Refueling the Generator
Has remote work gone from being an employee perk to being a burden?
Like most offices in New York, $164 million Piermont Bank sent its employees home to work when Covid-19 reared its ugly head last spring. Its executive team, including founder and CEO Wendy Cai-Lee, then spent two months deliberating how to bring them back.
They returned to the office in June — even though they knew their time together would be short due to another expected wave of the virus. The de novo bank’s space was built for a growing team — perfect for social distancing. They also invested in plexiglass and air filters.
Cai-Lee says the time was worth it. “We got three solid months,” she says. “It was tremendously helpful across the board. We got things done; we got projects kicked off. People felt good.”
Piermont’s team returned to remote work three months later, but Cai-Lee decided to leave the office open to provide employees another place to go — a vacation from their homes, if you will.
“[N]ot everybody’s equipped to work from home,” says Cai-Lee. Some have felt isolated. She encourages managers to foster real, human connections — swapping an email exchange for a phone call or virtual meeting.
“Everyone needs to make that extra effort to be more human,” Cai-Lee says.
Gallup found that — compared to pre-pandemic times — employees who work from home all-day, every day, are now more prone to burn out than those who work in an office at least part-time. The environment has radically shifted. They may be balancing childcare and virtual schooling with their responsibilities at work. Plus, normal social interactions — from sharing a meal in a restaurant to running into friends in the hallway at the office — have been drastically curtailed.
This can damage our health: Stressed workers are more likely to take sick time or visit the emergency room, and feel less confident about their performance, according to Gallup.
