Communication. That’s the word of the day in my house. How quickly things can go downhill if these skills (we as adults should already possess) are not used.
Increased anxiety, confusion, and unnecessary sour feelings could be avoided if only we sharpened our communication skills and buried our egos.
In this post-pandemic society, we seem to have forgotten the basics, wandering willy-nilly down this new and unknown path, expecting things to return to the way they were before COVID, yet recognizing that things will never be the same again.
Working from home has its perks; we all experienced that during lockdowns. We found new and innovative ways to communicate – Zoom, WebEx, and Google Meet – all acceptable and safe forms of getting together and reducing the risk of infection.
But now that people are trickling back into their offices, dusting off their staplers, and getting back into the groove, something has changed.
Those newfound communication tools are being used less, leaving a gap in the workplace flow of information. So, do we return to the board room or the drawing board?
Three years of online interaction, social media madness, and a seemingly collective forgetting of basic people skills have left some wondering how to reimagine our workplaces and our social lives.
In many businesses, including the media, egos play a large part in communication problems in the workplace. Fear of sharing information, caused by worrying that a co-worker could learn too much and possibly be vying for your job, is a common barrier to having a well-oiled team.
Being too busy is another one we are all dealing with, but keeping an unsustainable workload affects the peace of mind of everyone in the office, causing undue stress and the overwhelming pressure to complete all of your tasks on time. Sharing the workload more evenly among the workers can be achieved, but only if we swallow our pride, bury our egos, and accept help when offered.
So, maybe every workplace needs to revisit this whole working in-person in a post-COVID world to implement the many things learned during the pandemic and remember what we were taught about communication as a child.
How to effectively communicate with each other is at the top of my list. A good exchange of ideas and a workplace free from ego-driven secrets is a good plan.
Why make a mountain out of a molehill when an easier choice is to provide a full and honest explanation to an inquiry, ensure everybody is on the same page with the same information, and boom, Bob’s your uncle (satire).
Let’s all try to do better as we learn how to live, work and communicate in this new reality; the tools and the information are out there, we just have to apply them to ourselves.
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Cory Bilyea is a journalist currently working for Midwestern Newspapers and recognizes her own ego driven self lacks good communication skills and now strives to do better. You can reach her for comment at cbilyea@midwesternnewspapers.com.
