0920_September Comstock's Magazine September 2020 | Page 52

WORKPLACE
says Garg. She says one simple thing
organizations can do to reinforce that
shared identity is to use the same backgrounds
during videoconferencing.
This provides a visual cue of solidarity,
just as the Sacramento Kings’ uniforms
provide a visual reminder that they are
all on the same team.
The longer we work from home, the
more our connections with coworkers
will be tested and frayed. Garg cites
the theory of high-quality connections
from University of Michigan professor
Jane Dutton, where you sponge
energy from your friends and peers. A
high-quality connection, explains Garg,
“doesn’t have to be a long-term relationship.
It can be a short-term encounter.
You feel energized by somebody, you
feel that you’ve connected.” You get a
quick jolt from hallway small talk or
elevator ride or from swapping gossip
on the way to the parking lot. These
high-quality connections help keep
employees motivated and engaged.
“Frankly, half the fun of going to work
is the people I work with,” says Dan
Corfee, who manages the Sacramento
office portfolio of real-estate company
Buzz Oates. “I really miss them.”
In the expanded world of remote
work, the onus is on managers to find
creative ways to preserve employee
engagement. Sharyn Gardner, a
management professor at Sacramento
State, suggests managers hold “office
hours” — a standing time when the
boss is available for virtual pop ins —
maybe every day when eating lunch
at noon, allowing for informal chats.
Gardner also stresses the importance
of continuity (from the pre-COVID
world) and routines. “Don’t lose your
routines,” advises Gardner. “Keep
those weekly meetings.”
Check-ins have become more important.
“You have to be intentional about
it,” says Michelle Payne, another Sacramento
leadership coach. She instructs
her clients to set up frequent one-on-one
check-ins, where they can get a bit more
personal and ask, “No, how are you really
doing?” Payne says her clients struggling
the most are the ones who aren’t doing
“If they’re introverted, they could be
doing really well at home, as they’re
not forced to be in big group meetings.
And maybe the extrovert is missing the
social activity of being around people.”
one-on-ones, because they’re “losing
track of what’s going on with their people.”
And fun is still encouraged. McLaren
suggests a weekly happy hour, where
perhaps Friday’s last meeting ends at 4
p.m., and then everyone is welcome to
break out a cold one.
When organizations go remote, they
risk losing that hard-to-quantify “institutional
knowledge” that tends to float
through the office hallways. Gardner
calls this “tacit knowledge,” such as the
location of that one weird file that everyone
forgets. Tacit knowledge is often
held by, as Gardner puts it, “that one
person who has worked here for forever,
and you just say, ‘Go ask Bob!’ He knows
the information that’s not codified.”
Clear, crisp communication
becomes vital in a virtual workplace.
“When we were all working together
having hallway conversations, we didn’t
LISA MONTANARO
PRODUCTIVITY CONSULTANT
have to be as clear,” says Payne. If you
were fuzzy on the details, it was easy to
swing by the next cubicle for clarification.
Hallway chitchat had merit. “Now
it has to be very clear,” says Payne. The
silver lining? McLaren says that when
companies are forced to communicate
more explicitly, it can lead to new efficiencies.
Her lawyer clients told her that
in the beginning of the pandemic, firms
told them to turn in their timesheet
every week — which was not always
the case pre-COVID. “The lawyers were
really happy about that,” says McLaren.
“They were being told what the expectation
was and when to turn it in, and it
gave them some accountability.”
No matter how the pandemic shakes
out, and no matter how many companies
pivot to long-term remote work,
McLaren provides a nice dollop of perspective:
In some sense, where you work
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52 comstocksmag.com | September 2020