The best return-to-work scenarios prepare employees for the new realities they face while also acknowledging the horrors and hardships they’ve been through. Here’s why a new culture is as vital as new policies.
Now past the two-year mark, we feel how the pandemic has taken its toll on us as we try — not without challenge — to recoup our normal, pre-pandemic lives. So much has changed: our relationships, where and what we call home, our mental and physical health and well-being, technology, education, health care, the economy, the environment and the world (though, unfortunately, not politics).
The world of work has changed too, and employees are not the same. Are companies prepared for the seismic shift in the minds and hearts of their employees?
Recently, I have had the great fortune to “babysit” my two grandpuppies. Having raised my children with a family dog, I never encountered an agitated and anxious reaction when I left the house in the morning and returned from work in the evening. Our family dog knew that our leaving only meant our return. It dawned on me that these new pups adopted by families during the pandemic have never known a time when their owners were not by their side 24/7, seemingly placed on earth to fulfill their every need.
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