When the Covid-19 lockdown began five years ago this month, the small and sometimes annoying things that make up a typical workday suddenly felt like ancient history.
While many employees embraced the transition to working from home, others missed the daily routine of commuting to an office, making small talk with their colleagues, and sitting at a desk instead of a dining room table. They began to feel nostalgic about the way things used to be - the old days that weren't so old.
By understanding how employees handled these complex feelings at a time of upheaval, today's managers can better navigate the next big change in the workplace - whether that's a return to the office, mass layoffs, a merger, or another global health crisis.
"Nostalgia offers a window into the past through rose colored-glasses," said Jessica Methot, an associate professor of human resource management in the School of Management and Labor Relations. "Navigating it requires a delicate balance between being stuck in the past and experiencing meaningful reflection to establish a new normal."
In the early days of the pandemic, Methot and fellow researchers Kevin Rockmann (George Mason University) and Emily Rosado-Solomon (Babson College) surveyed 110 people three times a day, for three weeks. The respondents came from a wide range of industries, and they were all working from home, or working a hybrid schedule, after previously being on-site.
The researchers' study, published by the Journal of Management, reveals that daily feelings of nostalgia led to both positive and negative outcomes for these employees.
Sometimes, they felt inspired to make the best of a bad situation, reaching out and helping their colleagues with a task. Other times, they looked for distractions, leading to reduced productivity and negative behavior toward their co-workers. They often floated between the two extremes, sometimes within the same day.
The researchers also investigated whether focusing on future goals, as suggested by managers and consultants since time immemorial, helped the employees to cope with daily feelings of nostalgia. It turns out, looking ahead made them more distracted, not less, likely because the future involved so much frightening uncertainty.
The findings paint nostalgia in shades of gray where decades of prior research suggested mostly black and white.
Nostalgia was long viewed as either a negative emotion, associated with depression and loss, or a positive one, marked by gratitude for the past. This study shows that it's both, and that has significant implications for employers.
"Instead of discounting or trying to reduce feelings of nostalgia, employers can lean into it to boost employees' motivation to connect and engage with others," Methot said. "More generally, I think employers need to acknowledge that their return-to-work strategies may not need to replicate the work environment pre-pandemic. That might not work."
Instead of trying to put everything back exactly the way it was, Methot recommends:
Leveraging nostalgia to create solidarity. Encouraging employees to share positive memories from the past can strengthen their connection to one another and foster a sense of shared identity and belonging. This can be done in small teams and work groups.
Creating new rituals. Setting aside time before and after meetings for informal conversation, unrelated to the task at hand, can help people to feel noticed. For workers who are still hybrid or remote, virtual morning coffee, fireside chats, and happy hours fill the void.
Considering mindfulness interventions. Promoting mindfulness can help employees to regulate their emotions by being aware of their immediate surroundings and living in the moment as much as possible. This can help them to escape feeling stuck in the past.
How employees handle a "sentimental longing for the past" often comes down to their own personality traits. As marketing executives discovered long ago, feelings of nostalgia can inspire some people to make a big purchase or donate to charity.
The study by Methot, Rockmann, and Rosado-Solomon is one of the first to examine its impact at work. And while the Covid-19 lockdowns have long since ended, political and economic changes loom over many workplaces, making the impact of nostalgia as relevant as ever.
"Encouraging performance in difficult times is not simply a matter of technology or policy," Methot said. "Managers need to be aware of the complex and potentially competing emotions employees are experiencing."
