What has work done to support you during the COVID crisis?

[Lexjo]

My colleague is virtually attending a Health and Wellbeing seminar at work so the company can find out how to better support us to be able to work from home happier and keep a positive mental attitude.

The company (big finance firm in the city) has already provided us with vouchers to buy office equipment and office furniture.

Ideas I have so far:

Free headspace or calm app for six months
Meetings limited to 45 minutes
Hard finish at 5pm
Flexible working
A day off for volunteering in the community

Has anyone else got any other ideas or is your firm/a company you know doing anything that you think is useful?

Thanks

My work have been brilliant. They sent anyone they deemed might be vulnerable to work from home even before the first lockdown.

When it became obvious that this was going to last a lot longer than previously thought we were told to collect everything we needed from our office - one at a time. IT provided us with dongles to access the work VPN and headsets. We all have PCs/laptops, 2 monitors, office chairs, full IT support.

Our HOD and team leaders have children themselves and fully understand the challenges. Our CEO does regular business updates on Teams and has said that furlough will be offered to those that need it eg parents of young children.

Everyone on my team are really supportive and we still have a bit of banter going on. I couldn't work for a better company.

My work has been staggeringly unsupportive throughout this and its left me with a lasting sense of bitterness (and has prompted me and others to resign).

I think one of the many outputs of this is that companies with a less than sensitive approach to this will suffer in the aftermath of this crisis, while those which were considerate of their employees will thrive.

FWIW I think things like the free headspace or calm app are a bit gimmicky and won't make much of an impact on employees.

The one thing I needed above all else through this, which I did not get, was some recognition of the impact that being a lone parent who was forced to home school and care for my child without any support would have an impact on my ability to work.

I understand that my business was struggling to keep the lights on and in the first few weeks I had some sympathy.

But as the crisis wore on we were constantly bullied about output and had worked layered on without any attempt on their part to gauge the impact this was having on our lives, our children's lives, our mental and physical health.

The one thing people need from their employers is a frank and honest understanding that output will suffer in circumstances like this and a recognition that to some extent and within reason employers need to step up and support staff. Rather than expecting everyone to be superhuman.

The hard finish at 5pm and flexible working contradict each other.

I’m on mat leave, but my company has allowed a temporary reduction in hours if needed, flexible working, free online GP service and counselling.

We’ve had free headspace app but I haven’t had much time to use it 🤦🏻‍♀️. Technically we can work flexibly and if we can’t do our hours there is a code to charge our time to. In practice? People still expect work done, we are really busy and they are not furloughing anyone.

Not a lot.

Unpaid parental leave or reduced hours denied.

Recruitment freeze so shrinking resources as leavers (and there have been a few) are not being replaced.

Told to brandish the key worker letter and demand a school place (not only morally bankrupt but lacking common sense for the thousands of wfh employees).

Lots of emails about 'look after yourselves' but lots of short notice deadlines with no support.

I've worked from home for 25 years anyway so it was interesting to see the adjustments made as everyone else was suddenly bounced into it.

My company (global STEM software company) encouraged everyone to take home their chairs, pc and all peripherals they needed and those that needed to buy desks could put in a request. They'd seen the writing on the wall and upped vpn capacity ahead of time (in the U.K. - not quite as good in the US).

We got the choice of a years subscription to headspace or Strava at Xmas. (I didn't bother with either)

Somewhat flexible working was always possible in many roles anyway . Not 5pm finishes, that doesn't work with teams spanning multiple time zones!

We were used to doing online meetings anyway because of being in different places and me at home. No intrusive video, screens used for information/demos.

We were encouraged to take 2 volunteering days a year anyway.

Lots of online 'community' stuff - virtual coffee etc for those that want it.
our team is going to have a monthly 'bring a bottle' replacing Friday 'happy hour'.

Online Xmas events eg a comedy evening with people I'd actually heard of eg Zoe Lyons.

They've introduced 'mental health days' - I've not really looked into the details as I've loads of unspent vacation anyway so don't need them.

There's a general understanding that people have to look after kids - and certainly no assumptions re mothers being the default carer. But that attitude isn't really a new thing.

We have:
Free Headspace app
Social Fridays where we take a glass of something nice to a team meeting and have a guessing game (baby photos, favourite food etc, non mandatory)
Quizzes on a Wednesday afternoon (non mandatory)
Flexible working
All wfh by default but office space available for people who need it for whatever purpose
More staff networks set up including parents network to share frustrations, tips and ideas
All given a modest budget for home office equipment if we don't already have it
Critical worker letter provided if you need to access a school place but no expectation that you need to send them
Social channels set up on most teams sites for general chat and sharing photos

Quite a lot really, even more than this but these are the ones I can think of off the top of my head. Some are local to individual teams - such as the social Friday - and some are across the whole organisation.

We have:
A meeting free hour from 1230-1330.

All staff who were office based given equipment and homeworking allowance.
Virtual activities- book club, yoga, mindfulness, Zumba plus children’s activities such as daily story time for little ones and French/German speaking group for teens and some individual tuition offers for maths.
Tolerance of children and pets on screen.
Support and counselling access.
Flexible working and adapted/reduced expectations for those who need it for caring responsibility.
Volunteers for onsite activities rather than a requirement.
Daily updates re levels and risks.
Critical worker letters.
Online shared activities like running a marathon or swimming the channel.

Mainly though, individuals can say what they need and wevtry to support.

We’ve had nothing - after much complaining they might be able to get me a laptop. I’ve been using the family one that the children need for their live lessons.

I’d like equipment - laptop, phone, an office chair and stationery or a budget to purchase them.

Centralised IT support - not calling round to see if anyone knows how to do things.

Centralised support for our clients - I am trying to deliver my service but them also end up dealing with safeguarding, help with benefits, general mental health support and parenting. Feeling like a dumping group for everyone’s issues.

Being paid for the hours I work - the time it actually takes (mainly due to above) rather than the time a manage thinks it should take.

A little something at Christmas would have been nice - just a voucher or bottle of wine to say thanks for going above and beyond.

One screen which makes my job difficult. A vpn that keeps dropping out, adding to my stress. No office equipment so I've had to buy my own chair (they have me as classified disabled). No access to MS teams even though that's what my work is mainly run through, so I have to forward the invites to my personal email and do hour after after of meeting on my personal phone, causing headaches. No lunchbreak - not enforced but looked down upon if showed away from computer at any point during day. No tolerance of kids on screen due to sensitive Intel (I understand this one, but difficult with a 3 and 7 year old).

Offered an unpaid career break when I complained, even though my productivety is actually up since being at home and my direct boss says I am working way above my pay grade.

We got an email last week saying that our well-being was really important so we should all make an effort to take our (unpaid) lunch break.

Gee, thanks!

Work have given me a PC (well, the computer I used to use in the office, but I'm not likely to be back in for a while, so glad to have it here!) and bought me a printer - I'm also allowed to use my work credit card for stationery, printer paper/ink, etc while working from home.

They're also being very good about flexible working rather than insisting on 9-5, which is great. And we all got a hamper of treats at Christmas to make up for not having a team dinner! I'd love it if we did more of the social things described by PP though.

At Christmas we got a tea light, two individually wrapped teabags, two Quality Street and a biro.

we did get a £50 M& S voucher at Christmas which we don't normally get and they have been very good to a colleague who has school aged children, letting her work less hours for the same pay etc.

Unmind app
Generous budget for home workspace set up
Fully paid parental/ carers leave
A huge emphasis in our weekly company wide webinars on heath and wellbeing.
Those weekly webinars to keep us up to date and informed (we work in an industry heavily involved in covid response work)
Dedicated Q&A sessions
Regular surveying of feelings / attitude and pressure we’re under, the outcome of which is acted upon at a strategic level
Shit hot IT systems that allow smooth, easy trouble free WFH
Geniune concern over work / life balance followed up regularly by SLT

Strava groups, cookery, gardening etc if you want
Regular touch points with teams to check specifically on their well-being
Being generally understanding and accommodating

Improved the IT so wfh is straightforward.
Respected that I go out at quiet times of day for a walk or shopping.
Support if I need it.
A decision made a long time ago that we would be wfh at least until Easter, so giving some certainty.

Nothing. Absolutely nothing. I returned to work from mat leave in the middle of the crisis, we are all now WFH. As a gesture of goodwill they kept on my maternity cover person but he has all my licences, software and hardware and they still haven't sorted out getting duplicates so I can't do my job properly.

I have three children aged 5 and under. Am now expected to WFH whilst schooling one of them and looking after the other two. No concessions have been made about this and it hasn't even been mentioned, nor has anyone checked in to see if I'm ok.

My middle child had Covid at the start of December so we were all isolating and I was still expected to work normally. My boss never even asked if DS was ok.

I'm stressed, anxious and feeling totally overwhelmed. DH does WFH too but has a full on day of calls and meetings and he's the main breadwinner in a newish job so can't rock the boat there too much. He is great when not working and does his but with the homeschooling but I really need support from my employer too.

Erm a much bigger workload. Complete change to my job making it even tougher and more full on. And that’s about it really. Lots of flowery emails about how hard it is for us, but in practical terms they’ve done nothing to actually make anything easier or support us. I work for in local government so unfortunately I’m used to this after years and years of cuts.

@Handsnotwands wow, your company are amazing....this is what bigger companies can achieve, if they want to.

I’ve been given the option of taking annual leave or unpaid leave. So I’m currently reducing my hours by taking a proportion of annual leave. No idea what I’ll do for the rest of the year when that’s all gone.

@noodlmcdoodl you'll not be surprised to hear that I work in local government too.

I'm on mat leave currently but my work has been decent to me. Furloughed for my third trimester, £70 shopping voucher for Christmas and have agreed to my 3 day a week work request and set hours. Couldn't ask for more, to be honest (other than more money, haha)

Thanks, lots of good ideas to put forward here. I quite like the idea online comedy shows and bring a bottle socials. We have a recruitment freeze on too and several members of my team have left meaning we've all got lots more work to do. We don't have cameras on during zoom meetings, which is good I some ways but I miss seeing colleague's faces. Might suggest we do that for some of our meetings.

I'm an academic,.our work has increased by about 70% that's the official calculation on our modelled hours anyway. Support has been a lot of IT training but otherwise been told to get on with the new normal.

What would help is even a slight acknowledgement that some of us are homeschooling. They've ignored it entirely.

Main thing you should do op is offer paid leave.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/jan/13/furlough-refused-to-71-of-uk-working-mothers-while-schools-shut-survey

I work for the NHS and my work/bosses have been so utterly incompetent, rude and unsupportive throughout. Especially atm. I'm dental so it's not like were on COVID wards. They make up rules which are frankly dangerous. They just haven't got a clue