Connection in a Time of Social Distancing

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Working from home is great! Except when it’s not.

If you’re forced to do it, it may not be so good. Add to that the responsibility of home-schooling kids whose school is shutdown and it makes the office seem much better.

Even when given a choice, it’s not always the preferred option.

Six years ago, researchers did a study in Shanghai, China. They measured the productivity of 500 online travel agency workers who volunteered to work at home. The tasks included booking travel and inputting data, things that are easily done remotely. They found that productivity increased 13%, which is significant. On the downside, they found that even though they were more productive, they were less likely to get promoted, pointing to the importance of office face time in career advancement.

Here’s the interesting part. After six months, workers were asked if they wanted to continue working at home. Half chose to come back to the office. They felt isolated and lonely working at home,

Connection matters.

I believe this is more than the extroverts needing to be around other people. Even introverts need social connection. It’s primal. If you’ve ever had primary care for children at home and felt starved for adult conversation at the end of the day, you know what I’m talking about.

As we try to slow the spread of COVID-19 through social distancing, we can’t forget the importance of emotional connection. We know from family systems theory that too much emotional distance increases the anxiety in a system. Whether it’s your family, organization or congregation, being intentional about staying connected is more important than ever.

Over 80 million people are already under shelter-in-place orders. I’m hearing rumors about a national order that would require the entire country to do so for a week or longer. I am not against such an action. Desperate times call for desperate measures. The toll on our economy will be bad regardless of what we do. Perhaps a national shutdown will not only slow the spread of the virus, but it might give us time to implement massive testing, quarantines and contact tracing. These, along with social distancing can “flatten the curve” and avoid a total shutdown of society. I believe intense short-term pain is our best chance to shorten the duration of this crisis.

Regardless, I believe our role as non-anxious leaders is to stay connected by whatever means necessary. Phone calls, texts and facetime/skype/ZOOM are just some of the tools available to us. I saw a story on the news last night where three girls were having a virtual tea party via ZOOM. We had our first virtual staff meeting on Wednesday. A friend told me she participated in a virtual happy hour and a virtual choir-sing this past week. These are not ideal responses, but they’re all we have.

As with anything, I believe awareness and intentionality are the first steps toward positive action.

How will you stay connected in a time of social distancing?

The Rev. Jack Shitama serves as executive director of Pecometh Camp & Retreat Ministries in Maryland.  This post is republished with permission from his blog The Non-Anxious Leader.