As fall begins to fade to winter in many parts of North America, the reality that we will soon be in the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic is beginning to settle in for many. While countries like New Zealand and Australia have done a remarkable job of controlling the spread of the virus, others have clearly been less successful. The CDC and other reputable, science-based organizations are warning that we should be prepared for what could well be deterioration in this slow-motion health crisis.
Beyond recognition of the obvious behaviors which can mitigate the spread of the virus is a growing awareness among insurance leaders that simply maintaining physical health won’t be sufficient to get through the long, cold, dark days to come. Seasonal depression is a real malady anyway; layer on the consequences of a pandemic and you have a recipe for significant challenges in terms of traditional metrics like retention, productivity, and employee engagement.
While there is no magical silver bullet to address this, planning for winter before it gets here is an important near-term opportunity. Finding safe, socially distanced ways to engage small groups may be one type of activity to consider. Encouraging some outdoor activities before the snow flies may be another. Incremental, changeable events may form a sort of “test-and-learn” environment that is mutually beneficial to employers and employees alike.
For me, the pandemic eliminated travel and commuting times. In theory, this seemed to suggest more time for work. That is not what happened, however. My travel time on airplanes turned out to be when I could be creative, could write uninterrupted, and could edit materials. In other words, it was some of my most productive time. I am busy now, but not necessarily with high-priority items. Since business travel was eliminated, I have seen my days start earlier and end later, consumed by 30-minute segments of varying value and quality. As a result, my stress has increased.
Without lines of demarcation and a mechanism for prioritization, I was falling into a trap my own mentors warned of years ago: confusing activity with progress. To combat this, I have taken to blocking time off every day in three different windows, which provides for high-quality working time. I am also clearer about the importance of delineation of “work time” from other things.
From a corporate standpoint, there are clear lessons to be learned from others. In Germany, some have taken to using their old commute times to “commute.” Instead of going to the office, however they got there, employees now use the time to “get to their home office.” In other words, people ride a bike or walk or use some physical activity to mark the start and end of the work period. The mental model of having these firebreaks in a day provides time to regroup, refocus, and recharge. Germans report that “Feierabend” is real, and really works.
There is nothing really new here. A key Stanford University study showed that productive output goes up until you reach around 55 hours/week. After that it declines incrementally; by the time 70 hours is reached, people are back to getting the same level of work done that they would have in 55 hours. Roughly 130% of the activity effort for no gain in progress seems a terrible waste of talent and a managerial failure of epic proportions, especially when expressed across an entire employee base.
One of the notable lines from President Kennedy’s 1962 State of the Union Address was that “the time to fix your roof is when the sun is shining.” Winter is coming. Now is the time to get ready for an array of foreseeable challenges.
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