Where does one start to share the painful experiences of being at a distance or being isolated?
If you are younger you probably miss socialising with your friends and colleagues but can manage OK with a combination of social media, Netflix, Ticktok, What’sApp and more. However, if you are an older person and left to fend for yourself in an aged care home or self-isolating at home it can be daunting and depressing.
If you are a kinaesthetic person (someone who experiences and learns through sensory experiences and movement) you need to be around others and be expressive physically. Being isolated with very limited opportunity for movement and interaction is a real challenge
In a normal environment most of us would enjoy the peace and quite associated with isolation, but then its at the time and length of our choosing. In the current mandated lock down isolation is not a matter of choice and lacks either balance or variety. This can and is causing many people to feel stressed, strained, less productive and less effective.
As the isolation continues (even with limited loosening of restrictions) many of us might feel we are working twice as hard to hold on to what every part of ‘normal’ we have.
Every day runs into the next and we tend to float into new days and new activities. The diary is full of meetings; however, they do not have the same focus or feel as relevant as they did when you sat in that other environment called your office. Being isolated does not mean you are not effective as many people and businesses are working out. But isolation is counter intuitive to us as we are a social species. We inherently know that remote working can be less productive without quite knowing why. I suspect part of it is because of how we communicate. Only 7% of communication is verbal. The other 93% is non-verbal and it is hard to pick up that 93% via a 13-15-inch screen. And, let’s be honest, many of us get distracted by looking at the ‘tile’ of ourselves rather than focusing on the speaker or the little green light at the top of our screens. Sometimes I feel like I am taking an extended eye test!
Most of us are working through this phenomena with no previous experience so we’re relying on those who have had this experience by way of their role as an astronaut (https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200408-an-astronauts-guide-to-surviving-isolation) working on offshore oil rigs or remote work communities and prisoners (https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/openforum/article/What-prisoners-in-solitary-confinement-can-teach-15175899.php)
For most of us social isolation or even lockdown is not something we would have imagined and many of us are challenged to sift through a new paradigm that’s stretching our mind, body and soul, not to mention building our resilience.
How are you going with adapting, continuing to lead and be relevant while being isolated and working at a distance? Have you created a daily schedule and routine for you, your teams and your family and how are you managing the changes in your multiple roles that used to be more compartmentalised?
How isolated are you mentally? What are you doing proactively to adjust to this ‘new normal’?
How have you adjusted to staying connected to the people in your life, work colleagues, family and friends?
The human psyche is truly unique and adaptable. As a manager or leader in your organisation at whatever level, your executive and team members are expecting you to lead, and this means understanding the real emotional impacts isolation have on people, being aware of your own emotions and feelings, articulating a structure and supportive way through this for your team and facilitating new forms of communication.
There’s no ‘right’ way for any of us to manage the mental health challenges that COVID-19 has created. The first step though is to recognise the threat that isolation, lockdown and then the gradual phase-in of back to work poses and take proactive steps to adjust to it. Just don’t forget to change out of your tracksuit pants when you do head into work when it’s all over.
