As restrictions ease and people start going back to work, some people – both employers and employees – will be feeling anxious about what the office will be like after almost two years working from home.
Work psychologist Patricia Murray from the Health and Safety Authority joined Claire Byrne on RTÉ Radio 1 to discuss what people should expect from their colleagues, their bosses and an office space that isn't the kitchen table.
"The big concerns are rather similar from both sides, in that the big fear, I suppose, is the unknown of the transitional phase. So, some employees might be worried about getting to work and how the workplace will be organised in terms of their safety."
"In terms of other employees too – will there be any distancing? How will the canteen be managed? And also, the unspoken thing some employees are worried about is just adapting."
Adaptation, Patricia says, is a big cause of stress in the workplace – even if the changes end up being an improvement on what was in place beforehand, the anticipation of having to adapt causes anxiety. So in many cases people are worried about what they don't know, like how things will be after the transition:
"It’s not that people are reticent about going back – they'd like to be back and have it all established. Again, they’re reticent about knowing, having clear advice about what will it be like. So, what will the hours be when we change? Will my desk still be there? Will there be more or less people in the space? How will I get to work – will I have to get the bus?"
Worries about what the office environment will be like after working from home for so long and with a still-widespread pandemic ongoing mean that many people will have to de-stress by just going through it.
Take it one day at a time, is Patricia’s advice. And be mindful of the fact that two years of working from home during a pandemic will have changed people, both employees and employers and everyone should try to make allowances for that.
"All of us realise ourselves, if we do any self-reflection, how different we all are to an extent. Every experience we have has consequences on our behaviour and our personality development. One of the good things about the fact that we’re going back is that there is a sense that we’re all in this together. So that togetherness feeling has, I think, corralled people to feel a little bit more energised about their colleagues and the collegiality that there is in the workplace."
One of the major things that people returning to the office will notice is the noise level. Generally speaking, the volume generated by many people in an open plan office talking, typing and eating crisps will be at a far higher level than you trying to edit that spreadsheet while your spouse talks in an ever-so-slightly-louder-than-necessary voice on that Zoom call.
And, Patricia says, noise levels in the office will be stressors, but people may not actually realise what the source of their stress is:
"It’s like some people like going on holiday but they hate being at the airport. They hate the over-stimulus that is in an airport: sounds and lights and crowds. So you need to just be a little bit aware of that and I would say give it a few days and then maybe say, 'Look, can we get together and talk about some of the things that we ned to re-address in the workplace?’"
What about, Claire asks, the people who are just dreading the whole notion of returning to the office? What can they do? Because they don’t have a right to work from home.
"One of the things they should do is actually air that and verbalise it to an extent and some of them are phoning us and indeed they’re phoning other agencies because it is good to express it. But again, not to over-express. Because if you keep on saying, 'I don’t want,’ in a way – there's a lot of theory in expectation and what you set yourself and how that influences how you experience a thing – so if you keep telling yourself a thing’s not going to be good, unfortunately you’re making it not going to be good because you’re training your imagination to see it in a certain way and through a certain filter."
Patricia stresses again that the transition tends to be the thing that causes the most stress for many people and that after the transition, things may not be as bad as expected and people may find out that their pre-transition predictions may be off the mark.
So it’s a question of balancing expectations against reality as much as we can. And trying to cope with Frank two desks over making his way through another Pink Lady...
You can hear Claire’s full conversation with Patricia Murray above. And the HSA has a resource that aims to support employee wellbeing, which you can find here.
