enjoyable.The coronavirus has forced many employees to work from home. Working from home has unique challenges, including replicating the working culture in the office with colleagues. While you may not be able to achieve the same culture that exists in the office, you can still create a virtual environment for yourself and your colleagues that is positive and enjoyable. Happy environments create happy employees, and happy employees do good work and work well together.
Whether you have managerial responsibilities or not, you, too, have a responsibility to cultivate a good working environment. Great work environments are created at organizations where each individual feels responsible for setting the tone. Here are three ways you can create a great virtual work culture:Ask how your colleagues are doing. Briefly mention the beautiful weather. Talk about your dog or the new recipe you tried.
Asking about people’s children or hobbies, for example, can make people smile. Talking about things outside of work can trigger small moments of joy. Leaders make people feel good. When people feel good, they are more committed to their work and can make your job easier. Small talk can pay big dividends.