Canadian HR Reporter

N E W S 14 www.hrreporter.com Work from home leads to challenges with isolation, siloed teams While many employees are enjoying the benefits of working from home in terms of productivity and less stress from a non- existent commute, feelings of isolation and stress might actually be rising, especially among Canadians, finds John Dujay was conducted between November and January. While for many, working at home represents a pleasant shift to a better work-life balance, all situations aren't the same, warns an HR consultant. "Not everyone's home environment is necessarily a happy environment. Some people would [use] work as a bit of a refuge [and] employers shouldn't make the assumption that all employees want to be at home," says Robin Turnill, managing consultant of people and culture at Pivot HR in Vancouver. "For some people, that's really stressful." People don't really stop to listen to what their bodies need, says Mary Ann Baynton, director of collaboration and strategy for Workplace Strategies for Mental Health compliments of Canada Life in Toronto. "We push through and that's more complicated when you're juggling family or caregiving responsibilities, as well as work," she says. "That idea of the rest-ac- tivity cycle, that we are supposed to take a break every 90 minutes, that's how we stay focused, is being missed. a Microsoft survey that looked into how the workplace is evolving and what will that mean. The 2021 Work Trend Index gleaned insights from 31,092 people in 31 countries in January and it analyzed business practices via Microsoft Office and LinkedIn. Stress, exhaustion despite home environment One in five global survey respondents said their employer doesn't care about their work-life balance while 54 per cent feel overworked and 39 per cent feel exhausted. For Canada, 47 per cent said they felt exhausted, says Gibson. "Even when you look at the number of people that reported feeling stressed — 51 per cent reported feeling stress in Canada versus the global average, which is 42 per cent — [it's] a little alarming for some of us when you start thinking about your own team." The stats are backed up by another survey that found that more than half (52 per cent) said they experienced stress during the past year that was caused by overwork. Jointly done by Vancouver-based e m p l o y e e e n g a g e m e n t s o f t w a r e company Jostle and business-leader trainer Dialectic in Guelph, Ont., the survey of 406 remote workers, mainly from Canada and the U.S., "Stop trying to push through and start trying to take multiple short breaks to maintain your mental energy," says Baynton. In addition, the digital intensity of workers' days has increased substan- tially, found Microsoft, with the average number of meetings and chats steadily increasing since last year. Digital exhaustion is being intensified by the flood of video meetings and many times, it's not necessary, according to Turnill. "There's no reason for a lot of these Zoom meetings that a five-minute phone call could clear up. The other thing is if you're going to have people participate in virtual meetings, brevity is important," she says. Strong leadership needed Another concern? The stress levels for managers are significantly less than what many employees are experiencing, says Gibson. "You had 61 per cent of leaders saying they were thriving and that was 23 per cent higher than those that were classified as not having decision-making authority. As a leader or manager, it's a bit of a wake up-call, quite frankly." "About 39 per cent of the global average said they were feeling burnout. That number was actually higher in Canada at 47 per cent." Lisa Gibson, Microsoft AS many of people roll into a second straight year of the COVID-19 crisis, a growing sense of isolation may be one of the unwelcome s i d e e ff e c t s o f w o r k i n g s a f e l y from home. Loneliness is a growing problem with today's distributed workforce, says Lisa Gibson, head of communica- tions and business manager marketing and operations at Microsoft Canada in Toronto. About 36 per cent of workers in Canada reported feeling isolated compared to the global average of 27 per cent, found WORKERS FACE RISING DEMANDS 40.6 billion Increase in emails sent in February 2021 compared to last year 10 minutes Average increase of meeting length, from 35 to 45 minutes 2.5 times Degree to which people worked longer inside Microsoft Teams Source: Microsoft

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