March 20, 2020
by Brad Sytsma
With everything that’s happening right now, it can feel like the world is changing by the hour. More than ever, employees are looking to corporate leadership for hope, reassurance, and stability. It falls on leadership that employees feel a sense of purpose and connection through establishing a solid workplace culture.
How to Maintain Your Workplace Culture and Community
New challenges arise with remote work, especially employees that don’t regularly or often work from home. There can be a sense of isolation, a loss of direction, and a faltering sense of purpose. Strategic social tools, like Terryberry's employee recognition, can help maintain a sense of purpose and community for employees that are feeling disconnected and ungrounded in their daily routines.
Recognizing remote employees, especially those that aren’t comfortable being remote, is critical to maintaining a sense of community and purpose. Managers and Team Leads should make an increased effort to praise employees for jobs well done. This reassures employees that they are still contributing.
Demonstrating accomplishments provides employees with the assurance that business is continuing as usual (or at least close). Promoting the visibility of individual successes helps to set a level of expectation for employees that are unsure of how they’re supposed to be responding to the many distractions and upheavals we’re all experiencing right now.
Social recognition moments like birthdays and anniversaries should continue to be celebrated. Encourage employees to update their profile pictures to include their home workspace or pets. Find ways to replicate your offline recognition habits with a personal online substitute. Some ideas include recording personal videos, attaching images to your posts. Make it fun, inviting and normal. Accomplishing these things will create an ongoing sense of community that will overcome the sense of isolation.
Demonstrate Commitment to Your People
It is important to consider the pressures that your employees are feeling. Both your remote and on-site employees are likely feeling a unique set of pressures, concerns, and uncertainties.
Recognition is crucially important for employees that are showing up to the workplace. These employees are at greater risk while seeing employees in other positions with the ability to work from home. Employees in these positions are in the workplace because your business cannot survive without them. Beyond ensuring safety and wellbeing, you should be looking opportunities to demonstrate your appreciation for their commitment to your organization.
Employees in these critical positions are in the workplace because your business cannot survive without them
Challenge your leaders to focus on building a workplace culture. Celebrate the accomplishments and achievements of these employees who continue to come into the workplace. Make sure they’re aware of your appreciation for their commitment and the sacrifices they’re making. Many of them may not feel that they are in a position to take time off or miss work. More importantly, they’re going to reflect on how they were treated during this time of crisis. The more you can do to demonstrate your appreciation, the better morale is going to be now and when we come out on the other side.
When all of this is said and done, employees are going to reflect on how they were treated during this time of crisis
Prioritize Communication
The key to providing all of your employees with hope, reassurance, and a sense of stability is rooted in communication. Plans and contingencies are only effective if employees are aware that they exist. While email blasts and webinars are effective one-time tools, they lack the infrastructure to maintain visibility and prominence for your busy and beleaguered staff.
Consider posting up-to-date company policies and practices in highly visible places, if your recognition program offers communication tools, utilize those to their full potential. If something changes, update your post and send a notification out to all employees alerting them there has been a change. Posting links to resources, benefits documentation, and important contact info in highly visible places, like your recognition program, make it that much easier for employees to see what your organization is doing to protect them and inform them on where to turn with questions.
We’ve seen a number of our recognition customers making excellent use of our announcement and marquee features to keep their employees up to date and in the know on what’s happening in their workplace. Take every opportunity you have to leverage your programs' communication tools to do the same.
Create a Workplace Culture
Terryberry’s mission has always been to create a workplace culture, to make your employees feel valued and appreciated. We want to help you take care of your people. Utilizing all of the communication tools available to you, especially those that remain visible, will help employees see your leadership in action, promoting hope and reassurance, and providing that sense of stability that they’re looking for. As you focus on employee recognition as a way to create community and celebrate commitment, don’t forget that recognition begins with communication.
The most important thing for any business right now is to take care of its employees. It’s not enough to take care of them with benefits and updated cleaning policies. You need to focus on Community, Commitment, and Communication. Employee recognition has never been more important. Effective recognition programming can help you to take care of your employees concerns about job security and business continuity. It allows you to demonstrate that you understand that your business can’t survive without them, and communicates the importance that you place on their work.
The most important thing for any business right now, is to take care of its employees.
As we all adjust to this uncertain environment, put plans in place to use your recognition programs to focus on Communication, Community, and Commitment. We’re all in this together.
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Over the last 15 years we have grown together, both in spirit as soul mates and sexually. At 42 I’m older and have certainly had more experience. She is trusting and open minded, most new things she has tried with me, she has enjoyed and gone on to develop. Sex indoors, sex outdoors, making love, fucking like animals, some rough play, dressing up, we’ve come a long way together. But recently things had gone off the boil, the UK covid lockdown didn’t help, Stacey, me and the kids were cooped up together for a long period, limit privacy and working from home consuming us, probably made worse for me as my masturbating opportunities were also reduced.
I then did exactly what I said, I went at her with no love whatsoever, just pounding her, legs held out by the ankles one minute, over my shoulders the next. Hardly ever losing eye contact, I spoke obscenely to her, calling her a whore and a tramp, I said “what a dirty slut she was” to which she shook her head “of course you are, bringing home a pussy and thong full of another guys spunk” I said. “It was a good job, your MY dirty slut” she nodded eagerly at this, “that’s better” I said. I then reached under her and lift her bum with my hands, grinding my cock into her. I parted her bum cheeks and started working the tip of my finger into her arsehole, I asked her “did you let the prick fuck your arse?” she didn’t shake her head or nod at this, she mumbled something through the dripping panties. I carried on humping her whilst clenching her bum with my hands, rubbing her arsehole with my finger. I clamped down with my mouth around the lacy material which was hanging out of her mouth and pulled the panties out of her mouth, she gasped and started nibbling my nipple (she knows I love this). I asked her again “ did he fuck your arse?”. She look up from my nipples and looked me in the eye again and said “no he didn’t, he was fucking me from behind and said he wanted to but I said no, that didn’t stop him pushing his thumb into my arsehole at the same time he growled that he was going to cum” this nearly pushed me over the edge and I could feel my cock starting to swell. Stacey sensed the reaction in me too, adding “I liked it and by that point if he’d asked again, I’d have let him fuck me in the arse” I interrupted her “I’m gonna cum you dirty bitch, I’m . . .” this time the lacy panties were used to cut my sentence short and gag me, covered in cum, sweat, juices and saliva, Stacey pushed them into my mouth and carried on talking “I had a little orgasm quite quickly with him fucking me, must have been the novelty of fucking someone new and it being outside, but when he went from ploughing me with hands on my hips, to sticking one thumb in my bum hole and the other in my mouth to pull me backwards to him, the deeper angle he got into me, plus the feeling of helplessness, pushed me over the edge and a huge orgasm waved over me, my pussy convulsed, which pushed Gary over the edge and he emptied his balls into me, like a someone violently emptying a pot to ensure all the contents would come out.” I didn’t even make it through to the end of her dirty recollection, mid sentence I flushed her pussy out with my cum, whilst still looking her in the eye. But now, I was laid on top of her, cock still rigid inside her, hands still clamped around her bum. My head was over her shoulder buried into the pillow, with her used filthy underwear firmly clenched in my mouth. She then added “I came that hard, that Gary couldn’t remove his thumb from by arse, I had to consciously relax my bum and it still stung taking it out. BUT THAT fuck with you just then tops anything we’ve ever done. Rob, I am truly sorry, but thank you and I do love you. We lay there panting together, for some strange reason I felt as close to her as ever and knew I still loved her. Normal life resumed shortly afterwards, when we heard the kids shouting upstairs that they wanted dessert. Stacey ran to the bathroom, I could see spunk dripping down her legs. I threw my robe on and went downstair
After dismissing my perverted thoughts, I was getting dry, I heard the front door go, I thought to myself, ‘Stacey’s home, don’t be an arsehole or weird about her not telling you’. When I came out of the en-suite moments later, I startled Stacey who must have rushed straight upstairs, she had already taken her shirt and bra off and was just stood in her golf shorts. She looked hot and flustered and was surprised to see me come out of the en-suite. She mumbled something about being sweaty and needing a shower. I complemented her, saying she looked very fine to me, to which she blushed. I moved over to her and went to give her a kiss and a hug, she turned away to avoid this, which was very out of character. I then nuzzled into her neck, she shuddered and responded by lifting her arm behind her and around me, pulling me into her neck. I left one arm around her neck and massaged her tits, each one in turn, they still amaze me, just over a handful each, but as pert today as they were 15 years ago. Her nipples always stand up with she’s aroused and right now they were on end. We enjoyed this sensual moment, before my hand began wandering down to her shorts. Stacey snapped out of the moment, saying “give me a minute, I’ll want a quick shower”, I said not a chance as I firmly pulled her neck back to me, bring my left hand around her throat softly, turning her head to the side so I could kiss her neck, simultaneously to this, I pushed my right hand down into her shorts, my hand brushed against lace. Stacey half protested again that she needed a shower, I said not a chance as you were wearing some of your nice panties. I thought, this was quite strange as she only wore her nice underwear on special occasions.
As the lockdown restrictions were eased and certain sports and exercises were allowed again, I got out walking and kayaking, whereas Stacey got back on the golf course at every opportunity, where she is very accomplished (playing off a handicap of 5). She played 2 or 3 times a week with her friend Amy, who roped her into entering a mixed completion. Stacey eagerly told me about the comp coming up in 6 months and that she would be playing with Gary and Tony. Tony was new to me, an average player and someone making the numbers up. Gary I knew from way back, an excellent golfer and a bit of a ladies man. Despite knowing this, I didn’t say anything, I’m not the jealous type and have never had cause to be. Of the 2-3 rounds a week, Stacey and Amy played, Gary and Tony joined them, but again as they were playing as a 4, I didn’t worry unduly.
I pulled her thong down to her knees and instinctively knelt down to lick her pussy (from the front, from behind, sat on top, I adore oral sex), she hissed “NO, just fuck me”, but as she was tentatively balanced, stood up, but with her panties around her knees, I gave her a light push forward onto the bed and was rewarded by a sodden and strangely reddened looking pussy, framed between her bum, legs and lacy panties. This was a target I couldn’t resit, I dived into her, tongue straight in, nose nuzzled against her arsehole, it was amazing, she responded by pushing back, her pussy lips unusually pushed straight over my mouth (her pussy usually needed a bit of work to get her full loosened up). Stacey was grunting, subconsciously rubbing her pussy up and down my face, I had each of her hands held tightly, clamped next to my face, which allowed me to pull her deeper onto me and didn’t allow her squirm forward. I’d been too horned up to notice the obvious signals, but the realisation suddenly hit home.