0920_September Comstock's Magazine September 2020 | Page 51

BUSINESS INSIGHT FOR CALIFORNIA’S CAPITAL REGION AUGUST ‘20 VOL. 32 | NO. 8
issue is off the table, and all employees
are free from the extra parenting of the
COVID-19 era.)
A more subtle factor is what Montanaro
calls the “life-work integration
model.” When we work from home,
our schedules tend to be more fluid,
which some people love and others
loathe. One of Montanaro’s clients,
for example, used to work in the office
from around 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Now he
works at home from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.,
but he takes a three-hour break and eats
lunch with his kids. He loves it — usually.
“And I have other clients where, if
they’re working at 10 p.m., no matter
how many breaks they have, they’ll
resent it,” Montanaro says.
When sheltering in place began,
McLaren quickly put together a webinar
about how to effectively work from
home. Key concept: The importance of
creating anchors. “An anchor is a physical
thing that reminds you of something
and makes your brain do a certain
thing,” says McLaren. If you go into the
office every day, those pale blue and
gray cubicles are anchors that tell your
body you’re here to work. “If you try
to work from home, there’s no real anchor,”
says McLaren. “That’s an anchor
for relaxation and playing around.”
She recommends we create anchors
by always working in a certain part of
the home (such as sitting upright at the
kitchen table, as opposed to slumped on
the sofa), or only during certain hours
(like starting at 8 a.m. sharp, and closing
down at 5 p.m.). So if the world pivots
to working at home long-term, it will be
important to create and honor anchors.
Effect on the organization
It’s one thing for organizations to go
virtual for a month or two during the
crucible of a pandemic. That’s a stopgap.
But what if it becomes the new normal?
How would that affect the bonds
and cohesion of the organization? “I
think we’re going to see a huge shift,”
says Sargam Garg, a business professor
at Sacramento State who studies
organizational behavior. She expects a
shift in an organizational framework
known as the psychological contract,
developed by Denise M. Rousseau of
Carnegie Mellon University. According
to the psychological contract, thanks to
the principle of reciprocity, we give an
organization what we feel we are owed.
“But with virtual contexts, everything
will change,” explains Garg. “How
do I perceive what the employer owes
me? What are my obligations?” Physical
contexts matter. Symbols matter. When
you go into an office building every
day, you’re subconsciously reminded
of the company logo, the company’s
values and the sense that you’re all
on the same team. When we’re all in
our own homes, we lose that sense of
shared identity, so we’re less certain of
our place and value. “With the virtual
context, organizations will be strained
to think about a sense of belonging,”
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