What is the Life you want, post pandemic?
I was going to start this article telling you to vote now for what you want from your company because most companies are in the process right now of deciding permanent work from home, back in the office or as I believe most will end up some kind of hybrid. Once the new policy is solidified you will be stuck with what ever that is. VOTE soon!
However, the first question that you have to answer is what the heck do I want moving forward for my work, my family and my life? This pandemic has thrown a lot of old paradigms in the trash or at least the blender!
*No Commute time lost or commuting expense; decreased carbon foot print
*Therefore more time with family and work
*Flexibility to throw a load of laundry in between Zoom calls
*No stupid conversations with co-workers you can’t stand
*No open office chaos and dysfunction
*For once the world is built for us introverts!…and many more.
There are also all the downsides from working from home;
*With no day care my 3 year old wants to be on all my Zoom calls
*Oh yea, with 8 hours of Zoom calls when am I supposed to do my work??
*I miss the social aspect of work
*I am never alone…I miss my commute think time… and many more
But this is not a Column A vs. Column B exercise.
Let’s apply the principles we teach in our Managing Corporate Change© workshop.
First complete the emotions. If you feel completely mentally exhausted, you may have PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). We have been living through a horrendously traumatic time. In a PTSD diagnosis you only have to had witnessed the trauma whether it happened to you or not. If you are at all sensitive to the emotions of others good chance you have some level of PTSD. My immediate family was OK but the clients, friends and extended families stories have been devastating.
I had to stop watching one of my favorite news shows because they had a ”Lives well lived” segment at the end of every show. Three funerals a day. I couldn’t take it!
The pandemic has caused all kinds of emotions not just grief. It has caused a sense of gratitude and how fortunate I truly am to have attended college, am married to a wonderful, flexible, roll with the punches survivor who was committed to living on the possibility side of the change model. Happy I can do my job remotely without airlines, rental cars or hotels. You need to do your own gratitude list too. Break out an Emotions Worksheet if you have attended MCC© and get processing.
Create what you want!
Are you going to go back to what you had even if you hated it because it is familiar? Is it time for you to level the housework, childcare inequities in your house? Never let a good crisis go to waste. Are you going to keep putting up with 8 hours of Zoom calls to satisfy your managers control needs? Is it time to look at your whole life and tell the truth about where you are at? Maybe this is time for a “come to Moses” (insert the correct religious figure for you) conversation with those you care about.
Stop and think. Tell the truth! Ask for what you want.
If you need help we will be offering a full 3-day take it down to the studs Zoom version of Managing Corporate Change© July 13-15. Don’t have time for three full days MCC©? Get the basics in three 1/2 day compressed course DATES TO BE ANNOUNCED soon.
