Are We Having Fun Yet? (Part One)
Talk about pent-up demand! After 15-plus months of pandemic-mandated behavior---social distancing, mask-wearing, working from home, not eating in restaurants, etc., restrictions are lifting. Everyone is thinking about what will come next. Fantasies of steaming ahead, full throttle, toward a return to “normalcy” are ubiquitous: Cruise lines are vowing to set sail from the US this summer, schools are pledging to reopen for full in-person learning by the fall and workers who have been working from home are waiting to hear from their employers about what’s next for their futures. But what, exactly, will the new normal be?
There are many, many questions to be addressed and even more details to which attention will need to be paid to make this forward march work. What are the obvious---and less-than obvious—considerations that should be factored into employer considerations when making long-awaited return-to-work decisions? How will the pandemic experience affect how work works best in the “new” work world? And what are the implications of these changes for employees and for organizational productivity?
Obviously, individual employee attitudes and responses to their working situations have always varied; the pandemic was experienced in a similarly individualized way. As a result, while some employees are excited about a potential “return to normal” (often meaning a world much like it was pre-pandemic), many others have profound concerns about what they might be returning to. No one would deny that the particulars of an individual’s employment context influence how they feel about their work: a hospital-based employee experiences a very different working environment than a college professor or an employee in a retail chain store. Adding the second critical element of how someone experiences work, namely the personal needs and preferences of each particular employee, it becomes clear that resuming work post-pandemic is going to be a challenging, discovery-filled journey for both organizations and the individuals they employ.
A May 7, 2021 piece in Conde Nast Traveler entitled “Disneyland Has Finally Reopened,” paints a reasonably concrete portrait of how one organization (with which many of us are familiar as consumers) changed to enable it to open for business during spring 2021. (Note: the description was accurate on May 7. Since then, the CDC has changed its guidance significantly on mask-wearing and states are, as I write, altering their mandates to align. So, the changes roll on.) The article leads with the statement “After 14 months shuttered, things have changed at the happiest place on earth.”
What has changed? On May 7, I thought I could predict the short list of what would be different at Mouseland: everyone would likely be masked, for instance. And social distancing would be required. But I never anticipated the lengthy list of specifics cited in the article (and, remember, these were just “retail-level” changes affecting visitors. It is very reasonable to expect that policies related to Disneyland’s workforce both mimicked and expanded on the changes set forth for visitors.) If you were a Disneyland employee, the degree of change being experienced was summative, combining those designed for visitors on top of what was altered for its workforce.
For starters, Disney is about the park, and that meant physical transformations to respond to the pandemic. Things in the park looked different than before it shut down: there were signs everywhere reminding guests to keep social distance and to use separate entrances and exits at shops and restaurants. As one would anticipate, stations dispensing hand sanitizer had popped up like mushrooms proliferating after a storm. But, perhaps, the biggest change in early May’s reopening period was that the park operated differently: it was weirdly uncrowded. If a returning visitor enjoyed Disneyland’s high energy throngs bumping shoulders and queuing up in excited anticipation of a long-awaited ride or other experience, that hubbub was now absent as the management capped attendance at 25% of normal occupancy. If that visitor had enjoyed pre-pandemic Disneyland’s “the world inside these gates is your oyster” mentality, they found that its spring 2021 iteration was no bubbling cauldron of endless spur-of-the-moment options. Spontaneity took a big hit: would-be guests needed to plan, plan ahead: both tickets AND reservations became required for park entry; these had to be purchased on- line, in advance of arrival. There were lots more changes…did I mention that only California residents were admitted?
There were also temperature checks upon arrival, advanced reservations for any restaurant with table service (many are still closed) and other food service options strongly encouraged placing orders in advance to avoid crowds around kiosks and self-service facilities. There were very specific times when guests could switch from one of the two park sections to the other. And, since there were no trams running to take visitors to and from the parking garage to the park entrance, there was a long, on-foot trudge at either end of the Disneyland day.
More significantly, perhaps, Disney employees inside the park (including the character cast members) were charged with enforcing the masking requirement. Therefore, lovely Snow White was chiding visitors to put their masks back on while still sporting her beatific smile (hopefully, said visitors did not suddenly turn into Grumpy or one of his not so cheerful compatriots, as a result.) At Disneyland in early May 2021, the characters who are at the heart of the enterprise, from Cinderella to Winnie the Pooh (all of whom had returned after a very unexpected 15-month furlough) were also required to keep their social distance. Guests continued to ask for pictures with the characters, but the resultant photos feature arms-length distance between guests and Goofy instead of the pre-pandemic snuggles and hugs. Plus, of course, all participants are sporting the aforementioned masks. Cast members were on their own for the multitude of situations arising for these new operating guidelines: I wonder just how quickly after being grabbed by a sticky, drippy-nosed 3-year-old, a princess could have reasonably excused herself to reach for the sanitizer dispensing station lever?
If one can imagine “the happiest place on earth” experiencing a buzz-chill, this might well have been a version of what it would look like. What does that portend during the re-entry period for workplaces that didn’t start out at that level of joy? And what about after that? Perhaps most importantly, what will employees be thinking and feeling during their own period of re-entry? How have they been shaped by the past 15-plus months? What can/should organizations be thinking about in light of what their employees have just lived through?
Smarter Wisdom contends that returning to “normal” will not be a simple snap back into a pre-pandemic-like work world augmented with a lot of hand sanitizer dispensers. We believe that it won’t be about mask-wearing policies or the distance between desks. It will be about people, their states of mind and new needs and concerns. And it will be about what leadership looks like in that light. That’s what is coming in Part 2 of Are we Having Fun Yet? Wait for it….it’ll be worth it.