Whether you're a brand-new manager or have been managing people for decades, you've likely experienced the past 12 months as one challenge after another, pummeling workplaces around the globe. The COVID-19 pandemic, economic uncertainty, business closures, massive layoffs, widespread civil unrest, unprecedented political upheaval—these developments hit fast and furiously, and managers were the ones who had to navigate the workplace fallout. This article is the first in a series that explores those challenges, how new and longtime managers tackled them, and what they learned along the way.
When Jim Christy realized this time last year that the COVID-19 pandemic would force his entire team to work remotely—something he had little experience with—he choked.
"I was terrified," admitted Christy, CEO of Columbus, Ohio-based Postali, a marketing agency for attorneys. "I like day-to-day interactions with the team, and our communication tends to be highly verbal. I was wondering if we would lose productivity or lose employees" who don't like to work remotely.
Leading employees from afar was just one of many challenges that workplace managers had to tackle these past 12 months—a year that brought not only a pandemic, but also racial unrest, a teetering economy, massive layoffs and political divisions so intense they eventually led to violence, insurrection and deaths.
Those challenges have left some managers more effective, versatile and confident leaders, though that doesn't mean some—like Christy—haven't stumbled along the way.
"We hit a perfect storm with all of these things happening at once," said Jeaneen Andrews-Feldman, chief marketing and experience officer at the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). "Any one of those things would have been enough for even an experienced people manager to handle, let alone a new one."
‘I was terrified. I like day-to-day interactions with the team, and our communication tends to be highly verbal. I was wondering if we would lose productivity or lose employees.’
Onslaught of Challenges
Widespread remote work due to the pandemic, as Christy discovered, was just one of the jarring developments of the past 12 months.
Social distancing and limits on physical contact put a severe strain on the U.S. economy. With more than 20 million people out of work last April, the U.S. unemployment rate ballooned to 14.7 percent—the highest level since the Great Depression—as many businesses shut down or limited their operations and laid off workers.
While unemployment claims have dipped significantly from that early peak, they're still well above the highs from previous economic crises, such as the Great Recession. The March 2021 labor report showed that the nation's unemployment rate fell to 6 percent from 6.7 percent in December, although white-collar jobs were largely responsible for those gains, as lower-paid service jobs continued to lag. In a research note, economists at Oxford Economics called recent job gains "a faint heartbeat" that "represented little progress toward recovery."
Overall, since the start of the pandemic, 70 million people have filed for unemployment, representing about 40 percent of the U.S. labor force. About 18 million were still receiving some type of unemployment benefits as of the first week of April 2021. Around 2 million people had filed such claims in the first week of March 2020, before the pandemic hit.
Managers were the ones who had to decide which employees to fire. Or had to deliver the news to employees that they were fired. Or had to furlough workers without pay.
On the day he was interviewed by
SHRM Online, Kevin Miller was preparing to fire one of his workers. He confided that over the past year, he found his own mental health declining, had begun to see a therapist and offered a $100 stipend to employees who wanted to seek mental health resources.
"One of my direct reports was depressed at not being able to be out and about and be active," said Miller, founder and CEO of Los Angeles-based The Word Counter, an online tool for writers. "They're not married or dating, and they're in their apartment alone. They can't see family. They were seeing what they thought was reality on Facebook and Instagram, where their friends seemed to be out and about with friends when they really weren't."
‘We hit a perfect storm with all of these things happening at once. Any one of those things would have been enough for even an experienced people manager to handle, let alone a new one.’
Chief Marketing and
Experience Officer, SHRM
Civil and Political Unrest
In the space of three months early in 2020, the killings of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd—Black Americans who were all unarmed at the time of their deaths—incited civil unrest and protests in over 2,000 cities and towns in more than 60 countries, some escalating into riots and looting. An estimated 15 million to 26 million people participated in demonstrations in the United States alone.
Managers came to realize that many Black employees were dealing with trauma, anger and fear, said Charles Ellis Bush II, an attorney in Ice Miller's labor and employment group in Indianapolis.
"It's fair to say employees of all races—but particularly African-American ones—were rattled" by the killings and protests, he said, adding that managers may have witnessed changes in some workers' behavior as a result. Those employees may have become disengaged at work; demonstrated an uncharacteristic lack of initiative or motivation; or started making more mistakes or delivering incomplete, late or poorly executed projects.
"The key indicator here is a change in behavior from how individuals normally present themselves in the workplace," Bush said. "Employees who are dealing with these emotions may be disengaged at work and unable to perform to their best ability."
Finally, managers were the ones who saw the impact of 2020's deeply divisive presidential election on their workers—lack of concentration, angry words between employees of opposing political views, fears about resulting political unrest. These events—the pandemic, massive unemployment, civil unrest and political upheaval—all transpired over the course of about 10 months.
"Let's face it, we are all normally under stress," said Jenn Donahue, a leadership coach and retired Navy officer who was once in charge of 1,400 Navy personnel and three battalions. "But the additional impacts from COVID, racial tensions, a divisive election and economic worries have stretched many beyond their normal stress points."
Said Andrews-Feldman: "The word 'uncertainty' is the key. There's uncertainty around COVID. There was uncertainty around the election. As a people manager, you have to keep your team enthused, upbeat and working toward a goal because you still have a business to run—all while combating more issues in the past year than we had in mind."
‘Let's face it, we are all normally under stress. But the additional impacts from COVID, racial tensions, a divisive election and economic worries have stretched many beyond their normal stress points.’
Leadership Coach and
Retired Navy Officer
In the next article: How managers tackled the challenges of a global pandemic.