With the global pandemic, came the rise - and necessity - of the work from home (WFH) environment and ethic for professionals who could do their jobs remotely. But, as most know, the pandemic and WFH environment brought unexpected changes and challenges, specifically for women in the workforce.

Thriving or Just Surviving?

Some women thrived with the flexibility that working from home brought about, enjoying the extra hours in their days that allowed them to replace their commutes with more productive time at their desks. They appreciated working around life plans, multitasking, running errands, and attending appointments, while still getting the job done – sometimes even better than they did before.

These women enjoyed the freedom of not being “under a lens” and working an all-too-familiar balancing act without the physical constraints of a “desk job.”

However, other women felt the opposite. They suffered for a variety of reasons with nuanced complexities that were often personal to each situation. While some challenges were inconvenient – an incessantly barking dog, neighbors’ noisy construction, or sketchy wifi connectivity. Others were more complex, such as childcare arrangements, lack of communication, and less collaboration.

But the one constant was that each group relied on their circumstances, professional and personal support systems, and oftentimes their company’s leadership - or any combination of those - to help navigate the new work environment and its unique complex personal and professional challenges.

The Gift

The pandemic pivot was a game of trial and error and adjusting as time went on. And what many leaders learned is how to lead with empathy, compassion, and an obligation to understand that the personal and professional lines were so blurred that sometimes the delineation was non-existent. 

Here are a few ways I learned to be a better leader (and am still learning)  – the ultimate gift amid the most uncertain of times.

  • Mindset is Contagious. Learn to keep your team together through gratitude. We knew that teamwork would rely on the energy we had amongst us. But how could we foster that without a physical connection? As a team, we set aside optional online social meet-ups and arranged virtual coffee meetings amongst team members. This created a chance for us to feed into each other’s energy and was a gentle reminder that we were all facing a similar storm. 
  • Trust Technology to Support Your Team. At Making Science, not only do we build technology for ourselves and our clients, but it is an integral part of what we do. We learned to lean into our tools and got the most out of platforms such as 15Five, Slack (which is an absolute game-changer for us), Google Meet, Loom, and many more. Each served its own purpose - collaboration, communication, organization - but worked together as a tech stack that became the backbone of our organization. 

Focus on fixing the system. It’s important that the responsibility isn’t placed on women to figure out how to help themselves. Ultimately, the system is what’s broken – not the way women are handling it. We identified the unique challenges women (and of course some men) were facing and worked to design solutions that would support exactly what they needed. Some such solutions include flexible working hours, ways to garner feedback, bounce ideas, and ensure the right cadence of meetings and visibility amongst the team. We worked to avoid filling calendars with incessant meetings, by encouraging team members to record meetings that other colleagues are unable to join at the scheduled time, for them to pick later when convenient for them. As a company, we created a whole suite of Google Meet corporate backgrounds that allow everyone to keep their private lives (and living rooms/kitchens/spare rooms for that matter) private. With the opportunity to choose their preferred background, team members can choose the version that best suits them each day… their style, their mood, or the type of meeting they are joining - much like you would with your attire each day when going to the office. 

  • Be the place where people want to work. I recall conducting an interview where a candidate’s children came into the Zoom view (a Zoom bomb, right?). I could tell the candidate was worried and then embarrassed. Instead of exacerbating her discomfort  I told her that I have a family too, and understood the challenges she was facing, – and then I asked her if she wanted to introduce her kids. She seemed a little surprised, but we rolled with it and it went well. The conversation led to discussing how we manage the daily juggle of home and work-life balance, school runs, and impromptu mandatory quarantines. Ultimately, she was offered and accepted the job. And not only is she great at what she does, but we connected as women, mothers, and humans. She knew that we expected her to have a life that didn’t need to be hidden and instead, strive to make everything work in harmony.

The Curse…and the Opportunity

At this point, we are in a unique position to craft the “new normal.” We know that women are often feeling more pressure at work than men and we now have an opportunity to design a way to combine the best of working in an office with the new WFH environment. Now is the time to create the best hybrid environment by converging what works best in both situations and keeping the needs of our workforce at the forefront.

Flexibility is essential. As mentioned, when working remotely, women tend to take the brunt of family care responsibilities more often than men. So while male employees may be able to work uninterrupted all day, female workers may have to take breaks throughout the day to tend to a baby or help older kids with virtual schoolwork. As a company, be flexible and avoid penalizing or thinking differently if any of your employees are unable to attend every online meeting as scheduled or work at odd hours. Instead, focus on the work they produce instead of their availability or hours clocked.

Ask for women’s opinions. A big part of feeling respected in the workplace is feeling heard. Employers should make sure women are given the opportunity to speak and have their feelings acknowledged. In this situation actions often speak louder than words. So listen, then take appropriate action to address those opinions and concerns. 

Support mental health. The danger of deteriorating mental health is equally as problematic, often stigmatized, and mostly hidden, which makes this part especially difficult. How can we help women - and all employees for that matter - if we don’t know they are struggling? What support can we offer as leaders and as a company? And how do we allow employees to open up? The answer goes back to the above. Invite opinions, offer support, and provide resources without someone asking. This can reduce the potential awkwardness of an employee wanting to ask for help, but not knowing where to go. This may mean enlisting external professionals, but it will surely be worth it for your team.

Be the Example

To sum it up, there is a great quote from a Forbes article that really resonated with me and is how Making Science supports me to lead: 

“I think the biggest way we can attract and retain talent during this time is to be an example of the talent we are seeking. Be that inspiring leader with real follow through on your dreams that energizes others to be proud of the team they are a part of.”

In short, be a good leader and invite the gifts from the situation that outweigh the curse so women can not only survive in this new world but also thrive.