Coach remote workers to avoid burnout

If there’s one thing managers are learning from the coronavirus crisis, it’s that working from home doesn’t work well for everyone.  

Employees who have made that transition are working fewer hours per day than they normally do, with more than 30 percent of respondents saying that even during the hours they are working, they are less productive than usual, according to a survey of U.S. employees by Digital.com and the market research firm YouGov.

Almost 20 percent of survey respondents said that they are somewhat less productive than usual, and an additional 10.4 percent said they are much less productive. Most employees indicated that they were not working a full day, with 66.3 percent saying that they are getting less than 8 hours of actual work done while working from the home.

One of the main factors contributing to the dip in productivity, according to the researchers, may be the newness of the situation itself. Nearly 54 percent of survey respondents said this is their first time working from home. Added to that is the anxiety about COVID-19 and the fact that many workers had to make the change suddenly.

It can be difficult to spot signs of burnout in remote workers, according to business coach Mike Goldman. “You’ve got to look out for personality shifts when you’re communicating with team members remotely. It’s hard when you’re not seeing employees in the hallways or in more casual conversations.” 

If an employee working from home seems to need less attention than usual “that may seem like a good thing, but it’s not,” said Goldman, who is author of the books “Performance Breakthrough” and “Breakthrough Leadership Team.” “Sometimes there’s a subtle personality change. Is the person more quiet than usual, normally collaborative but not now? You might see a change in frequency of contact. Are you not hearing from someone?” 

When a manager notices differences like that, “you’ve got to jump on it. It’s hard to do, it’s not an easy conversation,” he said, but any decreases in productivity or missed deadlines must be addressed. “It’s easy these days to let people off the hook but you need to hold people accountable.”

To hold employees accountable, without coming across as harsh during hard times, Goldman recommended continuously working to create an environment where people feel comfortable. 

“People don’t want to share that stuff. You have to show your own vulnerability. Show you are a human being. Share that you’re having problems too. Admit that sometimes you’re struggling,” he said.

Being a good coach doesn’t mean you can solve all of an employee’s problems, Goldman continued. It does mean “being understanding, showing empathy but still holding people accountable. Approach someone and talk with them about what you see. Ask questions to get to the heart of the problem. Ask how you can help.” 

This concerned approach doesn’t just pay off in the short run, according to Goldman. “It not only helps people get through this time — this is the time when relationships are going to be made or broken. If you don’t show empathy, when the unemployment rate goes down that person will be gone. You can make your relationship with your team stronger so that on the other side of all this people are going to be even more loyal.” 

Working from home doesn’t have to lead to distraction and burnout. Eliminating the daily commute, as well as other work distractions, may help employees maintain or boost their productivity levels.

Erie County, N.Y. Comptroller Stefan I. Mychajliw boasted in a May 15 statement that “right now, our hard-working employees are getting more work done off-site than they are in our government offices.” 

The Office of Erie County Comptroller has 29 employees working in two divisions: audit and accounting.

An important factor in the office’s success is that plans have been in place for a temporary shift to remote work if necessary, Mychajliw said, adding that officials thought “it would be a temporary office closure for a short-term emergency or weather-related incident.”

Most of the work focused on improving technology so the entire office could work from remote locations. “As a result, the transition to working remotely due to the pandemic was virtually seamless,” he said. “Our work productivity remains the same. As a matter of fact, some units are getting more work done working remotely than when they did sitting in the office.”

In the accounting division, “vendor payments are being paid in a timely manner, as they always have been. Invoices we receive are being processed the following day. Cash investments are being handled every day,” said Mychajliw. “Our workforce is very efficient. They are not missing a beat. Bills are getting paid. Work is getting done.” 

The audit division is currently in various stages of six audits, he said. In addition, templates for future work are being designed to standardize reporting and procedure. The office is revising the audit manual to better accommodate work from home and continues to handle whistleblower complaints. “Our hotline has received and processed as many complaints at this point in 2020 as we have in all of 2019,” he said. 

Internal training is underway and meetings by conference call are being held to ensure employees have all the tools and training they need, he said, adding, “We are well positioned to continue our work in this productive way.”

The office is so well positioned that Mychajliw said in his statement that “we should make it a permanent change within the walls of Erie County government. As we look to what the future may look like post-pandemic, the Comptroller’s Office is prepared to continue working off-site.”

He proposed selling the county’s building where the office is located. “My office employees are doing phenomenal work under very difficult circumstances. They should be able to continue to do so. We should always be looking at ways to be more efficient and save taxpayer dollars,” Mychajliw said.