To continue reading please register or login to your OHW+ account.
Employees who have spent the past 18 months working from home may have developed some bad habits that won't be suitable for office working, or relaxed how they dress. Ian Moore looks at some of the issues that might arise and how they could be fixed. The pandemic has meant a large proportion of the workforce has spent the past year and a half working from home. With the daily commute reduced to a short trip from one room to another, and colleague interaction now no more intimate than a video call, it’s likely your workforce has picked up a few bad practices that will not be appropriate for the office environment. As organisations gradually welcome staff back into the workplace, employers should take action as soon as possible to address any bad habits before they spread. The first thing to do is to accept that social etiquette and standards are likely to have slipped and to identify the full extent of the problem. For example:- Dress code – Do your staff remember the company dress code? Perhaps they’ve only had to dress smartly from the waist up for the past 18 months and may have forgotten that trainers are not acceptable work attire. Personal hygiene might not be where it was either.
- Eye contact – Can your staff still maintain eye contact given they’ve been staring at a webcam for the past 18 months? Some may have grown used to holding conversations while looking at other apps and files – will that be acceptable in face-to-face meetings?
- Use of equipment, desk and office facilities – When you’re working at home, it doesn’t matter if the desk is dirty or your lunch smells, but it will in the office.
- Lack of focus – We’ve learned to work through daily distractions from the doorbell ringing to background noise from children and pets. Will some staff find it difficult to focus in a quiet office?
- Physical interaction – It’s likely your staff will be excited to see each other but the levels of comfort around physical contact will vary. How does one avoid a hugger when they’d prefer to keep to the 2m rule?
- Slips in working standards – Without the commute, people may have worked different hours or become a little lazy about following certain company policies.
