Challenging Times

Today marks 12 days since we moved to Level 3 of the lockdown and the second week since the additional 8 million employees were given the go-ahead to return to work by the National Coronavirus Command Council (NCCC). The return to work has been bittersweet. While some employees were happy to be back at work again after five weeks of being at home, especially those who were not able to work from home due to the nature of their jobs, others were not as fortunate as they returned to a workplace that greeted them with S189 letters. This has become our unfortunate reality and has contributed to the increasing levels of depression at work. This will also threaten the employee engagement levels, as some employees may be feeling uncertain not only about their future but also about that of the organization. In organizations, where retrenchments are taking place the pressure is not only on the employees who have received notices but also on those who will be remaining in the organization. In these cases, employees who are not retrenched anticipate that they may be next. There is also a feeling that all the work that retrenched employees used to do will now become their responsibility.

During these #challengingtimes, it is imperative that the #leadership in the organization is available to employees. They must lead and manage by walking around, constantly communicating about all the changes that are taking place in the organization. They must also not underestimate the value of the Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) that employees can leverage for additional assistance. This information cannot be over-communicated.

We have to soldier on and weather the storm. It is going to be a really cold winter both literally and figuratively. This too shall pass!