Pandemic / Work / HR / Mental Health / & You
I've been struggling to write this article for almost a year now.
This article's focus is on mental health at work and the challenge that the pandemic has raised. How people, companies, and governments have underestimated the effect that imposed self-isolation has caused and how humanity has become more fearful due to it.
I intended to publish my article in Mental Health Month, then in Mental Health Awareness Week then World Mental Health Day. All passed without publication.
I wanted the article to be statistically sound, based on gathered evidence showing how ill-equipped we were and how ill-advised we have been. I prepared myself for the social onslaught highlighting these points would bring.
I wanted to critique how employers overlooked their legal responsibility towards employees mental health only to realise the law itself was not written to facilitate our homes becoming our primary places of work. I wanted to highlight how imperfect and unprepared HR departments were. So much so that acts of goodwill (i.e. sending chocolates, tea and sweets) could increase the isolation individuals with intolerances may have felt.
Lets us not forget the loss of "Loose collaborators" (colleagues that we interact with for less than an hour per week on average) has had on us.
These types of connections relied heavily on informal interactions around the office. Often referred to as water cooler/ coffee station conversations, they tended to be unplanned interactions having a casual communication style. Research shows these are vital for innovation, creativity, and knowledge-sharing across an organisation.
These meetings were organisational health-wise beneficial, and now they are gone.
I wanted to comment on how companies can help foster "loose" connections through initiatives that encourage managers and individuals to branch outside of their immediate networks and teams. Like creating virtual coffee/water cooler zooms or, even better, having an always-open, drop-in clubhouse/telegram voice chat channel where employees are free to come and go as they please.
I realised today why I was struggling so much.
All the above misses the point.
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What matters is your mental health. The pandemic has changed every single person's mental health negatively.
Your mental health is of utmost importance.
Have you acknowledged this?
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Picture by Alec Favale
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3 年Well written Udo. I’m having to reply through Sharon as I’m not on linked in. For me the lockdown/pandemic hasn’t effected my mental health (or at least I don’t think it has), due to my job role. I teach in a nursery as you know so my work isn’t office based and I am at work most days as the children I work with are from families of key worker’s or are vulnerable children. I have seen the impact on some colleagues as they have had to shield due to on going health problems but we have a good support network and are constantly in contact. Getting to spend more time with my wife and children and watching them learn from each other is something that has been priceless. ... Marlon.
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3 年Absolutely agree, we don’t even realise those fleeting moment when you go to the photocopier, the kitchen to make a cuppa, someone else’s desk to have a vent are so important. As someone who worked from hone before the pandemic it was at my control, now that the situation has been forced upon us it’s hard to see the cut off point between work/home life balance, with the expectation that work should and can be done as your home. Our team would have an open once a week zoom where the whole team would work together and your camera could be on or off and you could drop in and out of the zoom if you wanted. No pressure. I personally don’t feel I’ve been affected mentally but I do realise that having that interaction with your colleagues is vitally important and can easily have a negative impact on your mental state, wellbeing and social interaction if lost. Great article Udo.
Founder | NED | Creative Entrepreneur of the Year (UK) | Conspiring to reboot corporate training
3 年This is a really purposeful and important article. Thank you for digging deep, researching to write this.
IT Team Lead - MEA
3 年Well written. I echo Sherington’s earlier comments on having re-discovered qualititative time with my children that I quite obviously took for granted. That aside I have seen first hand the very negative and depressing side of being home week after week with very little if any social interaction. My wife hasn’t seen the inside of her office for over a year, waking up to simply go downstairs and start work. I’ve seen her motivation and enthusiasm wane and the same can be said of my son who was kept home for a year home schooling. At least my wife could verbalise her frustration and know why she felt the way she did. My son couldn’t do that and I hated that the educational authority basically discounted him (And many many others) mental health The upside of this all had meant we are now relocating from where we are to ensure our mental health as a family is ours to control and manage, not a paranoid establishment
Well written Udo. To answer your question. Yes I have, and have been carefully managing it. Over this time I learnt that you absolutely cannot live without or truly value human contact. Even casual tea point chats, meetings! Even those we know could have bee an email!). Also randomly bumping into ex colleagues and friends...the activity on a road, bus, train (London transport is an amazing social zoo), airplanes too. But I also learnt that we spend so little time with those we love. Which means we often miss the important things going around in their heads. But with the mental impact and isolation it's difficult to almost impossible to have a proper conversation and help deal with their problems. Interesting article....better late than never.