Back to school 2020 - where do we go from here?

I took this image on Sunday afternoon, this is our washing line at home (in Valencia, Spain) with an array of children’s masks.

An image that brings up so many different emotions for me.

Yesterday was the first day of school and it was with a mixed bag of emotions we sent our kids. On paper, it doesn’t make any sense, especially because Spain now has higher Covid numbers than it did during the peak of lockdown. That said, the numbers can’t be trusted, there are lots of variables at play, but still, it felt counter-intuitive. I’m filled with trepidation at the thought of what might be, but I decided a long time ago not to live my life with fear. 

The only thing we know for sure is the virus is going to be with us for a while.

We can hide away forever and put pause to our life, education, business, goals and dreams, stay home and stay safe – but what type of a life is that?

We tried that, for 49 days my children did not cross the front door (Spanish lockdown was much stricter than most of the world). Whilst it may have protected their physical health it did little for their emotional and mental health. 

The truth that many fail to see, is that there is no health without mental health.

What I know, as a business owner and a mother, is that we need to learn how to live alongside this virus.

We need to get the balance right between taking precautions for our physical health and doing what’s right for our emotional and mental well being.

That means doing business differently, working differently and allowing our children to be with their friends and teachers in a safe way (for their emotional and mental wellbeing).

For those of you who’ve been following my posts, you’ll know that I’ve been talking at length since March about the ‘Shadow Pandemic', the unseen but equally damaging impact of covid.  As my friend and colleague Marcus Hunt (VP Health & Wellbeing EMEA at J&J) pointed out in a conversation we were having last week, that there will is no physical second wave (all of the flare-ups are still the same wave) the true second wave is the mounting, but largely silent, mental health crises. He is right.

The topic has been taboo and shrouded in stigma for too long and for no damn good reason. It's time to change. We need to prioritise ALL aspects of our health, especially our mental health. Because the problem is it's slippy and tricky and we unknowingly slide down a slope we barley knew was there, and before we know it we've crossed a line. 

It's infinitely more difficult to help ourselves when our mental health is already diminished. We need to be doing the good work upfront and early when we are in a place of relative 'wellness', filling our cup to later be able to pour from. The problem is, the majority of us are already pouring from empty cups. I don't know about you, but I'm pretty beat. 2020 has kicked my ass in more ways than I could ever have expected. Most of us have sprinted ourselves halfway through a marathon we didn't know we were running and we still have to get to the end fighting fit.

In Joseph Campbells ''The Hero's journey' we are in act II, where all the trials and tribulations happen. It tires me thinking about it, but now is the time to practice, prepare, plan. We didn't know we were on a marathon but we know it now. The question is, how do we get to the end still fighting fit? How do we 'return home'?

For me, the answer is and always has been by investing in our emotional and mental health. But going beyond health and wellness to a positive place of mental and emotional fitness, where your cup truly is full and able to be poured from. How do we get there? Well, I'm calling to the private sector, to business to step up. The public system and governments are overrun by the physical aspects of this pandemic. If business steps up to invest in the wellbeing of their people, together we can all get to a better place. That doesn't mean holding a webinar on Resilience. That's a cop-out. Running a couple of webinars isn't going to cut it. I had a brilliant conversation with Tim Munden (Chief L&D Officer Unilever), whom I was interviewing (both him and Marcus) as part of my up and coming book (The Hidden Edge: Why Mental Fitness is the only advantage that matters - more news on that another time). We were talking about how and why some businesses, like Unilever, do such a good job in this areas while others flounder. The answer is clear, you need to bake Mental health & Wellbeing into the fabric of your system and your culture. It can't be on the side, an addition. We know this, it's the exact same with sustainability. These massively important topics can not be afterthoughts, they can't be 'something HR do'. They have to be a priority, part of the overall strategy of the business. So, why don't they do it? Well because it's not easy. It's much easier to run a webinar, set up a couple of e-learnings and consider people catered for.

How and why we need to fight for the important of mental health and well being is a MYSTERY to me. What is business? what are organisations? they are simply a collection of people. People with their thinking, emotions, anxiety. If we don't arm the people, we don't arm the business. If we don't invest in the people, the business still die.

As Tim mentioned in his article last week 'This is a once in a generational moment on workplace health'

What are you going to do about it? What are WE going to do about? What I know for sure is that we can't drop the ball. because that ball represents millions of lives slipping through the net. That is a cost too high for any of us.

It's time to wake up and take this game seriously.

Web: jodierogers.com

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