The coronavirus pandemic is calling for us to be flexible, resourceful, resilient, creative, kind and pull together to look after our colleagues, customers and businesses as well as ourselves and those close to us.
This newsletter is focused on supporting you and your staff to pioneer your way of being and working happily and effectively from home.
Health information and advice about self-isolating can be found on the government and NHS websites. Follow the link to support emotional wellbeing .
Some practical thoughts to help you and your team thrive as you work from home
We start in different places...
Personality – some people are happy with their own company whilst others need other people around them. Some people are happy with new ways and others prefer their known routines. Some people withdraw under pressure and others of us want to more connection.
Health (and that of others in your household) – underlying health conditions bring a more immediate and compelling reason for not mixing with others and potentially greater anxiety.
Home space – we have differing resources to support working safely and effectively in the home.
Language – ‘staying at home’, ‘working from home’ or ‘retreating’ have a different feel to ‘self/social isolating’.
Attitude - accepting the situation as it is means that creative energy can funnel away from resistance and into finding ways of working well.
Context and experience – it might be more of a learning curve if home-working is new for you, if you live alone and work offers primary social contact, if there are many distractions or you feel uneasy or unsafe in your home environment.
Stay close to your team, manager and colleagues
Talk about how to stay in touch and work out how to accommodate everyone’s needs. Agree what you’re each going to do.
Use the phone rather than emails to substitute for face-to-face meetings. Emails are great for 1 way conversations but not for discussions, creativity or supporting relationships.
Have the conversation – people may have previously unknown health conditions or circumstances (for example, caring responsibilities, money worries that impact staying warm or be living with real or potential violence or abuse).
Be particularly vigilant – worries, anxieties, stress and ill health can easily go unnoticed when everyone is working remotely (another emotionally-laden word…)
Stay in special contact with those living and working alone - physical safety and dips in mental health could more easily go unnoticed.
Ask each other - how are you feeling about working from home? What can you/we/I do to make it as easy as possible for you?
Stay in close touch with wider colleagues and customers
Set up a routine that suits you
Consciously design your working day – habits form very quickly so set up a pattern that supports you to be connected, heathy, productive and separate home and working time.
Be clear about what you want to achieve in each day or half day – write a list. Shifting from measuring time to measuring outcomes is useful to feel productive.
Take regular breaks – set your timer to get up, move around, stretch and focus your eyes away from the screen for 10 minutes every hour, or more frequently. Go outside for a daylight and nature breather.
Separate home and work – dress for work (no PJs!), maybe ‘commute’ round the block at the beginning and end of the day, put working things away at the end of your working day.
Take a lunch break away from your laptop – go for a walk.
If you have a children at home, get them involved in setting up a timetable and a routine that works for you all. Depending on their age, ‘Do not Disturb’ or ‘I’m Concentrating Just Now’ signals can give you each bursts of focused concentration time to intersperse with bursts of other activities. Flash Mob dancing can be fun and reenergising for all!
Comfort - as much as you can in your environment, set up a place to work that is comfortable – good lighting, a chair at the right height (forearms should be at right angles to the upper arms). A box under your laptop on a kitchen surface can make a good standing desk. HSE has some guidance
‘Mental Wealth’ describes our internal resource of positivity, creativity, energy and resilience and supports positive mental health. We need to keep it topped up, always and particularly at the moment. Imagine Mental Wealth as 'pot' or 'bucket' -
What activities and behaviour help keep it topped it up?
What activities and behaviours ‘spend’ the reserves?
There’s a Building your Mental Wealth activity you can do alone or with others under the Emotional Wellbeing link on the Wellbeing@Work webpages
Manage your anxiety - acceptinging the situation as it is makes it easier to focus on the positive, remember to be grateful for what is good in life, do things you enjoy doing, distract yourself by reading or doing something that absorbs your full attention, keep physically active, spend time outside in the natural world, eat healthily, sleep well, connect with others who are also trying to be calm and positive, take time to practise or learn a little mindfulness, work out or do some yoga (now might be a good time to learn?), be kind to yourself and others.
Prioritise time to immerse yourself in activities you enjoy to balance stress or worry .
Limit your access to the news – choose where you access trusted information and how often; avoid rumour, hearsay, speculation and gossip as this just fuels overwhelm and fears.
Use the 5 Ways to Wellbeing to look after yourself and your colleagues
Connecting with Others (albeit by phone or digitally)
Being Active – physically and in doing things you want to do
Keeping Learning – stay curious and open new things and new ways
Taking Notice – being present, noticing how you’re feeling and what’s happening in the world around you
Giving – your time, attention to yourself (taking a break when you need one) and to others (donating to foodbanks, making a phonecall to someone who is feeling alone)
Wellbeing@Work is here to support you - please get in touch
The Wellbeing@Work webpages contain a help yourself toolkit of employer resources including information to 'print & pin' on your Health & Wellbeing Noticeboard and health and wellbeing signposting to support your staff.
We're available to help you think/talk through what you could do to promote, encourage and support health & wellbeing in your place of work.
