‘YOU actually go to your office to work?” Many of my colleagues in public relations and marketing express surprise—and disbelief—when they learn that yes, I have been going to office regularly since May.
On the other hand, I continue to be amazed on how many continue to work from home, and seem to have settled quite comfortably into it.
Having had the opportunity to work from home during the initial lockdown in March, I can say that like everything else it has its good and bad points. And as working remotely seems here to stay, we are getting to know more about it, and how to manage it better.
One of these is that working remotely is different for different people. In an Inc.com article, Jessica Stillman says that, “not only do we have different home situations and career trajectories, we have different personalities.”
With that, she believes that—as stated in her article, “There Are 2 Kinds of Remote Workers. You’ll Get More Done If You Know Which You Are.”
Stillman cites what she calls a fascinating post by Wharton professor Nancy Rothbard on the school’s Knowledge@Wharton site. According to Rothbard, “our individual preferences and quirks have a big impact on how we handle remote work and how successful we are at it.”
Rothbard divides people into two main groups—integrators and segmentors—and adds that, “understanding which approach comes more naturally to you and to your team can help you all get more done, faster, with less stress.
Indeed, how do you divide your time, space, and attention between competing demands? Segmentors and integrators answer that question very differently.
Segmentors “crave clear separation, spatially and temporally between work and home.” As such, “working at the kitchen table with the kids drifting in and out of zoom calls is definitely not for them. Give them a quiet garden shed and defined working hours any day.”
Integrators, on the other hand, “gravitate toward the opposite approach. They don’t mind answering emails in between helping the kids with their schoolwork. A late-night call doesn’t faze them, but then neither does closing the laptop for a lunchtime run.”
All in all, “understanding which you belong to will help you sort out which advice will be useful for you, but also help you get more out of your team if you’re a leader.”
How can one balance work with both segmentors and integrators in a team? Rothbard offers the following actionable tips in her article:
- Don’t pick sides. “Neither integrators nor segmentors are better or more committed than the other,” Rothbard reminds managers. Your life will be easier if you remember that and allow everybody to pursue the strategy that’s best for them.
- Rotate the pain. Even if you respect everyone’s preferences, “you will still have to work together.” And that means there will be adjustments to different workstyles and different ways of doing things. “Just make sure that you rotate the pain so it’s not always the segmentors or integrators who are losing out,” says Rothbard.
- Utilize rituals. Segmentors want to draw a bright line between work and home, but in our current reality, that may be hard to achieve. Rothbard suggests rituals can help.
Even if “you’re going across the corridor to start your day, taking a walk around the garden first or setting aside a few minutes to plug back into work can help you keep things separate mentally,” she says.
- Set boundaries. On the opposite side, integrators often struggle to focus “as they allow different demands to pull them in different directions.
Rothbard says that for integrators, one can keep productivity on track by “thinking ahead about exactly what you will let distract you during different times of your workday.”
Are you a segmentor or integrator? Keep these guidelines in mind as you navigate working from home in the new normal.
PR Matters is a roundtable column by members of the local chapter of the United Kingdom based International Public Relations Association (Ipra), the world’s premier association for senior professionals around the world. Millie Dizon, the Senior Vice President for Marketing and Communications of SM, is the former local chair.
We are devoting a special column each month to answer the reader’s questions about public relations. Please send your comments and questions to askipraphil@gmail.com.
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