Janet had recently started working from home 2 – 3 days a week; at her company only a few people worked from home. One day when she was working in the office, a friend stopped by her desk – this was before COVID – and started asking about working from home. A few minutes into the conversation, her friend said, “it must be great to spend all afternoon with your kids!” Janet was shocked and tried to calmly explain that she was not playing with her kids when she was working at home; she was working. But then Janet thought this might explain an uneasiness she’d felt since she started working from home; maybe her friend had unwittingly shared an unwritten rule – if you’re working from home, you’re not really working, a more focused version of the ever popular ‘if you’re not at your desk you are not working’.
According to a recent survey completed by IFMA’s Workplace Evolutionaries community, over 88% of the US workforce have been working from home as a result of the COVID pandemic1. While planning and implementing a distributed work program often takes 6 – 12 months, this shift in how everyone was working happened literally overnight; so clearly none of the usual planning took place. There was barely time to make sure workers had the tools and technologies to work effectively from home, much less address any existing unwritten rules focused on a distributed workforce.
Let’s consider the unwritten rule identified earlier – if you’re working from home, you’re not really working. Another way this is often expressed is ‘how do I know you are working if I can’t see you,’ or ‘working from home means you are not really dedicated.’ While an organization may not be able to directly address the unwritten rule, there are steps that can be taken that could change behaviors that may in effect counter it. And these steps, conveniently, would always be included in developing a long term plan to implement a distributed work program. For example:
Include a statement in the program guidelines like ‘Working from Home is not a substitute for child care.’ Although a bit blunt, as the program gets underway, employees would see this statement and, at least theoretically, acknowledge that program participants are not simply at home taking care of their children.
Develop protocols for distributed work and communication including:
- Defining the hours people who are working from home will be available; they will ‘show up at work’ on time just like everyone else.
- Set regular times to check in with team mates in the office.
- Translate social activities at the home office – have a virtual cup of coffee to start your day with your best friend rather than sitting in the café.
- Using video for all calls with the team whenever possible.
- Identify activities/events that make coming to the office preferable, like the bi-monthly team update.
Provide new training:
- For managers: managing virtual teams, a core part of this should focus on building trust and social cohesion.2
- For both managers and their teams: facilitating effective virtual meetings; a core part of this is starting on time, rotating who facilitates the meeting, following an agenda, and starting with personal updates.
Reinforce performance management programs that focus on achieving goals, not being in the office.
As noted earlier, because organizations were forced to implement distributed work literally overnight, they will need time now to define how it will be integrated into their workplace strategy long term; this will start as they begin to define and implement their ‘return to the office’ plans. Initially, they will understandably be focusing on more tangible components of distributed work – is it just work from home or does it include more options, which work processes it will work for, are the right tools and technologies in place to support it, and is the office planned to support distributed workers when they are in the office. But if they don’t want to undermine the success of the program, they will need to identify, assess, and address any related unwritten rules that stand in the way.
Sources:
1Global Work from Home Experience Survey, IFMA WE, 5.2020
2Jan Johnson, The Challenges of Virtual Teams: What Makes for Success? Allsteel, 2018