It’s been a struggle, to say the least, juggling our workload and not just taking care of children, but dealing with the pandemic on a whole. This is still a stressful and scary situation for us all, whether you are a parent or not. Some companies are responding in a positive manner to their employees concerns about Covid-19 and are keeping the lines of communication very open. I’m fortunate to still have a job and my company has been very responsive to various employee concerns. They have sent out surveys on a regular basis to get an idea how we are adjusting to the work from home atmosphere and if we feel that the technical and managerial support is there for us.
My company has tried their best to be as communicative as possible and I am thankful for that. There are the usual zoom happy hours that are held by individual teams but here are four other things I have found helpful at work during this time:
- Weekly executive communication calls: In addition to the large number of emails from the company execs that address all the issues we are facing, there are weekly calls that we are able to dial into to here the status of everything from opening back up, to improvements or successes within the company. I have been extremely thankful for how over communicative they are being. This keeps me at ease and I feel as though I am still in tune with what is going on with the company even though we are not in an office.
- Specific chat groups: There are larger chat groups for the employee networks, such as one for families at work one but they created new ones based on the age ranges of your children. I joined the one for parents with children ages 3 and under. This is so helpful because I got tips and ideas right away from other parents going through the exact same experience. It is nice to have others in the same boat you can reach out to and ask questions or share crazy stories with.
- Planning: With the easing of restrictions in many places, plans for returning to the office are underway. There is no set time as yet but they have stressed that they will not force anyone to return to the office until they feel comfortable doing so. Amazing! Being in New York, it is nerve wrecking thinking about commuting and heading back to a crowded building so that will take some time for employees to be comfortable with and knowing that they understand that makes everyone less anxious.
- Enforcing taking time off: With all the stress and anxiety created by this pandemic, we are being encouraged to take one day off every two weeks. This has been so crucial for me. I’ve felt overwhelmed at times and having a day to just focus on the girls has been just what I needed. We all need that time to recharge.
What are some ways your company has responded to the current environment?
Thank you for reading,
Andrea
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