Editorial

Lots of job satisfaction!

The new year is an occasion to extend others your best wishes in everything.
On top of the classics such as “good health and the best of luck”, I would like to a little addition for you: I wish you lots of job satisfaction!

The past year has shown once more just how meaningful our jobs are in our lives. It hardly bears repeating just how much our job satisfaction was compromised. Covid-19 was a turning point in just about everything we took for granted. Nothing remained the same, including professionally. As so many of us started working from home, some of our colleagues could be contacted only via our screens. For coaches, keeping workers and teams connected was a tour de force. For workers, safeguarding the limits between work and private life was a challenge. The highly recommended telework did remove mobility-related stress for many employees, however.

Recently I heard a participant’s cry for help during a webinar about the new way of working: “the employer who was always reluctant to allow teleworking now expects managerial staff to coach, guide and assess employees working from home. But all of this is new for those managers as well. They too are now suddenly forced into the new reality, without the knowledge and skills to deal with it.” Providing supportive leadership is often not yet a baseline attitude. But the importance of it is even more acutely obvious due to the intensive telework.

By now, we have adapted to the sudden new situation. As a result, it sometimes seems as if we have already internalized the new realities. We have undeniably taken steps. Yet you and I are still left with a lot of questions. How do I organize my telework? And what about my company car? What is the cost of telework and who pays for it? Do we still need strict work schedules? What meaning does an employer’s authority hold today? Am I still entitled to my own office space? What is the importance of ergonomics? As a manager, how do I ensure sound group dynamics? Where am I in the mobility shift?

We are at a crucial turning point. Whether it concerns mobility, new working methods, learning, supportive coaching … We have gained momentum in all of these areas in recent months. Covid-19 brings challenges to the surface more than ever. ACV Kader wants to further guide this process of change based on the reality of knowledge workers, managers and executives. You once again gave us a strong mandate to do so during the last social elections. We are proud, glad, and grateful to have once again earned your trust, which is the most important thing to have.