Habit: Checking-In

The adjustment to everyone working remotely continues, and companies everywhere are experiencing a lot of hard decisions as their main lines of business are interrupted. My clients and others I know are reporting layoffs, furloughs, and other work interruptions. Ever wonder how companies decide who to lay off?

Well, there are a lot of factors, but at some point, if your name is in the running with others, a question that will come up is, “How important are they right now?” Now maybe you’re not working on something that is deemed in a critical path, but when companies are trying to figure out who they can let go, they need to know who is too good to let go.

So, as dark as all of this sounds, there is a relatively small habit that can keep you and your contributions fresh in everyone’s minds. Find ways to check in with the people around you—Check-in with your manager, their manager, your peers, and anyone else. Make sure people know how you’re helping right now.

How you exactly go about checking-in is up to you. For some, an email will be sufficient. For others, you may want to put a little extra time in to get on a quick phone call to just touch base and let them know what is going on for you and to hear their challenges. In general, the more human the contact, the better.

When we all go back to our offices, this habit still does wonders around review times or other urgent moments. By checking-in weekly, you are making sure that everyone knows that you’re there to help now and in the future.