The Psychosocial aspects of Remote & Home Office Working

We were invited to Repsol Norge AS to share with all employees the psychosocial side of home office.
This was a virtual “Town Hall” meeting. We may call it a ‘Home Hall Meeting’. 😉

Approximately 170 employees participated, almost all from home offices or from offshore installations. The meeting was interactive with people creating wordclouds on how the situation was perceived, and also with polls.

The concept of tele-working, remote working, home office is not new and has been around for decades. It has also been researched a lot in terms of the psychological effects.

But: most of the research has been based on more or less voluntary and planned home office or remote working. What is new this year is massive, unvoluntary, sent home working, and at the same time: a pandemic threathening us.

We addressed the fact that: We are all in the same storm, but not in the same boat.

We are going through a time when our perceptions, reactions and needs are completely different. We have different jobs & backgrounds, and always had. Relevant now is a different home situation, tolerance for remoteness, need for social interaction, comfort with eletronic media etc etc.

We are aware that working from home is not all good, but, working in the office is not all good either.

People experience enjoyment & engagement in the office and also working from home. People also get get equally frustrated both in the office and working from home. The marked differences are more loneliness, more guilt & worrying in home working, while actually less percieved stress.

We shared some advise and best practices both from an individual, team and organisational perspective, and employees verified what many studies indicate: productivity is as high or higher working from home. But as a reminder again: We are not in the same boat.

We need to reach out to each other, and leaders need to be even closer than normal for those who need it most. We shared three E’s in leading remote people: Expectations, Engagement and Empathy. More than ever: make room for talking about personal issues & worries. Make place for vulnerability, a critical factor in psychological safety.

As companies shift from crisis management to planning the new normal, it's clear that the effects of Covid-19 on the way we work will long outlive the virus. "This is a massive culture change". The new normal need to be collectively created.

Great to see that Repsol acknowledge this and involve all in finding solutions that will work and be sustainable!

Endre Lima Lovas
Partner & Change Maker
PeoplewithE AS

29.12.2020