Coming Together at a Distance
2020 the year that flipped our world upside down. Thinking my coworkers and I were going to have a two-week vacation turned into almost a year lasting nightmare. People were furloughed or laid off left and right. We had no idea when we would get called back to work. Had no idea where to begin to file for unemployment. We were all lost. So, what did we do? We made a Facebook group. Never have I thought a Facebook group could be so beneficial in these times of unpredictability. This group turned into my source of information when it came to anything work related.
This group was for members who were in my specific department at work. It is a place where we can talk about any work-related topics. Any questions regarding the pandemic, being furloughed, etc. Additionally, provide daily updates on callbacks of workers. This group provided such a safe space where everyone could express their emotions on how they were processing the pandemic. We supported and validated each other. Once our line of business started to open again the group became even more active. Due to our line of business starting to receive callbacks. Leaders and admins have direct connections to our union reps who will have the most up to date information on when workers will be able to return to work.
The challenges with this are that the leaders and admins of the group needed to heavily rely on the union reps to receive the information to update the group. There were times we would go days without receiving any new information on callbacks. However, the leader and admins did an extraordinary job on keeping the members up to date. They would even update us on not having any new updates. These consistent updates demonstrated that the admins and leaders care about the group members. Also showing that they are here for us and always available to help.
Since there is so much gray area in our department this then led to a lot of open discussions regarding callbacks on work. As in, what was true and what was not true on who was being called back when. Some members would say one thing and others would say the opposite. This gave the leaders, admins, and moderators the obstacles of filtering through what was accurate information and what was not. This also gave them the challenge of doing any damage control when it came to diffusing any false information. They would do this by crediting the source which is our union reps. Sometimes the information would not fully answer everyone’s questions, but it did clear the air on what was true.
To my surprise since I joined this group back in 2020 it remains active daily to this day. The group has held true to its standards to keep everyone as up to date as possible until every single one of us has been called back to our original department. This group has also shifted to more so daily discussions surrounding work and just providing positive content to keep everyone hopeful.
Photo Source
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