Be Accountable

Welcome to part three of a three-part series, in which I attempt to make sense of the various possible workplace trends coming out of the response to COVID19. Read part one: Be Deliberate, and part two: Be Human.

Ah, this one is going to be hard to write. Why? Because I over the past months gained some space and time that I haven’t had for a long time – and now I’m looking ahead in my calendar and thinking, oh no, that looks like that crazy whirl I was in, before all this COVID-19 business began.

A global pandemic has many implications, but for some of us it seems it gave us a license to finally work with a sense of autonomy. With the removal of ‘office hours’, commute times and those interminable meetings. My clients told me they were more productive, getting to some of the focussed tasks that were constantly put on the back burner, and most importantly, finding time in their day to look after themselves.

Some managers told me they were surprised but pleased to notice that their team members just got on with work even without their supervision. Did it happen between 9 and 5? Who cares? If someone is most productive at 10 pm and prefers to spend their mornings sleeping, is it a problem if the work gets done?

For me, the break-up with traditional working took place about a decade ago when I stopped being a full-time corporate employee and started consulting. My expectation of myself, nine years in, is that I say yes to work I enjoy and can have an impact by doing, I deliver what I said I would deliver, and I am 100% where I am (important when you have a few different gigs going on). Notice the lack of mention of working hours, days I work, managers etc?

At ‘peak-iso’ (when even the daily routine of school drop-off had evaporated), our family and, it seemed, everyone else in our neighbourhood was taking time at the start and end of the day walking, gardening, exercising. It felt so good to actually live in our neighbourhood rather than just sleep there!

It wasn’t like this for everyone of course, with essential workers still going to work, but there we also heard of significant changes taking place in terms of the removal of bureaucracy around decision making, and increased autonomy and agility.

So when it comes to being accountable – I wonder if this can be the moment where we take ownership of how we want to live, our work outcomes as well as our life outcomes. Now we know what it’s like to have the flexibility to give energy to the people in life who we most care about, and the ability to actually commune in our communities, the reduction of time (and resources) wasted by commuting – can this be the moment of pause where we set our intention for a better future?

Thanks for staying with me through this series. I’ve really enjoyed getting back to writing (once upon a time I got a degree in English), and I’ve loved hearing your feedback. Email me if you have any thoughts on how you want to personally ‘pivot out of COVID’ and we may even include your thoughts in our next newsletter.

Hannah