When was the last time you thanked your employees for the use of their home? Many companies are now acquiring work & conference space rent-free from employees who never intended to work from home. You might argue that the benefits for the employees outweigh the challenges. This would not be the best time to verbalize that view.

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For every employee who is thrilled to be able to throw in a load of laundry during a 15 minute break between meetings, there is another employee who sincerely needed the break, in a workspace away from that same home, for mental sanity.

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For each employee that is grateful for seeing their high school daughter more often now that she is working online just down the hall, there is another whose elementary son is struggling in the online environment and requires frequent supervision—just down the hall. And the guilt for not being able to give that support can be high.

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And even for those who ordinarily were not thrilled about their traffic-laden commute, there are others who would have chosen to live in an entirely different area if they knew they were going to become bound to work from home.

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If you're thinking, “He should just be glad he hasn't lost his job,” repress that thought. At the moment, it is entirely irrelevant. While workplaces have always required flexibility, the demands being made during Covid-19 may be adding significant, unmanaged stress. Your better employees most likely would never mention any of these challenges, to avoid seeming inflexible, or to accommodate the reality that everyone is in the same boat.

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✅ Consider discussing this in your next one-on-one employee meeting.

 

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Photo credit: ©️2020 K. Grosvenor

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