Out of the comfort zone, into the new normality

For our ERGO colleagues Ieva Skučienė and Sandra Olechnovičienė in Lithuania returning to the office after the Corona lockdown is something special. And yet the new normality is different. Perhaps because it is also much quieter in the office. Many are still working from home, as this has proved to work well so far.

Life in Lithuania has already almost got back to normal again. Only the compulsory wearing of masks on public transport or the disinfectant dispensers in front of the shops remind people in the Baltic state that Corona is ever present. It was a completely different picture a few months ago: The first phase of the pandemic also brought about major changes for the ERGO staff in Lithuania. Instead of working in the office, for some time this meant mobile working.

Suddenly working from home

Our colleagues Ieva Skučienė and Sandra Olechnovičienė can still remember this formative period at their desks at home. At first, the work was rather unusual. However, they both found that they all learned to work from home and to organize themselves quickly using the collaboration, communication and video conferencing tools. Eventually, the organization ran so smoothly that Sandra Olechnovičienė wondered at the time: “Is that perhaps the end of offices as we know them?”

The answer is yes and no. She still considers the classic offices to be valuable places of communication. Places of social exchange, where people laugh and work on great ideas. Mobile working, on the other hand, stands for a high level of flexibility: “A combination of the two options is ideal”, says Olechnovičienė in retrospect and adds: “The last few months have been a good experience for me. As a recruiter I left my comfort zone and tried to capture the applicants' charisma just via the screen.”

Unusual silence in the office

For some time now, she has been working in the office again with a few of her colleagues. However, there is still an unusual silence there. Sandra Olechnovičienė misses the laughter and having breaks with her colleagues. After the weeks in home office, this is yet again a new situation, a new normality, but it also has something good about it: This silence helps you to focus better. “Sometimes it is so quiet that you might think something is wrong”, jokes Ieva Skučienė.

However, everything is fine for her, as she benefited from the enormous speed of digitalisation during the first pandemic phase. “It was a great opportunity to get to know oneself under different circumstances”, finds Skučienė and adds, “all in all, ERGO is a great employer who made the best decisions for the employees with regard to working in the office and at home. I enjoy being back in the office now.”

Mobile working as a success

The classic office has changed a lot: “The idea of accommodating many people in one building may be a thing of the past”, speculates ERGO recruiter Sandra Olechnovičienė. Her far-reaching vision of mobile working sounds so optimistic perhaps because she can look back on a great learning success. All team members have now learned to work, communicate and implement ideas from their desks at home - or even from the kitchen table.