Page 31 - PR3_Case study_Final version _English

The social isolation mainly affected my motivation for work. Work
is not always as much fun, but colleagues can often make the
difference in your work. It took me a long time to get to know my
direct colleagues and I never felt a strong connection to them,
since the screen does make interaction different. Moreover,
where in the office when you are stuck or have an off-day or don’t
feel well or anything like that, you can just notify your colleagues
and they might help you figure something out or just listen to you,
you feel like you have to figure it out alone when you work from
home.

B. How do you think Rabobank was very easy in arranging things to help you socialize
the situation could during remote work. So, for example, our team organised online
be improved? coffee breaks of 15 minutes each day. It was not compulsory, so if
you didn’t want to come you didn’t have to. However, also in
these coffee breaks I have seen different approaches. In the first
team I was, the team leader divided the group. This meant that
we had every week a different group of about 4 or 5 colleagues,
who we could have the coffee break each day with. I really liked
this, cause you had the chance to really get to know each other
and have more small talk about plans of the weekend or families
or etc. In the second team, we only had daily coffee breaks with
the entire team. Even though it is nice to see everyone, in general,
it meant that the same people were always talking. The more
extravert and loud people were always talking and sharing, and
the more silent and introvert people never got the chance to
speak. So, I did not really like those coffee breaks and for me they
felt a bit useless and not so social. Besides the coffee breaks, we
had monthly team moments where two colleagues had to
organise a fun moment such as a quiz or a game.
Furthermore, the bank was really focused on reaching your
targets. This meant that when you talked to colleagues when you
had questions, you didn’t really want to spend extra time to small
talk, since that would feel like your were wasting your time and
your target would decrease. I think if the bank focused more on
the importance of involvement and engagement within a team
and less on the targets, it would be better.

I am not sure if the Rabobank could have done much better. As I
mentioned before, I think the first team manager really tried to
make sure everything was facilitated well. I think at a job like this,
it is expected that there are people who don’t see the added
value in socializing and for people who do, I wonder if this would
be the job they would want. However, to establish an involved
and engaged team I think it is better to focus on that side of the
job rather than the figures and targets.

References on the https://rabobank.jobs/en/hybrid-working-at-rabobank/
topic https://rabobank.jobs/en/grow-magazine/editie/grow-

magazine-december-2021/