By Emili Gregory June 9, 2021. Emily is the VP of product development at VitalSmarts
Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, many of us have discovered a new world (and yet another acronym) in WFH—work from home. Depending on your point of view, the WFH world has turned out good in some ways and bad in others—more time to be with your kids, or lots of noise and trying to figure out how to home-school. Or maybe it’s less time spent in rush hour traffic but now you are way behind on your podcast episodes.
Communication with co-workers has also been affected while we work from home. According to recent research from VitalSmarts, WFH communication over the past year has changed dramatically for everyone in at least one negative way: how likely we are to resolve conflicts with co-workers.
In an online survey of more than 1,100 respondents, people stated they are more than twice as likely to avoid speaking up about concerns with colleagues and managers virtually than when they worked together in person before the pandemic began. Top frustrations for remote employees include colleagues and managers not following through with commitments, making changes to projects unilaterally or without warning, and giving half-hearted commitment to their priorities.
When any of these or other problems arise, many of us have been using our newfound physical distance to stay emotionally distant as well. However, these silos of silence can lead to terrible consequences as the lag time between seeing a problem and saying something about it drags on. The most common of these issues listed by respondents included more stress, more time-wasting, lower morale, and lower productivity.
It’s easy to see how working from home affects employees and how this can translate into drags on organizational effectiveness. Speaking up and establishing a culture of openness and effective conversations is essential to ensuring employees feel able to address and solve individual, cultural, and organizational challenges.
The Power of Dialogue 