Advice for happy returns as Australians grapple with fear of coming back to the office

With more than half of Aussie workers worried about returning to work on-site, Olympic golden girl Alisa Camplin offers tips on making it work to your advantage.

Alisa Camplin says making the transition back to the office doesn’t have to be stressful.

If an email about returning to the office hasn’t popped up in your inbox yet, it could be on its way.

As vaccination rates soar and health orders roll back across the nation, more employers are hatching plans to get people back into the office, and for many workers, altering work-from-home arrangements is a source of anxiety that goes beyond the fear of Covid-19.

Monash University’s Covid-19 Work and Health Study found more than half of Australian workers are worried about the impact that face-to-face work will have on their work and home life – a fear particularly prevalent among female workers and those with young children.

Not everyone will return to the daily peak-hour rush, as more than a third of organisations plan to have employees working remotely at least two or more days a week, according to the latest KPMG CEO Outlook survey.

Nevertheless, even a few days of commuting to a corporate environment can feel like a big change after months at home in stretchy pants.

According to human performance consultant and former Olympic aerial skier Alisa Camplin, as workplaces re-open, it is time to engineer a healthier new normal.

“Many people have had a chance to focus on what’s important – their health, their family – and don’t want to go back to being crazy busy again,” she says.

TACKLE THE TRIGGERS

Treat your office comeback as a process, rather than the flick of a switch, Camplin suggests, adding that you can put stress-triggers into perspective by writing down your thoughts in the early weeks.

“On the left side, write down the things that worked for you today, and on the right, write the things that didn’t,” she says. “It might be that your commute took longer than expected, you didn’t get to put the laundry on, or you felt rushed getting out of the door.

“On the right side, you might say it’s so energising to be around your teammates and to have a delineation between home and work again.”

Resuming the daily commute is a source of anxiety for many Australians. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Damian Shaw

After a week, Camplin says, some of the early discomforts of the transition may dissipate, leaving you to focus on those that persist.

“It might be that you still feel disorganised in your house – can you lower your expectations, ask family members for more support, or introduce a new structure to make your routine more practical?

“If your daily commute isn’t great, ask, ‘How can I use it to feel valuable, can I listen to podcasts or use the time to call people?’.

USE YOUR BARGAINING POWER

Time-management expert Kate Christie, of Time Stylers, says employees aren’t the only ones feeling anxious about face-to-face work, with businesses concerned about retention and employee satisfaction.

A phenomenon, coined “the great resignation”, has seen a mass exodus of workers globally through the pandemic, believed to be brought on by having a chance to reflect on careers, work conditions and goals.

“Organisations are carrying a lot of anxiety, wondering if they’re going to lose staff, people not wanting to go back to what life used to look like,” says Christie, adding that employees can claim significant bargaining power as a result.

“Examine how you have made work-from-home work for you,” she says.

“Highlight the things you’ve really loved. If it was book-ending the day with a walk, or meditation in the afternoon, make that a non-negotiable.”

This can be particularly important for families, adds Camplin.

“It might be one hour outdoors with the family every day – try to structure these things in from the beginning, and protect them,” she says.

Kate Christie, CEO of Time Stylers says employers are anxious about losing staff as more employees take the time to reflect on their careers, work conditions and goals.

MAXIMISE PRODUCTIVITY

When discussing return-to-office conditions with your employer, Christie suggests focusing on win-wins.

She notes a study by the University of California, which identified the time cost of being interrupted by colleagues in the office.

The study found that the average office worker gets interrupted, or switches tasks, every few minutes, and takes about 23 minutes to return to where they left off.

“Don’t couch this as a flexibility discussion – this is a discussion around productivity,” Christie says.

“You might use your days in the office to work collaboratively, and find on other days you’re more productive elsewhere, being left alone to get work done.”

Now is also a time to question pre-pandemic practices that were inefficient, Camplin adds: “You might decide, let’s not make it the norm to have one-hour meetings – let’s limit them to 45-minutes. Put boundaries in place, and think about how you’ll respond if you’re asked to stay late.”

Alisa Camplin says staying positive is a key to a happy return to the workplace.

BE A CHEERLEADER

At a time of stress and transition, Camplin says it’s more important than ever to focus on the positive.

“Every time you walk through a door and see new people at work, ask who has had something good happen this week,” she suggests.

“When you hear of something going well, high-five it, share in their joy – it doubles that joy back to them.”

Reinforce this by spending some time at the end of the day focusing on one thing that went well, and the three things you did to make that happen, Camplin adds.

“You can do it with your family around the dinner table, or while you’re brushing your teeth.

“We lift our energy when we pivot towards noticing what went well.”

Alisa Camplin is an ambassador for AIA Vitality, and has created the Workplace Resilience Toolkit to help people navigate their evolving workplaces.