Fostering connections as employees return to the office 

The last three years challenged us in many ways. COVID-19 dominated daily life, and with so much out of our control many of us felt stressed and anxious. At work, these feelings could manifest as burnout. As described by Christina Maslach, a leading researcher in this area, the key signs of burnout include emotional and mental exhaustion, feeling negative or cynical about work, and believing your work doesn’t matter or your efforts are not enough. If you ticked the box next to each of these items, you may be experiencing burnout. Ironically, you can have these feelings and still love your job.

During the pandemic, mental health and burnout were on everyone’s mind for obvious and universal reasons. Today, the process of transitioning from working at home full time to various work configurations is well underway and it’s tempting to think things are back to normal. However, many people continue to have heightened awareness of potential threats, and levels of stress and burnout remain high.

When asked what contributes to burnout, workers often cite personal responsibilities like caregiving and work responsibilities like productivity targets – aspects of life and work that employers may not be able to change in meaningful ways. But that doesn’t mean employers should leave workers to manage burnout on their own. Two approaches to countering burnout are helping workers to build resiliency and improving the work environment – and the good news is that you can do both at the same time.

Resilience can be learned and supported in the workplace. It has been well documented that a combination of socializing, exercising, meditation, and creative activities forms the basis of good mental health -- and protects against burnout. But we also know that self-care routines require a degree of motivation and discipline that can be hard to initiate and maintain.

Socialization tends to be the easiest form of self-care for most people. While socializing was once an integral part of work, the newfound convenience of working from home, as so many of us did during the COVID pandemic, seems to have taken precedence over the hidden or intangible benefits of working together, in a common workplace, with colleagues. But this has come at a cost. There is a positive benefit from both formal and informal socialization at work. Talking about a client meeting, the budget, or vacations and weekend activities strengthens relationships, builds connections and creates community.

It can be energizing and soul-nourishing to interact in person and chit-chat. The value comes from bringing people together in tangible ways (face-to-face, in person and not via Zoom) and talking. Through talking, emotions are expressed, released and received. There is empathy and camaraderie. It isn’t about the content but about the activity and process. There is an element of real human connection, feeling of solidarity and community that you cannot achieve over fiber optics and pixels. Take human connection away from work, and you lose an important counterweight to burnout.

Many employers are implementing or evaluating initiatives to address burnout, support return to worksites, or both. But before you sign on to free lunches, subsidized gym memberships, or onsite massage therapy, consider whether an initiative can facilitate more social interaction and engagement. If employees simply grab a sandwich and take it back to their desks to continue work, you’ve missed the opportunity to foster the connection and community that can accompany eating together. Instead, find ways to encourage employees to eat together, take a mental break, socialize and connect. For example:

• Have different senior leaders host group lunches with 20-30 minutes set aside for a business-related discussion, with the topic announced in advance so people have time to prepare questions/comments. The rest of the lunch hour is for socializing.
• Organize teams of volunteers to go out into the community to work together on specific projects for an afternoon
• Promote a “random acts of kindness” campaign through peer-to-peer, social media or internal networking channels
• Establish recurring/scheduled team breaks (e.g., 5-minute wall sits or group stretch)

Ideally, these activities would take place live and in person. But if you have employees that are 100% remote, consider scheduling “at the water cooler” virtual events – such as a voluntary weekly zoom meeting for 30 minutes of social time. There is no work agenda for this meeting. It’s a time for employees to talk in an informal way as if they were in an office together. Team competitions that promote healthy activities, such as walking, can also bring workers together from wherever they are. Employees in the office can go for a walk together, but their teammates working remotely can also contribute the number of steps walked per day to the monthly tally and help their team compete for bragging rights or a small reward.

Whatever activities you choose, be genuine and communicate your goals and intent. This will go a long way towards countering some of the resentment or suspicion that can accompany burnout. It’s important these efforts are not seen as an attempt to bribe employees to come to the office or to work harder and longer but rather as an effort to build community, create a more enjoyable work culture, and ultimately to help employees live happier, healthier lives. You can provide support for individual forms of self-care, such as meditation apps or classes, or even resiliency training. But the most straightforward route to building resiliency may simply be to help get people socializing again.