Banks and other workplaces will see the interplay of different attitudes amongst employees as they return from self-isolation to some semblance of a normal routine, according to clinical psychologist, Dr Simon Kinsella from Corporate and Personal Consulting.
Australians have been asked to stay at home wherever possible over the past couple of months in order to avoid unnecessary contact with people to minimise the spread of the virus.
Governments are now relaxing restrictions, which means that various personality traits of people will come back into play in the workplace and that might have mixed results.
Kinsella told Banking Day that it is likely people will witness different kinds of attitudes amongst their workmates that will range from individuals seeking to do the right thing, people anxious about contamination and also individuals that might be oblivious to the situation.
He observed that there are people seem to be unaware that “social distancing is a thing and that is something that we need to be mindful of”.
“That’s going to create quite an interesting interplay. I think the highly anxious people are going to struggle with the people who are oblivious. Those people that sit in the middle of that spectrum will probably cope the best because they will recognise that some people will be careless and some people will be overly anxious. They will just moderate their behaviour as needs be,” Kinsella said.
Calmness in conversation about the issues arising from the pandemic is one of the best ways to deal with the differences in behaviour that people might witness. Kinsella suggested that a gentle reminder to individuals or groups about appropriate behaviour is the best way to deal with any behaviours that people believe might be unsafe.
“I was in a queue the other day waiting to get into a shop and the person behind me was getting closer and closer. It got to the point where I turned around and said ‘Would you mind giving me some distance’,” Kinsella said.
“He immediately apologised and stepped back. It was just that he wasn’t thinking about his surroundings. He wasn’t thinking about where I was. He was just in a queue. I think if we can be mindful of asking people politely then we will get through this next phase much more easily.”
There may also be some modifications to the way in which rituals in the office such as celebrations in large groups of personal milestones such as birthdays in order to avoid the possibility of passing on the virus, Kinsella observed.
Reopening offices and getting back to work is only one aspect of normality that will fall into place but Kinsella warned people they need to adjust their expectations about how soon various restrictions will be eased.
“When we talk about things going back to normal we are talking about a gradual process. You can’t just suddenly flick the switch and have pubs and clubs open and go out for big celebrations and go to the MCG with 100,000 people. It’s just not safe to do that yet,” Kinsella said.
“We will get a gradual easing of restrictions, which means that for those of us that are missing the face to face contact with people, we will be able to now start to address that.”
Kinsella said that Australians will not be able to get back to business as usual for a long time.
“That long haul is something we need to be prepared for and we need to get our heads around the fact that we have a bit of a marathon ahead of us whether we have another spike or not. We are still going to have to modify the way we do things to reduce the risk that the disease will spread.”