole first thing in the morning, or shortly after a break. Doctors order more tests in the morning and fewer in the afternoon.

Decision making can alter in different ways. In some situations, decision makers delay making a decision, such as the parole judge effectively putting off the decision whether to release someone back into the community.

In other situations, decision makers become more impulsive, which explains all those chocolate bars at the checkout counter – retailers know you're more likely to cave in to a poor health choice after an exhaustive search of the grocery aisles.

Explanations vary as to why we're so bad at consecutive decision making. Psychologists have compared the concept of self-control – the ability to make optimal decisions for oneself – to a muscle, which fatigues with use.

While actual energy use by the brain fluctuates very little, different parts of the brain that require conscious choice require more energy.

Interestingly, studies have shown that small amounts of glucose, like fruit, can restore – at least temporarily – the ability to make good decisions. So that 3pm sugar craving might not be so irrational after all.

Overall, strategies to overcome decision fatigue include reducing the number of decision points in the day. Wearing the same outfit or eating the same meals each day are ways to reduce the cognitive load.

That new uniform of tracksuit pants and Ugg boots you've adopted while working from home during the pandemic is not so irrational after all – but a highly strategic coping mechanism.

But it's the second insight from behavioural economics of "asymmetric loss aversion" that really goes to the heart of the current malaise.

Not only are we making more decisions, but the consequences of those decisions are more dire than ever before.

One of my local bus shelters has an ad reading: "Save lives in your community, stay at home unless absolutely essential."

Every tiny decision we make these days, from catching a bus to ringing a doorbell to how far to stand apart in the coffee queue now comes with the potential to bring death to you, your loved ones, or those in our community with compromised health.

At times, there have also been severe financial penalties for breaking the rules.

And perhaps worst of all for a social animal, has been the sense that one might incur social shame or stigma if the decisions we make should spread the virus.

For many people who got COVID-19, the worst part was not the illness itself but the social shaming of friends or acquaintances who they may have exposed to the virus.

Each decision made in a time of COVID has been subject to an asymmetric loss function.

That is, the potential loss that could be suffered from any course of action was more extreme – that of death, loss and isolation.

Many decisions carry such an asymmetry of risks. Being 30 minutes late for a flight is way worse than being 30 minutes early. That's why we all spend so long waiting around in airports (well, we used to).

Getting caught in the rain without an umbrella is so much worse than the inconvenience of carrying around an umbrella unnecessarily. The greater the potential loss, the greater level of discomfort we are willing to experience to avoid it.

And even as the threat of the virus recedes, life is far from back to normal.

For every rule change, for every relaxation – or potential reimposition – of restrictions, we are forced to make a new set of decisions.

It will be some time before life is back to normal – if ever.

On the upside, the new way of life offers the potential – for some, at least – to eke out more optimal ways of living, such as continuing to work from home or spending more time with family. But the cognitive load imposed by having to re-imagine the minutiae of life remains.

You're only human, after all. But you're far from alone in that.

The remote work revolution has been promised for years now, and it only took a global pandemic for Australia to find out if it was actually ready to make the leap.

As coronavirus restrictions sent the majority of white-collar workers in Australia to their home offices – and kitchen tables – many have wondered whether this new arrangement might constitute a new normal. It’s clear many workers are capable of doing most (if not all) of their jobs out of the office with little disruption, giving executives some daring ideas on slashing costly real estate expenses within their enterprises.

A new report from productivity consultancy Building20, based on a survey of 423 Australian office workers between May 12 and May 22, has found most workers believe they are either more productive working from home or have maintained similar levels of productivity to when they were in the office.

According to the report, 45% of respondents think they’re more productive working remotely, while 32% think their productivity is about the same, and only 22% think their productivity has dropped. Overall, 51% of respondents said they preferred remote working, as compared to 23% who prefer working in the office and 26% with no preference between the two.

Most respondents wanted to at least spend more time working remotely after the coronavirus pandemic than they did previously. On average, those surveyed wanted to work remotely about half of the time, indicating that increased flexibility in working arrangements could be the norm rather than a truly radical change.

Interestingly, it is managers who are most eager to continue remote work arrangements, with 57% showing a preference for working from home, as compared to 45% among general employees. This rift suggests remote management may be slightly more preferable for those who are actually doing the managing.

The most popular reason for enjoying remote work was getting rid of the commute, followed by flexibility and saving money. Around a third of respondents also said it enhanced work-life balance for them, or allowed them to spend more time with family.

The challenges of remote work going forward

The discussion about how vigorously Australians can commit to remote work after COVID-19 is obviously a complex one which is not entirely in the hands of individual companies.

As John L.Swinburne from the Swinburne University of Technology writes in The Conversation, there are broader questions of urban planning at play – including, for example, how capable our internet infrastructure is.

For the average worker, the concerns are more immediate. 32% of respondents to the Building20 survey said distractions were a major challenge while working from home, with kids, noise and phone calls being tipped as particularly bothersome. Of course, as restriction on schools and daycares are further lifted, some of these concerns will be less severe.

But some problems are more pernicious. As many organisations are finding, work drinks over Zoom are not a full substitute for a robust team culture. About half of respondents to the survey said it was the biggest concern about remote work – ahead of technology, the second-biggest concern.

“Without face-to-face interactions, employees worry that workplace culture will slip,” the report reads.

The office as a space for in-person collaboration is one of the few areas remote work struggles to replace. Unispace global design director Simon Pole told Business Insider Australia the social, collaborative quality of offices would ensure workplaces never go entirely remote.

“Many clients have reported that the social isolation is having its toll on their teams,” Poole said. “Having Friday drinks on a chat is not the same, the office banter has stopped, the cultural reinforcement is left to fortnightly emails from the CEO, and the ad hoc knowledge sharing and problem-solving is not happening,” he said.

But the survey reinforces something which seems increasingly obvious as we navigate COVID-19 restrictions: workers don’t want to go back to the inflexible working arrangements of before.

The remote work revolution has been promised for years now, and it only took a global pandemic for Australia to find out if it was actually ready to make the leap.

As coronavirus restrictions sent the majority of white-collar workers in Australia to their home offices – and kitchen tables – many have wondered whether this new arrangement might constitute a new normal. It’s clear many workers are capable of doing most (if not all) of their jobs out of the office with little disruption, giving executives some daring ideas on slashing costly real estate expenses within their enterprises.

A new report from productivity consultancy Building20, based on a survey of 423 Australian office workers between May 12 and May 22, has found most workers believe they are either more productive working from home or have maintained similar levels of productivity to when they were in the office.

According to the report, 45% of respondents think they’re more productive working remotely, while 32% think their productivity is about the same, and only 22% think their productivity has dropped. Overall, 51% of respondents said they preferred remote working, as compared to 23% who prefer working in the office and 26% with no preference between the two.

Most respondents wanted to at least spend more time working remotely after the coronavirus pandemic than they did previously. On average, those surveyed wanted to work remotely about half of the time, indicating that increased flexibility in working arrangements could be the norm rather than a truly radical change.

Interestingly, it is managers who are most eager to continue remote work arrangements, with 57% showing a preference for working from home, as compared to 45% among general employees. This rift suggests remote management may be slightly more preferable for those who are actually doing the managing.

The most popular reason for enjoying remote work was getting rid of the commute, followed by flexibility and saving money. Around a third of respondents also said it enhanced work-life balance for them, or allowed them to spend more time with family.

The challenges of remote work going forward

The discussion about how vigorously Australians can commit to remote work after COVID-19 is obviously a complex one which is not entirely in the hands of individual companies.

As John L.Swinburne from the Swinburne University of Technology writes in The Conversation, there are broader questions of urban planning at play – including, for example, how capable our internet infrastructure is.

For the average worker, the concerns are more immediate. 32% of respondents to the Building20 survey said distractions were a major challenge while working from home, with kids, noise and phone calls being tipped as particularly bothersome. Of course, as restriction on schools and daycares are further lifted, some of these concerns will be less severe.

But some problems are more pernicious. As many organisations are finding, work drinks over Zoom are not a full substitute for a robust team culture. About half of respondents to the survey said it was the biggest concern about remote work – ahead of technology, the second-biggest concern.

“Without face-to-face interactions, employees worry that workplace culture will slip,” the report reads.

The office as a space for in-person collaboration is one of the few areas remote work struggles to replace. Unispace global design director Simon Pole told Business Insider Australia the social, collaborative quality of offices would ensure workplaces never go entirely remote.

“Many clients have reported that the social isolation is having its toll on their teams,” Poole said. “Having Friday drinks on a chat is not the same, the office banter has stopped, the cultural reinforcement is left to fortnightly emails from the CEO, and the ad hoc knowledge sharing and problem-solving is not happening,” he said.

But the survey reinforces something which seems increasingly obvious as we navigate COVID-19 restrictions: workers don’t want to go back to the inflexible working arrangements of before.

This Flexible Working Day (10 June), it’s time to recognise that a lot of people – perhaps a majority – prefer working remotely. How should organisations manage this?

A Sydney-based professional services firm with 1000 employees had enacted its return-to-work strategy. The office was prepared. It was cleaned and rigorous social-distancing measures were put in place to ensure staff confidence. The company wanted to stagger days in the office so split its workforce into ‘A’ and ‘B’ streams. Due to ongoing social-distancing rules, going into the office wasn’t compulsory. On the first Monday back – the A stream day – less than 150 people turned up. The remaining 350-400 opted to work remotely.

This story comes from Paul Flanagan, founder of Life Street (who works with the above firm). But the company is not alone. All over the world employers are finding that the forced ‘global experiment’ in working from home has been very successful – perhaps too successful. Most organisations were up to the challenge of facilitating working from home, but many are now discovering a lot of employees are intransigent about coming back. 

Why is this the case and what should leaders do about it?

This is not just a health issue

It would be reasonable to surmise that a big reason the professional services firm had so few people returning was because many were still worried about the risk of infection. But survey after survey suggests that, setting aside health concerns, employees want remote working options. And, while the data is not conclusive, it seems like the majority prefer it over office work.

In the US, a Gallup poll of workers found 59 per cent wanted to “work remotely as much as possible”. In Australia, an NBN co survey found 67 per cent of workers “expect” to work remotely more frequently.

Data from before the pandemic has consistently shown that long commutes align with less job satisfaction. One study even found that adding 20 minutes to the commute had the same negative effect as a 19 per cent pay cut. So it makes sense getting rid of the commute entirely has made people happier about remote work.

Buffer and AngelList surveyed 3,500 workers from around the world (including Australia) and found 98 per cent want to work remotely at least some of the time “for the rest of their careers”. 

Of those surveyed: 

• 57 per cent are currently working remotely 100 per cent of the time
• 16.5 per cent are working remotely 76-99 per cent of the time 
• 10 per cent were remote working less than 26 per cent of the time

Given this breakdown, it’s impressive that 70 per cent were happy with the amount of time they’re working remotely and 19 per cent wanted to work remotely more often. Only 11 per cent wanted to work remotely less often. It’s particularly astounding if you remember at the start of this year it was normal for companies to limit remote working opportunities. The convention in a lot of places was to prevent people from working from home as much as possible.

Now, there is a caveat to this data. A third of respondents either worked freelance (3 per cent) or worked for a company that had a fully remote workforce (30 per cent). So while two thirds were part of a blended workforce, those who have crafted careers around remote work are possibly over-represented in the sample. 

However, the survey also found data that doesn’t need any caveats. Ninety-seven per cent of respondents said they would recommend remote work to others. This is proof of a very simple truth that all organisations should never forget: people really like working remotely. 

Returning to the professional services firm, this was a group of people who had been working remotely for over two months. Knowing that remote work was still an option for the foreseeable future they had every reason to return to work, even if just to break up the routine. So it’s quite possible that COVID-19 was the secondary cause, and the main reason most didn’t return was because they didn’t want to.

Rethinking the challenge

As HRM has previously written, research broadly shows that individuals are more productive when working remotely, while teams are more efficient working in-office. Given this, for most organisations the future should likely involve a blend of both types of work.

This means there will be times where employees want to work remotely but the organisation would benefit the most from them being in the office (and vice versa). While each job demands what it demands, there are ways you can strike the right balance between employee wishes and organisational needs.

A good place to start is by figuring out why employees prefer remote work, and seeing if they can be satisfied in other ways. While different surveys produce different results, all answers to the question of why people prefer remote work can be broken down into two main reasons: autonomy and work-life balance.

If someone says they like remote working because it means they have schedule flexibility and the ability to work from anywhere (the top two benefits in the Buffer and AngelList survey), they are effectively saying they like the ability to have control over how they work. 

If someone says they like remote working because of the lack of a commute, meaning they get to spend more time with family (the third and fourth ranked benefits), they are saying they want a better work-life balance.

For those in the first group, there are ways to offer more autonomy while still having people in the office. The most obvious is giving them control over their hours – letting them choose, with their team members, what times will be most conducive to both lifestyle and productivity.

You can also collaborate with staff on job crafting, which has also shown to help organisations thrive in difficult times.

Lastly, new ideas in office design were already catering for different kinds of work that are emerging. Creating spaces for each is useful as it gives employees the ability to choose the right space for them within the office..

It’s a little more difficult to satisfy the needs of those in the work-life balance group. In the past, organisations have tended to view work-life balance as the only benefit of remote working (hence why it was seen as a privilege and not a right), and so haven’t worried about employees being upset about the lack of it. But now that so many people have gotten a taste for it, this approach may no longer be as sustainable.

Again, offering flexible hours is a good option. Another idea might be to reward staff who need to come into the office for longer periods with things that will encourage them to spend quality time out of work later – whether that’s extra leave or something as simple as a restaurant voucher for their family. For working parents, approaching them to collaborate on a schedule that fits with their childcare demands can be advantageous.

It is still too early to say conclusively that remote work is the ‘new normal’, but it certainly is front of mind for everyone right now. So, for the moment, an organisational policy that insists on mostly working from the office is a policy designed to deprive employees of something  they really like and that makes them individually more productive. As more and more organisations transition to the next phase after lockdown, they would do well to keep that in mind.

AHRI’s latest pulse survey shows HR professionals are burning the candle at both ends and struggling to keep staff connected.

In Australia, COVID-19 is under enough control that lockdowns are continuously easing, but that doesn’t mean HR professionals’ jobs are getting any easier. In fact it means the opposite. Just as the huge move to remote work was unprecedented, so too will be the return to the workplace. For many organisations, this will be the hardest part of the pandemic.

AHRI’s first HR pulse survey – conducted in the first week of April – showed redundancies were a key concern for many HR professionals in Australia. In the second survey, which looks at HR’s sentiments during the first week of May, reintroducing staff into the workforce was respondents’ main concern (66 per cent), followed by loss of revenue (48 per cent) and a downturn in business (47 per cent).  

Looking more deeply into the results, it’s clear there are consistent challenges HR professionals are facing right now. Here are the five most important.

1. Workloads have increased but hours don’t reflect this

Nearly 85 per cent of respondents were working from home at the time they took this survey, as were many of their colleagues. So while getting back to the physical workforce might not be a reality just yet, it’s certainly a key item on HR’s agenda.

Formulating a return-to-work plan is time consuming. You have to factor in extra hygiene and cleaning practices, the psychological safety of employees who’ve struggled in isolation and the new legal obligations around social distancing and workplace signage.

So it’s not surprising that 30 per cent of respondents say they’re experiencing a 50 per cent increase in their workload right now, and only 17 per cent say their paid hours are reflective of this.

As one respondent explained it, “[There is] a greater demand on my time to connect with my team and others daily. Balancing home [schooling] of our three kids with a senior role is difficult. I tend to work longer hours and across the weekend to compensate.”

One person said they’ve started having to “play catch up at night” due to their increased workload. They worry that, as a society, we won’t be able to maintain this intense momentum.

“Cracks are going to show. I am working with my managers to [encourage] flexibility and understanding with their people, including me!”

2. Maintaining connectedness

Keeping employees connected with the organisation has been a challenge for 42 per cent of respondents.

While many people felt a greater sense of community and closeness during the initial stages of the pandemic – when we were all adjusting to a new reality – it seems that feeling is now waning. Forty-four per cent said that cultivating connectedness is harder now than it was pre-COVID-19.

It could be that the exhaustion from working through a pandemic and communicating in new ways is finally catching up with people.

HRM previously examined video call fatigue and the cognitive dissonance of a hyper-connected environment. This could be causing more people to shut off their video cameras during a call or opt out of virtual social events, therefore weakening the sense of togetherness they felt in the early days of lockdown.

But this isn’t true for everyone. Such social events are a lifeline for a lot of people.

“Some [staff] have openly discussed their surprise at their need for social connection through work – and the surprise factor for them is that pre-COVID they would have said they didn’t need work to provide connectedness,” said one respondent.

This tension between the need for connection and the pitfalls of social technology will be a long-term struggle for workplaces. We know the lines between home and work are easily blurred in a virtual workplace and it’s looking as if many organisations will continue remote working long after the pandemic is over.

3. Returning to work struggles

Understanding how to best reintegrate staff back into the office was a key concern for 66 per cent of respondents, and 39 per cent feel either ‘somewhat pressured’ or ‘pressured’ by their executive team to make this happen. 

Nearly 70 per cent feel their staff are somewhat or moderately concerned about the health and safety issues related to the return to the workplace.

As HRM reported earlier this week, a recent survey from the Australian Council of Trade Unions shows that this feeling is widespread. Less than 5 per cent of respondents in that survey said their workplaces had implemented extra cleaning initiatives and less than 10 per cent have been given access to extra personal hygiene products, such as hand sanitizer.

The main metrics which respondents to the AHRI Survey said they were implementing in response to the pandemic were health and safety tracking, pulse surveys and assessing staff preferences on flexible work and return to work plans.

4. JobKeeper struggles

Over a third of respondents say their organisations have signed up for JobKeeper payments. They report that the majority of staff paid under the scheme are likely to keep working their usual hours. 

Seventeen per cent of respondents are currently being paid on the wage subsidy themselves.

JobKeeper is proving to be quite helpful in retaining staff, as the graph below demonstrates.

However, HR professionals have some mixed feelings about the government program. A few respondents felt disappointed that they couldn’t support casual staff whose tenure didn’t quite reach the 12 month mark and expatriates.  

Others expressed concern about the lifespan of the subsidy, saying they forecast the financial impacts of COVID-19 to go way beyond September (when JobKeeper payments are set to end).

The recent news about the $60 billion JobKeeper miscalculation and nationwide confusion about the application process was also reflected in some of the comments left by respondents. 

One person said the administrative and legal aspects of the scheme were an issue for them. Another shared concerns about casual staff not working as many hours as the company needs as they recieve $1,500 each fortnight regardless of hours worked.

5. COVID-19 has shifted HR’s role

There’s both positive and negative reactions to how the pandemic has shifted HR’s role. 

Many professionals report feeling overwhelmed with the new set of responsibilities they have to quickly deliver on.

One participant said: “I am under extreme pressure 24/7. Working an average of 70 hour weeks to design, lead and implement changes such as redundancies and contract variations. In addition, I am responsible for formulating communications in these and other areas relating to coronavirus (i.e. leave, and how and when to use it).”

Another person said they’re feeling “lots of pressure to provide the full legal picture with all the issues/responsibilities in a rapidly changing landscape with no time to research. [And we’re] not allowed to utilise external legal advice due to the cost”.

Respondents said they’ve had to re-adjust plans to introduce new HR software. Like the respondent above, others are struggling to balance their normal daily tasks with keeping on top of new employment legislation and updates from Fair Work.

“It has meant my ‘day job’ has almost moved to the side,” said one respondent. “Initially, mobilising our workforce became a full-time role [involving the consideration of] government restrictions, employee health and safety, client experience and business performance. Now the focus is shifting to [managing] how and when to return our staff to the office and what the ‘new normal’ will look like for us.” 

One person said the pandemic has resulted in them “reverting back to a more transactional HR” and another said they’re learning how to “manage up” in ways they didn’t have to before.

This is happening in a fraught situation. As one respondent notes, the vulnerability of the job market right now can make it harder to challenge management as there’s a perception that “it’s easier for them to avoid or cut you”.

But it’s not all doom and gloom. Many people have valued the raised profile the pandemic has afforded them. As HRM has said before, this has been a great opportunity for HR professionals to shine and show an organisation exactly what they can do. 

As one respondent said, “On the bright side, [COVID-19] has raised the profile of HR, which is a battle I have been trying to address for a number of years. Situation aside, it has been positive for my team to show what we can do to support the organisation.”

Moving forward, the sentiment of respondents was that a successful COVID-19 plan should aim to ensure minimal impacts on productivity and mental health while motivating and engaging employees.

“[I hope] that managers in the business use this time to step up and show leadership, support the business to be resilient and bounce back from where we were/are in a better place,” said a respondent. Organisations, they say, need to be innovative, flexible and responsive to change.

It only took a couple of months for the coronavirus to completely change the world as we knew it. But, if you’re patiently waiting for things to return to normal, I have some bad news for you: I don’t think that we’ll ever ultimately return to a pre-COVID-19 world.

So, how has the future of work been altered? Well, here’s a glimpse into what to anticipate going forward.

Permanent flexibility.

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, 5 million people were already working from home at least half of the time. Since then, according to research from Salesforce, 61 percent of the workforce is working from home. Even more astounding is that 53 percent of employees began doing so because of COVID-19. And, guess what? They’re more productive and communicative.

Because of this, expect flexible working arrangements to become the norm rather than just a trend. Twitter recently announced that most employees would be able to WFH permanently, and even more traditional companies like Barclays and Morgan Stanley have implemented this policy.

"It's obvious at this stage that remote working will be viewed with entirely new importance post-COVID-19," said Ben Rogers, president of platform and technology clients at the National Research Group (NRG). "Investments in platforms and technology will need to be made to maximize efficiency in this new paradigm.”

Does this mean employees will never leave their homes again? Of course not. They may visit the office one or two days a week for in-person events. Also, there will be some jobs where working remotely isn’t an option. But, we can be certain that the days of the traditional 9-to-5 daily grind are behind us.

Say goodbye to many in-person meetings.

Because of the coronavirus, virtual meetings have become more popular than ever. And just like remote work, expect the trend to become the new normal. We've seen Zoom pick up in a big way and many significant innovations with other virtual meeting platforms. COVID may also lessen a lot of business travel.

But, don’t just expect an uptick in video conferences. Anticipate replacing even more of your meetings with email and instant messages. No disrespect to face-to-face interactions, but these types of communications will likely be faster and more efficient. But, when it’s time to build rapport, rely on video conferences and try out team-building activities like virtual lunches.
 

Share employees in cross-industry talent exchanges.

“As leaders," say Ravin Jesuthasan, Tracey Malcolm and Susan Cantrell in HBR, "we must all ask ourselves: How can we tap into the broader ecosystem of talent to build the resilience of both organizations and people during these challenging times?”  

The answer? “One innovative response is to develop a cross-industry talent exchange.”

What exactly is this? Well, it’s where unemployed people, because of this crisis, temporarily work at “organizations that have an excess of work,” such as logistics. Why is this beneficial? It helps avoid “the frictional and reputational costs associated with letting people go while supporting workers in developing new skills and networks.”

Companies like Kroger, for example, have “borrowed” furloughed employees from the wholesale food distributor Sysco. “Months earlier in China, companies also creatively started sharing employees,” the authors add. “In these arrangements, the companies receiving employees define which skills they’re looking for,” explain Jesuthasan, Malcolm, and Cantrell. “They then work with the companies sharing their employees to define the length of the exchange as well as the implications for pay, benefits, and insurance.”

Adaptable, agile and innovative companies will thrive.

Which companies are going to come out of the pandemic relatively unscathed? It’s going to be those with a work-at-home model. Obviously, this is because they have limited fixed costs, such as real estate, and they’re light enough that they can change directions if they must.

But, it’s not all doom and gloom for businesses with physical locations or products. Case in point: distillers that have pivoted from making spirits to hand sanitizer. Or, clothing companies now making masks to meet the demands of customers. Another example would be offering online services. Take a gym, as an example. Clients could pay for virtual training sessions instead of physically going to the gym. 

Focus on outcomes, not time.

As we adjust to new working arrangements, there’s a temptation to monitor our team. Currently, employers are keeping tabs on their teams with keystroke monitoring, reading Slack messages, or analyzing what screens you’ve shared on Zoom. But, constantly monitoring your employees could backfire.

Employees may feel like their privacy has been violated. As a consequence, they may leave your organization. It also stifles innovation and signals that you don’t trust them, which decreases motivation and productivity. So, in small doses, this may work, but encouraging ownership may be the better option.

“The role of leaders will shift to further attention on empowering their employees, energizing them around a common mission, and measuring the outcomes of their work,” writes Bill George, author of Discover Your True North. “Instead of measuring employees’ inputs, companies will shift to results and forward-looking metrics like market share and customer feedback.”

Employee health and well-being will be at the forefront.

Team wellness is now at the forefront of employee and company priorities. While we are still in COVID and may be stranded for some time to come, keep working on making sure your team is doing well mentally and physically. Maintain team activities.

Depending on your industry, this will vary. But, if you’re expecting employees to physically return to the workplace, then you need to step-up your cleaning and sterilization game.

You may also have to implement mandatory on-thee-job screenings. Companies like Amazon, Walmart, and Starbucks have been taking the temperature of their employees. There may even be an “immunity passport,” like the one being discussed in the UK.

Expect face masks to be worn around the office. Watch for the rebels and bullying that happens in the circumstances to make others feel foolish about their mask-wearing.

Additionally, you may need to assist your team with their mental health — regardless of whether they come into work or work remotely.

“On an individual level, unfortunately, there are some people who are going to face post-traumatic stress,” said Adam Grant, a professor at the Wharton School. “The encouraging news psychologically is over half of people report a different response to trauma, which is post-traumatic growth.”

“Post-traumatic growth is the sense that I wish this didn't happen but, given that it happened, I feel like I am better in some way,” explains Grant. “It might be a heightened sense of personal strength." Or, "it could be a deeper sense of gratitude; it could be finding new meaning, or investing more in relationships.”

To assist with this, show empathy and reduce the stigma surrounding mental health. You should make sure that your insurance plan covers therapist visits, and you can refer them to teletherapists, apps like Headspace or crisis hotlines.

Scott Morrison’s plan to overhaul industrial relations and vocational education in Australia is welcome news to the ARA’s new CEO Paul Zahra, who says the current systems are outdated and holding retailers back.

“We live in a world where Australians can choose to shop 24/7. Retailers need to be able to operate flexibly to meet the demands of their customers. When they are constrained by outdated regulation and training, it negatively impacts Australians, retailers and their employees,” Zahra said in a media statement after the prime minister spoke to the National Press Club on Tuesday.

The address outlined two key points in Morrison’s so-called “JobMaker” program: industrial relations and vocational education.

The prime minister said the current industrial relations system is not fit-for-purpose, especially given the scale of the jobs challenge that Australia now faces as a nation.

“Our industrial relations system has settled into a complacency of unions seeking marginal benefits and employers closing down risks, often by simply not employing anyone,” Morrison said.

“The system has lost sight of its purpose – to get the workplace settings right, so the enterprise, the business can succeed, so everybody can fairly benefit from their efforts and their contributions.”

Zahra agreed that the current Retail Award is not working for businesses or their employees.

“The current Retail Award has us locked into a rigid and outdated system of inflexible hours.  where retailers are unable to honor the working needs and preferences of their teams,” he said.

Zahra said the ARA would like to see more allowance for flexibility and a more pragmatic and balanced approach on issues such as penalty rates and trading hours.

“The complexity of the current Award system is creating a substantial amount of the challenges that we are seeing. There are hundreds of rates of pay that can apply under the retail award, related to such areas as: the role the employee is performing, their tasks, their age and, most critically, the way they work their hours,” he said.

On the topic of job training, Morrison said vocational education should have more input from industries about the skills future workers really need and be more transparent and consistent across states.

“We need Australians better trained for the jobs businesses are looking to create,” he said.

Under his plan, there would also be greater consistency between the vocational education and training, and higher education sectors.

The National Skills Commission will provide detailed labour market analysis and other up-to-date data in a bid to identify emerging skills shortages.

Zahra said the ARA welcomes a renewed focus which links funding with the skills that businesses really need.

“COVID-19 has accelerated retail transformation as we are operating in a consumer landscape that is active 24/7 through online and social channels and with multiple paths to the delivery of products and services. As businesses adapt to this new reality, they need a workforce that is equipped and ready to address these new opportunities,” he said.

Morrison also rejected calls for government to play a major role in recovery over a longer period of time.

“At some point, you’ve got to get your economy out of ICU,” he said.

“You’ve got to get it off the medication before it becomes too accustomed to it.”