I am a business writer and lecturer based in Singapore. As of this writing, I have just entered the second year of the Covid pandemic. There are 3 phrases that have never been near to my consciousness: wear your mask, social distancing and Zoom. None of them endear to me at all. I am not sure which term I abhor the most – perhaps Zoom, as I am a lecturer who likes to walk about in class and impress my students with my multimedia PowerPoint show.
Well, the purpose of this article is not about any of these 3 evils but a D-word that is not Death. Rather, it is Depression.
I want to provide tips targeted towards the HR department and business-owners about lessening the need for subordinates to reach the stage of the D-word. (Of course, if any reader here is already clinically-depressed, please seek immediate and professional help.)
Well-thought of Meeting Agendas
Every meeting must have relevant agendas that must be achieved and act upon after the meeting’s conclusion. There should not be after-meeting WhatsApp messages unless the business scenario has taken a sudden change for the worse and a U-turn of corporate strategy must be discussed for the company not to go down.
Mask-Design
I am suggesting that all companies should move forward and use a unique corporate mask-design to help in the bonding process. After so much medical literature has been displayed, it is no longer any doubt that wearing a mask is being responsible and is a small price to pay for opening physical working space.
Covid-Vaccination
There must be a serious push for all employees to get Covid-vaccination so that no individual will feel ostracized. Vaccination is the socially appropriate action to take in order to still be part of the team.
Zoom-weariness
Many employees have sent feedback that they are experiencing Zoom-weariness. A quick solution is to complement the Zoom session with perhaps some mobile games using Kahoot to break the monotony. Perhaps, this is how your team really feels whenever you had long PowerPoint presentations with hard-to-see font sizes.
Vending-machines with free products
The company should provide vending machines that provides free products. You did not read wrong! Every time you press a button to get a product, the information will be logged in with a time-stamp to your personal records. Your immediate supervisor will give weekly approval if your performance is within a mutually agreed target. This will boost your spirits, if your company has a variety of vending machines.
Trust
With the current state of Covid, there must be a certain level of trust to be given as most of us are still working from our homes. The term KPI can be slowly put in backburner as it is not easy to use the traditional performance metrics. As a suggestion, every employee may be required to do a weekly report so that top management can see how they can further provide mentoring guidance. Employees do get depressed if they are not sure if their bosses appreciate their work.
TikTok
Many bosses do not know that TikTok is now the “IT” thing with many people. It is like a much-shortened YouTube video with Instagram smarts. The value of TikTok is that employees can create light-hearted videos together to take a much-needed break. This is the 2021 way of corporate bonding.
I hope these tips can help chase the D-Word out of the current workplace.