Managers finding the office a lonely place post-pandemic

A survey of more than 1,000 line managers, conducted by the Chartered Management Institute (CMI), found that almost half of line managers say work is more stressful now than pre-pandemic.

While some managers identified improvements in productivity and staff well-being prompted by changes to ways of working first necessitated by the pandemic, they identified downsides that include work being more lonely, less rewarding and more stressful for them to manage.

The study showed that 52% said the prevalence of working from home means workplaces have now become more lonely.

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More than half of respondents (58%) said their work-life balance had improved since Covid; but 44% also suggested their job had become more stressful – against 24% who said it had not.

A third disagreed with the statement that work now is more rewarding than pre-pandemic, compared with just one fifth (22%) who agreed.

Anthony Painter, the CMI’s director of policy, said the findings highlighted how much the world of work has changed since the pandemic, and the importance of employers equipping management with the tools to lead hybrid and remote teams.

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"Three years on from the first UK lockdown, these findings capture for the first time the evolving world of work as we fully emerge from the pandemic and they tell us that there is plenty still to be done to ensure new ways of working that have emerged - the gains we have seen - are fine-tuned, future fit and that they work for everyone.

"Employers need to ensure their managers and leaders are equipped with the tools and training they need to lead hybrid and remote team members. Stressed out managers who are not finding their own work rewarding are a risk to those employers and we do not want to lose the upside that flexible working has delivered for so many.

"Done well, flexible working leads to more diverse workplaces, welcoming in more women, people with disabilities and other underrepresented groups. 

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"That diversity of thought leads to better business outcomes but there can be no doubt that the upheaval to traditional ways of working brings challenges for managers and leaders that need to be carefully grappled with to ensure that the ‘wins’ of the pandemic changes to how we live and work are not lost."

Alice Arkwright, policy officer at the TUC, called for other forms of flexible working to be made available for those who can’t work from home.

“There are so many other forms of flexible working, even where it’s not possible to do remote working: compressed hours, annualised hours, jobshares, part-time, mutually agreed shift patterns,” she told the Guardian.

“People showed enormous amounts of flexibility during the pandemic, and we haven’t seen that kind of reciprocal flexibility from employers in every job.”