Hello Lucy, Karen and Disruptive HR Club!

Lots has been written about burnout during the pandemic as we go from one virtual meeting to the next forcing Managers (at least here in the U.S. to work more hours than pre-pandemic). We are doing lots of work to reverse this in a hybrid environment such as:

– Focused Fridays where there is no expectation of internal meetings allowing people to catch up, plan ahead, invest in professional development or get an early start to the weekend.

– Shut down during the week of Thanksgiving where everyone will be off with no expectation of work being done or emails answered (only 18 weeks to go but who’s counting?!)

– Extended time off during certain holidays such as July 4 (same concept as Thanksgiving shut down)

While all this is appreciated and great, I believe there is a need for more sustainable work practices. I’m thinking of the following:

– “Heads down” time one day per week from 2pm – 5.30pm meaning no meetings
– Reducing meetings to 25 or 50 mins vs. 30 or 60 mins
– Promoting asynchronous work reducing the need for meetings
– Sharing calendars using the “private” functionality for anything that is personal or sensitive (e.g. employee relations conversation)
– Not starting meetings before 10am
– Discouraging emails after “business hours” and on the weekend (the former is more difficult in a country with multiple time zones!)

Does anyone have any great practices or resources on this to share? Looking forward to some great inspiration and happy to share more of what we are doing and/or thinking of 🙂

Chris