Nick Gold, MD at Speakers Corner, considers whether the working measures put in place for coronavirus will change the world of work for good.
An estimated 9 million workers have been furloughed due to COVID-19, but we won’t know the true figure until the government portal goes live. The possible cost implications to this have been ‘finger in the air’ but the one consistency is this is a short-term win for the government as they have kept people employed who might have otherwise been added to the unemployment total.
Many companies are in a situation where they have a distinct split between their employees; those that have been furloughed and those that have been entrusted with the daunting task of navigating the business through these unprecedent times.
The minimal commentary there has been on this Government policy has focussed on the furloughed employees. They have been given guidance to take courses, volunteer, find structure and use their time wisely. This, to me, seems a little superficial and idealistic. We are all experiencing different emotions and behaviours as we adapt to the social distancing way of life. Structure, whether you are working or otherwise, is not as straight forward as it used to be. Purpose and drive have changed as the fear of what the post pandemic world will look like has bought existentialist questions to the forefront of many minds (even if they are not recognised as existentialist).
Furloughed employees might be experiencing both a loss of confidence and/or value as they question why they weren’t one of chosen to keep working or even guilt towards their colleagues, that the burden has been laid on their colleagues. For some, furloughing might be a release as they realise that they fundamentally weren’t enjoying their work, which was there to let them live rather be an integrated part of their lives.
Meanwhile let’s consider the employees who remain. Are they burdened by the pressure of knowing that both the fate of the business, and maybe more emotionally, the fate of their colleague’s employment status rests in their hands? Will those still in the business take it as a personal failure if the furloughed staff are let go at the end of this period? How do they feel towards this increased pressure for their work? If they have feelings of resentment, is this towards the business for putting them in this position or towards their colleagues who are at home without the pressure?
And then comes the really concerning part. Hopefully every company finds a way through this and in times to come, some degree of normality returns, and business starts moving again. As those furloughed start returning to work, the impact of this split in employees will come ever more the forefront. How will the furloughed staff treat and perceive both the company who furloughed them thus implying they were dispensable? And what about the feelings they have to their colleagues, who they might feel a sense of guilt towards or alternatively a sense of unconscious smugness as they talk about how their enforced period of absence gave them unexpected joy and satisfaction?
How will the staff who weren’t furloughed feel towards the colleagues and the business? Will they welcome back their colleagues with open arms or have feelings towards them about the pressure they were involuntarily placed under on their colleague’s behalf? How will they feel towards the company, what will their expectation be of the company, they have demonstrated they were the key people to ensure the continuing viability and hopefully success of the company and potentially will be looking to reward and recognition to validate this? Does the company have the capacity to deliver this to them, can the company afford to almost acknowledge the two tiered nature of their employees in the short term while they are still navigating the re-emergence of both their business and the wider business world
I have focussed on the potential mindsets and questions of employees, whatever their status within the company, and haven’t even touched on how the directors and management of any company will be thinking.
But my overriding question for any business owner, director or manager now is that at a time when leadership and successful navigation of the business through and out the other side is about clear and decisive actions.
But leaders do need to be considering what the end game looks like. There will be a moment very soon when they are faced with the extraordinary challenge of re-integrating two employee camps into one harmonious, cohesive and functioning workforce. Both sets of employees will have gained new skills, new experiences and a new perspective of their standing in the company when they set foot in the workplace. Businesses will need to quickly examine what their culture really looks like and what needs to change in order to thrive in the post COVID-19 world. If it hasn’t already this crisis will make us think twice about the type of employer we want to work for.