When New Covid Variants Upend Your Return-to-Office Plans

Covid has been the perfect storm for feeling out of control. The disease itself is unpredictable, and the portentous variants only add to this mix of uncertainty and fear. The re-opening of offices was a clear step toward a return to normalcy — the soothing possibility of routine and regularity. But the return-to-office delays necessitated by Delta and now Omicron have reignited people’s sense of powerlessness. There’s a surprisingly straightforward way to calm (at least partially) the frazzled nerves wrought by Covid and its many variants. The key is to give employees a sense of control — the feeling that there is order and predictability even in the face of constantly fluctuating plans. To provide that sense of control, leaders need a return-to-office plan that contains clear-cut contingencies and is clearly communicated. To get control of the Covid chaos, leaders can apply the author’s Values-Perspective-Execution (VPE) model of decision making.