As 2023 draws to a close and we stand on the threshold of 2024, it’s a natural time for reflection on both our achievements and unfulfilled aspirations.

The transformative impact of the post-COVID work landscape is evident as a substantial portion of the workforce continues to navigate a hybrid work model.

The shift towards this new normal underscores the evolving dynamics of professional life, where adaptability is key.

In this evolving professional landscape, there is a growing recognition among managers of the significance of Emotional Intelligence (EQ) in tandem with traditional Intelligence Quotient (IQ) skills. The acknowledgment of this dual importance suggests a positive shift towards a more empathetic and holistic approach to leadership. If this perspective gains wider acceptance and employees are genuinely appreciated for their contributions, it could mark a significant departure from mere glimpses of progress to a sustained positive change.

An encouraging trend to note is the diminishing stigma around acknowledging and addressing stress in the workplace. Progress is evident when efforts to cultivate a healthy workplace culture become commonplace, signifying a collective step in the right direction.

A Commitment to Wellbeing

I find it heartening to observe that Health and Safety (H&S) professionals are now taking a comprehensive approach by considering the well-being of the entire individual across both personal and professional spheres. Having had the privilege of addressing various H&S audiences over the past year, I see a commitment to promoting a holistic understanding of employee health.

Personal Responsibility

Acknowledging stress as an inherent aspect of our lives, it’s imperative for individuals to assume personal responsibility for their well-being and develop effective stress management strategies. Recognising that there is no one-size-fits-all solution, each person must identify what works best for them and actively incorporate those practices into their lives.

Continuous Growth

While the concept of self-improvement may sound straightforward, the reality often involves ongoing efforts and a commitment to continuous growth. As we approach the close of 2023, it prompts introspection – how many of us reading this can honestly say, “I did that, but I can do better”?

Let’s embrace honesty in our self-assessment. We all have the capacity to improve. As we eagerly anticipate the advent of 2024, it becomes an opportunity to envision and strive for a version of ourselves that embodies continuous improvement.

Here’s to the promise of “doing better” and the exciting journey that lies ahead in the coming year.

Read more:
Can Do Better!

Henry James, a renowned author, once profoundly stated, “Three things in human life are important. The first is to be kind. The second is to be kind. And the third is to be kind.”

These poignant words underscore the immense significance of kindness in our existence, emphasising its profound impact on our overall well-being and the broader fabric of society.

Why Are Some People Unkind?

There can be various reasons why people act unkindly towards others and here are some possible explanations for unkind behaviour:

1. Lack of empathy: Some individuals may struggle to understand or share the feelings of others, which can result in a lack of compassion and kindness.
2. Insecurity and low self-esteem: People who feel insecure about themselves or have low self-esteem might engage in unkind behaviour as a way to feel better about themselves or to assert power over others.
3. Socialisation and environment: People’s behaviour is shaped by their upbringing, cultural norms, and social environment.
4. Lack of awareness or understanding: Some people may not be aware of the impact of their actions or words on others.
5. Frustration and stress: When people are overwhelmed by stress, frustration, or other negative emotions, they may lash out at others as a way to cope or release their pent-up feelings.

Why We Should be Kind?

Kindness serves as a cornerstone for establishing and nurturing robust relationships. When we embrace kindness and extend it towards others, we foster an atmosphere of trust and security that facilitates the development of deeper connections. By genuinely caring about individuals, we create a space where they feel comfortable opening up, sharing their thoughts, and expressing their emotions.

Kindness is rooted in empathy, the ability to understand and share the feelings of others. When we are kind, we show compassion and concern for the well-being of others. This fosters positive connections and relationships, and it helps create a more harmonious and supportive society.

Ripple Effect

You will find that kindness has a ripple effect. When we act kindly towards someone, it often inspires them to be kind to others as well. It sets off a chain reaction of goodwill and can make a significant difference in someone’s day or even their life. Small acts of kindness can have a huge impact.

Healthy Relationships

Kindness is the foundation of strong and healthy relationships. When we are kind to others, we foster trust, respect, and understanding. It helps create a positive and supportive environment in which people feel valued and appreciated. Kindness strengthens social bonds and promotes cooperation and collaboration.

The Emotive Power of Kindness

Beyond the interpersonal realm, kindness wields a transformative power that influences our own emotional landscape. It engenders a host of positive emotions, such as happiness, gratitude, and compassion. These uplifting sentiments, in turn, contribute to an enhanced sense of well-being and a more optimistic perspective on life. Through acts of kindness, we not only uplift the lives of those around us but also nurture our own inner growth and contentment.

Fostering Understanding and Harmony

The influence of kindness extends far beyond individual interactions; it holds the potential to reshape societies plagued by negativity and division. When we choose kindness as a guiding principle, we dismantle barriers, foster understanding, and pave the way for a more harmonious and peaceful coexistence. Each act of kindness can become a catalyst for positive change, inspiring others to follow suit and perpetuate a ripple effect of compassion and benevolence.

Choosing Kindness

Kindness, therefore, transcends being merely a pleasant gesture; it assumes a central role in cultivating a rich and purposeful life. By consciously practicing kindness in our day-to-day existence, we forge stronger bonds, experience heightened happiness and well-being, and actively contribute to the creation of a more positive and harmonious world for all.

On 23 November, it was World Kindness Day but every day should be WORLD KINDNESS DAY.

Read more:
The Magic of Kindness:  the ripple effect

With “National Stress Awareness Day” around the corner (2nd November), employee health and wellbeing should be at the top of organisations’ agendas. In the era of remote working and high employee turnover, mental wellbeing is not just seasonal but a year-round concern.

A 2023 report by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) and Simplyhealth on health and wellbeing at work found that mental ill health is the top cause of long-term absences, and 76% of organisations report some stress-related absence. Heavy workloads and management style were the most common reasons for stress.

Employers’ legal duties concerning employee wellbeing

Employers have a duty of care towards their employees, which means they must do all they reasonably can to support employees’ health, safety and wellbeing. Employers must treat mental and physical health as equally important.

Employers should be aware that an employee suffering from mental health issues could be defined as disabled under the Equality Act 2010. This will be the case if their mental health has a “substantial adverse effect” that lasts (or is expected to last) at least 12 months and which affects their ability to do their normal day-to-day activities. In legal terms, “substantial” means more than minor or trivial, which could mean the employee is hindered in activities like concentrating, interacting with others, or making decisions.

If an employee is disabled, employers will have a duty not to discriminate against them because of their disability and will also be obliged to make reasonable adjustments if necessary. Examples of reasonable adjustments might include flexible working hours, re-allocation of duties or providing special equipment.

Even if an employee is suffering from mental health issues that may not be a disability under the Equality Act 2010, it is a good idea to work with the employee to make adjustments. Often, making simple changes, for example, working with them each day to help them prioritise their workload, can be enough.

Support organisations can offer

A happy, healthy workforce is undoubtedly more productive than a stressed-out one.

Organisations should proactively prioritise mental wellbeing and support for employees to comply with legal duties while improving staff morale and productivity.

Some examples of steps organisations can take are:

• Find out what employees want and need. You can collect this information via employee surveys and polls or open forums and conversations. Questions in the survey could range from “Do you feel supported by your immediate supervisor?” to “What resources do you wish were available?”.
• Signpost the resources available. This could be with posters in the office, via the intranet or internal emails, and ensuring that the induction process covers wellbeing initiatives.
• Ensure any Employee Assistance Programme details are readily available and confirm the nature of that assistance. For example, this might be support or counselling because of financial worries. With the festive season approaching and the ongoing cost of living crisis, many employees’ mental health may be affected by financial concerns.
• Have trained mental health first aiders. Their purpose is to ensure staff know who to go to if they need or want to talk, to signpost people to resources and to be the first port of call for someone who doesn’t know where to start if they are feeling overwhelmed.
• Develop clear policies – such as a Stress at Work or Employee Wellbeing policy – and publicise these. Make sure they are easily accessible and provide training on them.
• Look out for signs of poor mental health at work, such as increased sickness absence, being late to work or poor working relationships with colleagues. These signs can be more challenging to spot when employees are working from home, so it is important to encourage frequent conversations between employees and their managers. With remote working becoming more prevalent, offering virtual mental health resources or online community spaces can be beneficial.
• Finally, organisations should also think about how they can measure the effectiveness of their policies and initiatives. KPIs could include reduced absenteeism, higher employee engagement scores, or positive feedback on internal surveys. If the level of take-up of services offered is low, consider how to improve this.

By following these tips, businesses can prioritise mental wellbeing and help foster a more productive and harmonious work environment.

Read more:
How can employers support employees’ mental wellbeing?

Interest rates are used by banks, organisations, and companies, in order to benefit from loaning money to another.

When one party borrows money from another, there are interest rates in place which means that the party lending money will receive compensation as an incentive to lend out that money.

Person A borrows £1,000 GBP from Person B in order to expand their business.

Person B may be reluctant to lend this money, but with interest rates, they will get back £1,100 GBP once Person A can afford to pay the loan back, with interest.

Why Are They Increased & How Do They Affect Businesses?

Typically, interest rates are increased in order to control the economy by decreasing inflation and encouraging people to spend less money.

When interest rates are increased, people are paying more for previous debts, loans become more expensive, and people are generally encouraged to spend less money due to higher costs in business and costs of living.

So, if interest rates are higher, someone will now have to spend more money in order to loan a sum of money. Because interest rates are higher, they will be expected to pay more in order to loan this amount.

This can have a profound impact on business owners who need to spend money and borrow money in order to not only expand their business but to make a living. In fact, it is estimated that over 90% of mid-sized UK businesses are facing challenges accessing funding and financing due to rising interest rates.

This can have a profound financial impact on smaller businesses who rely on borrowing money.

Smaller businesses who often need loans to help upscale and grow their businesses, especially during the earlier stages, will struggle because higher interest rates mean that borrowing money is now more expensive.

The financial impact may then lead to the closure of these smaller businesses who cannot afford to borrow money.

How Financial Issues Impact Mental Health

Money and mental health is tightly interwoven, especially within societies within a country such as the United Kingdom. Since our ability to survive and be comfortable in society is dependent on being financially secure, being financially insecure can lead to severe detriments to one’s mental health.

When these small business owners suddenly find it much harder to pay back these debts, they begin to worry about sustaining their business.

Not only does their debt now seem heavier, but they may worry about closing down their business simply because it is unsustainable, and they cannot afford to accumulate more debt in order to help it.

This financial insecurity can cause a huge strain on mental health, which can not only further affect their business but their life and the life of others around them. High interest rates, among a range of other financial insecurity issues, can have an adverse impact on someone’s mental wellbeing.

Here are the ways in which high interest rates and other financial difficulties can affect the mental health of business owners in our community:

Elevated Stress & Sleep Problems

Stress, whether financially related or not, will impact our lives in any facet, regardless of if you are a student, employee, or business owner.

Suffering from stress due to financial insecurity issues or other can lead to a wide range of mental and physical illnesses ranging from but not limited to;

• Anxiety and depression: Chronic stress can lead to the development of mental health disorders such as anxiety and depression.
• Headaches: Headaches are a common symptom of stress which can be extremely disruptive.
• High blood pressure & Cardiovascular Disease: Stress can lead to high blood pressure, which can then lead to a range of physical problems such as heart attacks, stroke, and more.

Additionally, someone who is suffering from stress will also suffer from decreased sleep quality.

An increased level of stress will affect someone’s sleep pattern, and it may also lead to someone working longer hours and sleeping fewer hours in order to make up for the difficulties caused by higher interest rates.

This can severely impact their work performances and also their overall quality of life.

We require from around 6 to 8 hours of sleep per night in order to feel revitalised and to foster things such as emotional regulation, memorisation, the storing of new information, replenishment of energy levels, and more.

These aspects are particularly fostered when we undergo the REM cycle of our sleep schedule. REM sleep is thought to play an important role when it comes to our basic cognitive functions and development, such as our mood, memories, and learning abilities.

REM sleep occurs throughout our night of sleeping, with people undergoing around 3 to 5 cycles per night. However, the largest chunk of REM sleep occurs in the later stages of our sleep schedule.

The later cycles can last up to an hour or even 90 minutes. Sacrificing sleep not only means missing out on a total hours of our sleeping schedule, but a larger proportion of REM sleep.

So that means that if you are struggling to sleep, or if you are sacrificing sleep in order to solve problems at work, you are not only losing 1 or 2 hours of sleep, but you are losing the largest percentage of REM sleep.

This can significantly impact your overall health on a daily basis.

Anxiety Disorder and “Financial Trauma”

The mental health impact of high interests on small business owners can also come in the form of anxiety.

If a business owner is struggling to pay bills or meet the requirements of debt arrangements, they may begin to experience severe trepidation, and this could even develop into anxiety disorder.

Symptoms of anxiety are wide ranging and are not limited to only mental effects but also physical.

Frequent bouts of anxiety can lead to a range of problems such as panic attacks, irritability, dizziness, feelings of hopelessness, problems breathing, heart palpitations, the development of substance use disorder, and so on.

Studies also suggest that if someone’s mental health suffers so severely and for a prolonged period of time from financial insecurity, they may display symptoms similar to that of PTSD.

“Financial trauma ” is a term used to describe people whose mental health has been so severely affected by their financial struggles and uncertainty.

It can often lead to people restoring to inaction. Similar to a “fight, flight, or freeze” response, the sense of hopelessness which someone may experience during prolonged periods of financial strain can lead to them underperforming or essentially giving up.

This turn in their work ethic severely impacts their business which will then lead to more problems.

Deterioration in Relationships and Social Life

Not only can suffering from stress and anxiety lead to behaviour and illnesses which will inevitably result in poorer occupational performances, it can affect the lives of friends and loved ones of the business owner or worker.

Work problems and relationship problems share a mutually destructive relationship. If one facet is to suffer, then so is the other, and this will continue to a permeate a destructive cycle in one’s life.

Suffering from stress and anxiety can lead to relationship breakdown and social isolation. While some people can create a boundary between their work life and their personal life, others struggle to maintain this barrier, especially when they are a business owner.

Stress is not simply confined to the workplace. Friends, family members and loved ones of someone who is suffering from extreme bouts of stress and anxiety may find it difficult to communicate with their loved one, or to navigate their anger and trepidation due to the financial and economic climate.

This is particularly the case as many people opt to work remotely from home. If a family member is sharing the same space as someone who is suffering from a compromised mental health, then it can affect the home environment and it can profoundly affect others who live there.

Those struggling with their mental health due to work related and financial related issues may find it difficult to articulate their problems with someone who does not work within the same industry.

Not only could they begin to socially isolate, they may even become resentful of friends or family members who may not have the insight to provide answers to these problems.

Additionally, it can cause more relationship breakdown through a decrease in quality or compatibility when it comes to sexual intercourse.

Studies show that stress and anxiety can lead to sexual problems such as a decreased libido (sexual drive) and also erectile dysfunction. Furthermore, studies show that decreased sexual desire or ability for arousal has a profound effect on other areas of life, such as work.

Substance Use Disorder – Alcohol and Drug Addiction

Drug and alcohol addiction is problematic throughout the UK, particularly among people who are already suffering from mental health issues such as anxiety, depression, and more. Substance use disorder is particularly prominent among people who are suffering from financial or housing insecurity.

Stress can make someone vulnerable to developing an addiction. This is because in order to relieve themselves from feelings of anxiety, stress, anger, and more, they may indulge in toxic and addictive psychoactive substances such as drugs or alcoholic beverages.

Unemployed people are also more likely to develop a drug or alcohol dependence. This is because while they may not suffer due to stress in the workplace, unemployed people suffer from financial insecurity which then leads to anxiety.

This is called self medicating, which means the act of treating your symptoms through your own methods and not a valid one supervised or prescribed by a health professional.

Studies show a positive correspondence between stress and developing alcohol use disorders, especially within the context of financial uncertainty and work related stress. When someone frequently consumes drugs or alcohol, they will undergo extreme physiological changes in the brain and body.

Drug and Alcohol dependence reaches a point where they have become so dependent on these substances to function normally, that they will experience potentially severe withdrawal symptoms when they go a day or so without their addictive substances.

These withdrawal symptoms can come in the form of anxiety, depression, psychosis, seizures, delirium, and more.

While drugs and alcohol may temporarily relieve people of their symptoms of stress or anxiety, it will enhance them in the long run. Drugs and alcoholic substances are highly toxic in a way which can decrease brain matter and diminish basic cognitive functions such as emotional regulation, memorisation, and more.

In addition to how it severely affects brain chemistry, alcohol and drug use will decrease sleep quality, which can leave people much more compromised when it comes to their energy levels and basic cognitive functions. This will lead to more irritability, worse intrapersonal skills, relationship breakdown, and more stress.

If someone is suffering from a drug or alcohol addiction due to work or financial uncertainty, their addiction will persist regardless of their work situation if they refuse to seek support.

In order to recover from a drug or alcohol addiction, the subject will need to contact a drug and alcohol rehabilitation centre, for example, in London, in order to facilitate their recovery and return to a life of sobriety.

Weight Gain & Poor Physical Health

Work or financial related stress can also lead to significant detrimental physical health effects, which can further exacerbate mental health issues. One prominent example of this is weight gain.

Weight gain, or being overweight, is the source of insecurity and mental health issues for many people in the United Kingdom. This is due to social expectations which cause many people to heighten their imperfections and allow them to decrease their mental wellbeing.

There are numerous ways in which work related stress can lead to weight gain. These include:

• Poor eating habits which contribute to fat gain
• Increase in cortisol, a stress hormone, can lead to fat accumulation
• Poor sleeping habits which further increase cortisol levels and poor choices when it comes to eating

People who are suffering from stress or anxiety will tend to make poorer decisions when it comes to eating because it can provide them comfort.

‘Comfort food’ is a term often described to make people feel better – regardless of their mental health – simply because of how good and pleasurable it feels to consume a particular food.

When we consume food, particularly foods which are high in salt and sugar, we experience a release of dopamine in the brain. The more that we engage in these activities, the more prominent these ‘rewards’ feel, strengthening pathways in our brain which can lead to overeating which will then develop into an eating disorder.

People who are suffering from poor mental health may experience weight gain or develop an unhealthy relationship with their food because they view it as a source of happiness or a form of self medicating when they are suffering from poor mental wellbeing.

Furthermore, stress leads to the release of a hormone called ‘cortisol’ in our body.

While some cortisol production is natural in bouts of exercise and other activities, frequent and excessive cortisol due to stressful experiences can lead to the accumulation of fat, particularly in the midsection (abdominal). This is why the term belly fat around the abdominal area is often associated with high stress levels.

Read more:
The Mental Health Impact of High Interest Rates on Small Business Owners

With all the doom and gloom we see in the markets and news coverage, is it not time to uncover some positivity?

In this article, we look at why the UK Fitness Industry is not being benched, referencing findings from both Salience Search Index and Future Fit data for this article, along with market research from ONS & Statista.

Following the industry’s steady growth from 2013 to 2020, we saw the largest drop in gyms and fitness centres in the UK in 2021. At this point the drop was by 614 establishments, taking Gym levels back three years. This was a -17% drop in trading businesses.

It’s not all bad. The Statistia results show that the rebound saw the most significant growth since 2011. This left the industry positive 46 businesses compared to the high of 2020—an increase of 660 companies and a growth percentage of + 22%. The single most significant growth experienced in the industry on record going back to 2011.

What this Means to the UK Fitness Industry

It means that the market has recovered (in principle) within 12 months. The results confirm that the return en masse to Fitness Centres and Gyms, even during the economic downturn, has been notable and that they are bucking the trend with strong growth.

A spokesman at Mirafit said the boom of 2020/2021 in the Home Fitness market was unprecedented. Comparatively, the market has returned to previous levels. However, it still shows more significant numbers than before, both in terms of sales and searches, suggesting that more people are interested in fitness in the years after 2021. It confirms how the commercial market has been able to bounce back this quickly and how the home gym market continues to grow. In addition, the numbers prove that the nation has embraced fitness to a greater level than before and is supplementing this with memberships or equipment purchases. This is a positive situation for all involved within the Fitness Industry.

Strength Wins

It is clear that the industry will not be sidelined or slope off and stagnate, so strength wins. If you are involved with the fitness industry in the UK, then the chances are you are experiencing growth and the confidence to invest in your business, whether it’s an independent Gym or Gym chain. It is an exciting time to be opening a business or being involved with a fitness centre.

How important is the UK Fitness Market?

According to the ONS, there are 191,000 people employed in the sports & fitness sector. This equates to around 69,000 personal trainers and growing. Although this is 0.28 of the population of the UK, it reaches beyond those employed directly. It is fair to conclude it is very important.

How big is the Fitness Industry in the UK?

The UK fitness industry is extensive, and according to Future Fit, it has grown to £3.92 billion.

“Coupled with the rising number of mobile trainers and boot camps/outdoor fitness companies, it’s easy to see how the overall health and fitness industry has grown to £3.92 billion this year. With so many options now available as a fitness professional, there’s never been a better time to forge a career in such a rewarding sector” – futurefit.co.uk

Here we see the visibility results for the top 25 fitness equipment retailers gathered by salience.co.uk as part of their annual review. This takes into account the number of searches and the general visibility scores for each company, most showing a positive change from 2021 to 2022.

Why a growing fitness industry is important

Benefits to the user include;

• A more extensive choice of gyms and fitness centres.
• More professionals
• More classes
• More specialist gyms
• More machine and equipment development
• More reinvestment in the market

The positive uptick impacts the nation’s health.

As a nation, we are coming out of the other side of the 2021 regression stronger and with a desire to reflect on our health and well-being. This could also lead to fewer health issues from chronic conditions, but perhaps a few more trips to the Physiotherapist!

How else can this help the UK?

A healthy fitness industry has wider implications. It supports businesses such as; online retailers and high street shops with sales in sports apparel and accessories. In addition, it typically increases sales in healthy foods and supplements markets. Often feeling good, partners with looking good, and gym goers regularly use other local services such as hair salons, beauticians and coffee shops in these areas. Equipment sales increase for rackets, clubs and trainers, for example. When you consider all of the touch points in the network of businesses, service industries like taxi, cleaning, and maintenance companies are all set to benefit.

Summary

It remains a pragmatic time to be in the fitness industry, and there are a plethora of benefits to more fitness centres opening. It means more choice, competition and higher standards, which can only benefit gym goers.

Conclusion

The Fitness industry witnessed a catastrophic reverberation in 2021 for gyms and fitness centres, we lost some good businesses at the tail end of the pandemic. However, the positive outcome is that both the suppliers and the industry show a significant recovery level. Furthermore, it indicates that there are new opportunities for business in 2023, suggesting that the industry is effectively the strongest it’s been to date and will not be benched by previously forced closures and delays in opening or by the economic downturns experienced. We hope this article has helped answer essential questions for you.

Read more:
Why the UK fitness industry is not being benched

Impostor syndrome has become increasingly prevalent in recent years, as pressures to perform well at work have caused higher levels of doubt in one’s ability to do their job.

Recent data from research conducted by financial comparison site NerdWallet has identified the impact this self-doubt can have on work performance, relationships, and more.

The survey found that over three-quarters (78%) had experienced impostor syndrome, with 47% reporting that they were currently experiencing impostor syndrome symptoms at work. Only 22% said that they hadn’t experienced it at all, highlighting how common it is.

Thankfully, those that were experiencing impostor syndrome were most likely to confide in friends and family. Just over half of the business leaders surveyed said they felt comfortable discussing this with their co-workers or employees.

Unfortunately, however, it seems that there is still a stigma surrounding the discussion of impostor syndrome within some sectors, with just 21% of respondents reporting that they had discussed these feelings with their peers or other business leaders.

In terms of the factors that were responsible for triggering feelings of self-doubt, starting out in a new role was the most reported – followed closely by receiving praise in front of colleagues. Some other common triggers were:

• Carrying out meetings with team members (49%)

• Carrying out performance reviews (47%)

• Giving presentations in front of team members (44%)

• Being asked questions in front of the wider team (31%)

Whilst impostor syndrome may appear to be a personal issue, it can have severe consequences on work performance and even various aspects of workers’ personal lives.

The survey found that over half (59%) of respondents had either thought about leaving or had left their job due to impostor syndrome, with an additional 31% considering doing so but not yet following through.

The areas that were most affected by impostor syndrome included:

• Professional relationships (64%)

• Physical health (53%)

• Personal finances (51%)

• Personal relationships (46%)

Speaking on the results of the survey, NerdWallet’s business finance expert, Connor Campbell, commented “Imposter syndrome has proved to be prominent amongst business leaders and it shows that the pressures of a job can come with both professional and personal consequences.

“The results show that although business leaders are confiding in others about how they feel, there is an opportunity for companies to support their employees with feelings of doubt to ensure they are happy in their roles going forward.

“Dealing with imposter syndrome early may help businesses retain their talent – and keep employees in a job – as the UK economy faces economic uncertainty in 2023 and people think more about their personal circumstances.”

Read more:
Survey reveals over three-quarters of UK business leaders have suffered from impostor syndrome

A power nap is a short sleep that terminates before the occurrence of deep sleep and is intended to quickly revitalise you.

It may not always make you popular with your boss but a power nap in the middle of the day may well boost your brain power and if this were to happen, I don’t think there would be any complaints – particularly if your newly refreshed mind enabled you to work faster and more creatively!

Whilst many people will ridicule the idea of taking a snooze at lunchtime, many influential people have taken cat naps.  British Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s afternoon nap was a non-negotiable part of his daily routine, and this was credited to giving him the stamina to work through the night until 4 a.m. during the Second World War.  US President John F Kennedy kept strictly to his routine of a 1–2 hour nap after lunch, and Margaret Thatcher famously maintained that she only needed ‘four hours to run the country’.

There is considerable research which shows that a power nap is beneficial in clearing the brain’s short-term memory to make room for new information – similar to defragging your hard-drive.  On a neuro-cognitive level, a short sleep can move you beyond where you were before you took a nap and many sleep researchers argue that being awake from early morning until late at night is actually detrimental to performance.

Sleeping on the job

Many companies are beginning to see the merit of power naps and are beginning to embrace this practice by actually encouraging their employees to add a midday snooze to their to-do lists.

It is recommended that a 20 minute nap in the afternoon after lunch is ideal for many executives.  A deep sleep is not recommended because you still want to remain alert for the rest of the day whilst a short nap will allow you to be more productive afterwards than you were before.  You may be able to find a room where you can be undisturbed by either email or phone.  Or if you are driving to a meeting, think about getting there early and allowing yourself a 15 minute nap in the car before setting your cellphone alarm to wake you up.

Common practice at work

Forward-thinking companies may actually provide sleeping pods where people can go and sleep.  These would be specially designed cubicles that offer comfort, privacy and quiet away from the frenetic pace of the business world.  Some airports have already introduced such accommodation units offering full side beds that offer a place to rest that is both convenient and comfortable.

Nap blockers

If you are going to take a nap, then be careful of stimulants.  A coffee at breakfast is fine but if you are planning a power nap after lunch then extra coffee mid-morning is probably not a good idea!

If you sleep lightly for 20 minutes, that will refresh the mind and you shouldn’t have a problem in feeling groggy when you wake up.  However, sleeping longer can take you into deeper stages of sleep from which it is more difficult to awaken.  That is the purpose of your much deeper sleep at night (with your Teddy Bear!).

Furthermore, if you are feeling anxious or irritable, then a cat nap can replenish serotonin levels in your brain and by reversing those feelings, create a more positive, mental outlook.  Higher levels of serotonin are also linked to lower stress levels, fewer mood swings and increased feelings of satisfaction and well-being while lower levels are liked to anxiety, depression and other negative emotions.

So try to tailor your power-naps to your own specific needs on any particular day because demands on your time and energies are always variable dependent upon your specific workload. The aim is to be able to work at optimum performance level for as long as possible during your working day. If you can achieve that for maybe 90% of the time, you’re doing really well!

I hope that companies will increasingly accept this idea and find ways of providing the right environment for napping to become acceptable in the workplace.  Power naps can be good for your health as well as keeping you performing optimally, so don’t feel guilty about taking one!

Key Points

• A short nap of 15-20 min can re-energize you
• Keep a watch on the amount of coffee or tea
• Peak performance is good both for you and your employer

Read more:
Power Napping leads to Peak Performance

A power nap is a short sleep that terminates before the occurrence of deep sleep and is intended to quickly revitalise you.

It may not always make you popular with your boss but a power nap in the middle of the day may well boost your brain power and if this were to happen, I don’t think there would be any complaints – particularly if your newly refreshed mind enabled you to work faster and more creatively!

Whilst many people will ridicule the idea of taking a snooze at lunchtime, many influential people have taken cat naps.  British Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s afternoon nap was a non-negotiable part of his daily routine, and this was credited to giving him the stamina to work through the night until 4 a.m. during the Second World War.  US President John F Kennedy kept strictly to his routine of a 1–2 hour nap after lunch, and Margaret Thatcher famously maintained that she only needed ‘four hours to run the country’.

There is considerable research which shows that a power nap is beneficial in clearing the brain’s short-term memory to make room for new information – similar to defragging your hard-drive.  On a neuro-cognitive level, a short sleep can move you beyond where you were before you took a nap and many sleep researchers argue that being awake from early morning until late at night is actually detrimental to performance.

Sleeping on the job

Many companies are beginning to see the merit of power naps and are beginning to embrace this practice by actually encouraging their employees to add a midday snooze to their to-do lists.

It is recommended that a 20 minute nap in the afternoon after lunch is ideal for many executives.  A deep sleep is not recommended because you still want to remain alert for the rest of the day whilst a short nap will allow you to be more productive afterwards than you were before.  You may be able to find a room where you can be undisturbed by either email or phone.  Or if you are driving to a meeting, think about getting there early and allowing yourself a 15 minute nap in the car before setting your cellphone alarm to wake you up.

Common practice at work

Forward-thinking companies may actually provide sleeping pods where people can go and sleep.  These would be specially designed cubicles that offer comfort, privacy and quiet away from the frenetic pace of the business world.  Some airports have already introduced such accommodation units offering full side beds that offer a place to rest that is both convenient and comfortable.

Nap blockers

If you are going to take a nap, then be careful of stimulants.  A coffee at breakfast is fine but if you are planning a power nap after lunch then extra coffee mid-morning is probably not a good idea!

If you sleep lightly for 20 minutes, that will refresh the mind and you shouldn’t have a problem in feeling groggy when you wake up.  However, sleeping longer can take you into deeper stages of sleep from which it is more difficult to awaken.  That is the purpose of your much deeper sleep at night (with your Teddy Bear!).

Furthermore, if you are feeling anxious or irritable, then a cat nap can replenish serotonin levels in your brain and by reversing those feelings, create a more positive, mental outlook.  Higher levels of serotonin are also linked to lower stress levels, fewer mood swings and increased feelings of satisfaction and well-being while lower levels are liked to anxiety, depression and other negative emotions.

So try to tailor your power-naps to your own specific needs on any particular day because demands on your time and energies are always variable dependent upon your specific workload. The aim is to be able to work at optimum performance level for as long as possible during your working day. If you can achieve that for maybe 90% of the time, you’re doing really well!

I hope that companies will increasingly accept this idea and find ways of providing the right environment for napping to become acceptable in the workplace.  Power naps can be good for your health as well as keeping you performing optimally, so don’t feel guilty about taking one!

Key Points

• A short nap of 15-20 min can re-energize you
• Keep a watch on the amount of coffee or tea
• Peak performance is good both for you and your employer

Read more:
Power napping leads to peak performance

Anybody who emerged from the Covid-19 lockdowns with a frozen shoulder or a neck crick after spending hours hunched over their laptop at the kitchen table would be painfully aware of the dangers of working from home.

Now the nation’s number crunchers have provided evidence that remote working may be partly to blame for the UK’s chronic labour shortage, with tens of thousands of extra people reporting as long-term sick due to lockdown related injuries.

In a sign that poor ergonomics can have an impact on economics, the Office for National Statistics found a big rise in the number of people being unfit for work because of neck and back injuries. Overall, the ONS said the number of people identified as economically inactive because of long-term sickness had increased from 2 million to 2.5 million in the three years from 2019, with more than 70% of the rise – 363,000 – occurring after the arrival of Covid in early 2020.

But a breakdown of the total showed that the number leaving the labour force because of neck and back problems rose by 62,000 – the second-largest reason cited.

Gavin Burt, a registered osteopath and clinic director of Backs & Beyond in London, said he was unsurprised by the ONS figures because he saw a significant increase in patients coming to him with back and neck problems, particularly people in their twenties.

“In an office you have a really well-designed ergonomic set-up, which helps to reduce repetitive strain injury (RSI) and back pain. But we never really think about ergonomics at home.”

Burt, a member of the General Osteopathic Council, added: “People were working with one leg on the bed, one leg off the bed, in a slightly contorted position on their laptop or at uncomfortable dining chairs or sofas. Basically it is overuse injuries, in poor posture for longer than they would have done if they were working in an office.”

The ONS said older people continued to make up the majority of those inactive because of long-term sickness, but the sharpest relative increases in recent years had been among those aged 25 to 34. Long-term sickness in that age category rose by 42%, compared with a 16% jump for people aged between 50 and 64.

Hugh Stickland, an ONS senior statistician, said: “The largest increase came from people with ‘other health problems or disabilities’. While this category includes people affected by long Covid, we think that’s only one of several contributing factors. The next highest rise was among people with back or neck problems; it’s possible that increased home working has given rise to these kinds of conditions.”

Burt said he had already noticed an improvement in some of his clients, which he attributes to the part-time return to office working, and the associated commute, particularly for those who travel on public transport.

“People often think of the commute as a chore, but it got people up and walking,” Burt said. “I’ve already seen people’s conditions improve by moving to hybrid working, getting back on to the commute and once they are up and about and going somewhere else, it gives them the emotional space to think about exercise.”

The rising number of economically inactive people has been a key factor behind the labour shortages that have alarmed the Bank of England and contributed to higher interest rates this year.

Lockdowns during the pandemic led to an increase in the number of economically inactive people reporting depression, “bad nerves” and anxiety as their main health condition in 2020 and 2021, but the ONS said numbers had now returned to pre-pandemic levels.

Alison Carter, a researcher in HR leadership and wellbeing at the Institute of Employment Studies, said employers should focus on making sure their staff have workplace assessments for their office and home set-ups,

“From an employee wellbeing point of view, we need to encourage people back to work who are dropping off the radar and if musculoskeletal problems are the reason, there are physical workplace adjustments that can be made,” she said.

Read more:
Rise in back pain and long-term sickness linked to home working

The cost-of-living crisis could be having an impact on the mental health of small business decision makers and their employees, according to new research.

Whilst the financial impact of the cost-of-living crisis is well known, the survey of small business decision makers revealed the impact it could be having on their mental health.

Indeed, almost four in ten stated that financial pressures are contributing to a decline in their mental health, whilst over a fifth say mental health exhaustion could be their biggest challenge this year.

For some, this only builds on the financial pressures they faced during the pandemic, with over two thirds stating that the pandemic had only ‘intensified’ the risks and pressures of running a small business.

A quarter also admitted to worrying that their mental health will only decline over the rest of 2022; which may be unsurprising with the majority of respondents stating that the cost-of-living crisis is their biggest challenge this year.

Positively, small business decision makers are acutely aware of the importance of mental health, with almost half acknowledging that mental health support is just as valuable to their business as financial and technological aid. This extends to their operational effectiveness too, with 43% stating that further support is needed in order for their business to run more effectively.

The survey was commissioned by Three Business, to understand the unique challenges facing small business owners in the current climate and the impact it is having on their mental health.

In light of these challenges, Three Business has partnered with Samaritans to offer small business owners places on the charity’s Building Resilience and Wellbeing digital course.

The course is part of a portfolio of wellbeing and suicide prevention courses delivered by Samaritans to support organisations with training to help their people and teams look after themselves as well as those around them. The ‘Building Wellbeing and Resilience’ course equips small business owners and their employees with practical strategies to strengthen their personal resilience, and enhance their wellbeing to respond effectively to challenges in their role and environment.

Three will also be hosting a webinar in partnership with Samaritans where business owners will hear from a SME business owner who will share their experience of overcoming tough times and from Samaritans about the support available. Any business owner can sign up here, regardless of whether they are a Three customer or not.

Alongside that, as part of the welcome journey for Three Business customers, they will be provided with guidance and signposting information from Samaritans when they join Three.

This package builds on the mental health support that Three provides to its own employees, which includes free access to Lifeworks, the Headspace app and training for Time to Talk Reps (Mental Health First Aiders) in the workplace.
Jason Jaspal, Assistant Director of Business Development at Samaritans, said:

“We are living in uncertain times and the world has become, for many, a very worrying place. The impact of the global pandemic, as well as concerns around the cost-of-living crisis, is affecting many people, including small business owners and their employees.

It’s vital that small business owners have access to the tools that support wellbeing. Delivered by experienced Samaritans trainers, our Building Resilience and Wellbeing courses aim to equip more people and teams with the skills and confidence to look after themselves as well as those around them.

We are delighted that Three Business is funding free spaces for Three Business small business owners and their employees, on our Building Resilience and Wellbeing courses, which is part of a range of courses that we offer to support organisations with mental health, wellbeing and suicide prevention training.”

Snehal Bhudia, Director of Business Propositions & Go-To-Market for Three UK, said: “From speaking to small businesses every day, we know the huge pressures they are facing not only financially but on their mental health and wellbeing too. That’s why we wanted to build on Three’s existing partnership with Samaritans, and extend it to all small businesses in the UK. We hope that many small business owners take advantage of this free support and guidance during a pretty difficult period for everyone.”

Three Business UK’s collaboration with the Samaritans follows the Three Business Adapt proposition launch in May, designed to take pressure off SMEs by offering flexible plans, for a fixed monthly price, giving much needed cost certainty.

The partnership with Samaritans builds on Three’s pre-existing role as corporate partner of the charity. Together, they have pledged to connect 1 million people to emotional support.”

Petra Velzeboer, CEO of PVL, Psychotherapist and Mental Health Consultant comments: “This research illustrates the immense challenges we are facing globally regarding mental health and the new world of work. Increasing cost of living, high staff turnover, and simple survival throughout challenges such as ‘quiet quitting’ and ‘the great resignation’ impact SMEs much more significantly than bigger businesses.

“However, there are tools that everyone can equip themselves with to help and it’s amazing to see the training offer for SMEs from Samaritans. Beyond this, my hope for the future is that each of us can think about mental health in a more preventative way, normalising conversations about good mental health long before needing crisis services, so we can all build a mentally healthy future. This initiative speaks to the heart of what we do at PVL, and I look forward to what can be achieved.”

Read more:
New research shows SMEs facing mental health crisis as cost of living bites

Research shows that employee burnout has steadily risen by 17% since 2020.

People no longer want the archaic working model, and they’re actively looking for roles where workplace wellbeing is prioritised and more flexibility exists because they’re putting their mental health first.

Research from Deloitte has revealed the cost of poor mental health to UK employers has increased to a staggering £56 billion. A significant part of the business cost is due to reduced productivity caused by employees who are unwell but still come to work, known as presenteeism.

Burnout goes way beyond a buzzword. It is impacting businesses on an unprecedented level. Especially financially, absence due to poor mental health costs employers twice as much as that relating to physical health. A recent report from Westfield Health found that 59% of respondents said their mental health was driving them to find a new role. Striking the balance between a healthy, happy workplace and lifestyle for employees has never been more important for businesses.

What is burnout and how can you recognise the signs and symptoms?

People who are finding their work and the workplace difficult to manage may be at a higher risk of burnout. Burnout can leave them feeling empty, worn out and unable to handle the weight of life’s obligations. While burnout is not deemed a psychological disorder, it should still be taken seriously.

Here are three ways to recognise employee burnout:

Cynical disposition

No one loves their job 100% of the time, and some cynicism is natural. However, if someone is displaying an increased negative outlook both in terms of the work itself and towards their colleagues, this could be a sign of burnout, especially if their normal disposition is usually upbeat. It could be that they’re displaying signs of more irritability than usual or are unable to accept feedback.

Performance and productivity

Employees suffering from burnout may have been less engaged with their work than normal. They may feel as though they can’t get anything right and show signs of frustration. Many people feel unable to manage their frustration and stress levels at work, leading to decreased productivity and, in turn, a poorer quality of work.

Detachment

When an employee is experiencing burnout, it can be very difficult for them to feel as though they are part of a team, especially if their workload is unmanageable. Isolation may set in, and they may feel as though they cannot participate in company activities because that will impact their work, leaving them experiencing more stress and anxiety. The longer this is the case, the more detached from the business they will feel.

Knowing which work-related pressures trigger burnout and what to avoid as a manager can be most helpful.

Here are some of the key causes of burnout:

• Lack of support from their manager and team
• Uncertain or excessive expectations
• A toxic environment
• Feeling unvalued
• Pressure to be online/available constantly
• Being micromanaged

What can you do to help?

The first thing you should do is be aware and acknowledge that your employee is struggling. Start the conversation – they may well feel too stressed or anxious to ask for help, so it’s up to you to look out for the signs and to offer help and support. Be empathetic, as feeling understood at work is crucial in their recovery. Don’t vilify them for not being able to cope; instead, listen to what they need and recognise the areas where you can help immediately alleviate some of the pressure.

Here are some of the practical ways to offer support:

1. Check in with them, but not in a ‘monitoring’ sense, as that will only add to their stress. Drop them a line to see how they are and if they can manage their workload daily.
2. If your company has mental health support services, ensure they know how to access them and that they are available to help as well.
3. Encourage them to take some time off to relax and reset. Be flexible with their working hours to allow for their current needs.
4. Delegate their workload across the team to take some of the pressure off. Avoid overwhelming them with projects you know will be highly stressful.
5. Be human. Yes, it’s work but remember we can all experience burnout at any level. They need to feel like a person, not a number.

Preventing burnout

Naturally, avoiding the causes and circumstances that could lead to burnout is the greatest way to safeguard employees’ mental health. Although doing so might necessitate a total change in your business’ culture, it is vital to foster a nurturing and supportive workplace for your team.

Investing in your people is paramount to your company’s success and profitability. Research shows that on average, every £1 you invest in employee well-being, sees a £5.30 return. A team who feels valued and supported with a work-life and wellbeing balance is a happier team and, in return, will be far less likely to leave. So, if you’ve noticed burnout amongst your colleagues, maybe it’s time for a culture shift.

Read more:
Burnout Britain: How UK employers can recognise the signs & symptoms of burnout

Overthinking is to think about a problem too much or for too long.

You have something on your mind; you continuously think about it; the thought gets deeper, and you start worrying about circumstances, events and potential possibilities that then you could end up with conflicting thoughts racing through your head.   Unfortunately, to overthink is a natural part of life for many of us, even when we are not aware that we are doing it.

Of course, it is vital that we all think constructively.  Reflecting upon the past can be good for us – having the memories that we like to hold onto but equally as important is to let go of those more painful ones.  There is also nothing wrong with pondering on your current career and life goals, then planning how to achieve your aspirations.

A Case Study

Jenny is an unmarried, 35-year-old client of mine who owns two residential properties – one in central London and one in the suburbs but she cannot decide in which property to live. Consequently, she sits for hours and hours thinking about the decision whether to live in London and be isolated from her family and friends or to move nearer to them in the suburbs.  This thinking and rethinking has been going on now for over eight months.     Which property to live in, and which one to be rented out as an investment?   She is so stressed-out about this that she can think of nothing else, and it is now my job to help her to discipline her mindset to try to cease overthinking and to come to a firm decision.

Thinking back

Of course, there will be times when you will regret missed opportunities and bad decisions and we are all guilty of that at some time.  Or you may be worried about the future – your family, your income, your health, or your career choice.  However, you need to avoid a ‘thinking overload’ whereby information goes around and around in your head with no resultant resolution.  It is like revving the car engine without it being in gear – the vehicle remains stationary and just wastes valuable fuel.

When we overthink, it often means that our brain leads us to make erroneous assumptions, which in many cases can be negative.

How to stop overthinking

Breaking the cycle is not easy as, unlike our computer, there is no ‘off’ switch.  However, perhaps some of the following suggestions might be of help:

Career

Do you consistently overthink about your career? If you are unhappy with where you are or what you have done to date, then you need to become proactive and to start to explore other options. 

Relationships

If you think you might have upset someone or have done something embarrassing, then contact whoever was involved to determine whether you need to apologise.  It maybe that the incident was inconsequential and has long been forgotten by the other person, but it is still at the forefront of your mind – so now might be an opportune time to make a determined effort to stop thinking about it.  Or maybe the reason why a particular friend or colleague has not contacted you is because he, or she, is busy and not because they don’t like you.

Challenge your personal beliefs

Our beliefs can be either real or imagined and it is all too easy to exaggerate these to ourselves. Our inner voice may well be making incorrect negative assumptions and by challenging them, we can lessen such incessant overthinking.

Be patient

Breaking a cycle of overthinking does not happen overnight but, with practice, it is certainly possible.  The first step is to recognize that you have a mindset that often goes into a negative overthinking mode, automatically.

When you overthink about a problem, the chances are that you lose the focus on the bigger picture.  To overcome this, you may possibly need a therapist or other professional help – but it will be well worth it because it is important that your mind learns how to switch-off and focus on those issues that will take you forward and make a measurable difference to your life.

Key Points

We all need peace of mind to work efficiently

Breaking a cycle of overthinking is important

Overthinking can stop you from focusing on the bigger picture

Read more:
Do you overthink?

One in six UK employees feel worried that raising mental health concerns with their company could put them at risk of losing their job, a new report into employee mental health and remote working has found.

Throughout the UK, 86% believe that their workplace is not a safe space for employees to be open about mental health.

Over the last 12 months, two in three employees have experienced worse mental health at work, compared to the previous year. As remote and hybrid working environments continue to be adopted by more UK businesses, evidence suggests that companies have struggled to adapt their mental health support processes. One in three employees feel less able to raise mental health concerns during remote meetings, often causing any issues to go unnoticed.

The Employee Mental Health and Remote Working report – conducted by virtual events and in-person team building company Wildgoose – asked employees from 129 different UK companies whether their mental health at work had improved or worsened over the past year. It also asked whether these employees felt comfortable raising any mental health concerns with their employers and what they believed would happen if they did.

Just over one in eight companies in the UK don’t have a process in place for remote workers to report mental health concerns. This is most prevalent in SMEs, where this figure nearly doubled to one in five not having a process in place.

What do employees want from their companies?

With worsening employee mental health a growing concern, the change most desired by employees is for companies to offer more regular in-person meetings and for managers to receive better training on identifying signs of poor mental health (36%).

Just under a third of respondents state they would like to see a process policy of reporting mental health concerns, which is not currently offered, followed by assurances of job security after reporting.

Commenting on the findings, Wildgoose managing director Jonny Edser said: “As remote and hybrid working practices become more widespread, companies need to start doing more to ensure that employees are still receiving the same levels of mental health support. With less regular in-person meetings and casual catch-ups in the office, it can be much harder to spot the signs of poor mental health.

“For this reason, it’s essential that employers communicate with their staff, finding out how they would like to be supported. Perhaps they’d appreciate more regular workload reviews, weekly face-to-face meetings, or even the creation of better mental health policies. The most important aspect is that employees feel comfortable and safe to discuss any concerns.

“At Wildgoose, we continue to offer both in-person and virtual team building experiences, helping companies to encourage colleague relationships and improve employee wellbeing .”

Kristen Keen, founder and owner of Cluer HR, comments on the findings: “Whilst working from home comes with many advantages, there is no doubt that for some people this isn’t the case. Working remotely has meant that we haven’t been able to see our colleagues in the flesh on a daily basis, making it much harder to read those subtle signs shown when someone isn’t coping.

“Unfortunately, there is still a stigma that surrounds mental health issues and a lack of education on the subject. To help improve employee wellbeing at work, both managers and the entire workforce should receive training, so that everyone can recognise and understand mental health issues. Plus, having 1:1 meetings with employees is a great way to encourage people to safely discuss any problems they are having.”

Read more:
UK workers are worried that revealing their mental health concerns could result in job loss

On 14^th February, I billion Valentine’s Day cards will be received worldwide. People usually manage their emotions quite well but there are certain days, or anniversaries, such as a birthday, or a wedding or the date that a family member died, that bring memories that make us reflective and sometimes a little sad.

When we are in a good place in our lives, these dates can be days of celebration, but for some of us, when days like Valentine’s day come, they can trigger the remembrance of loss or loneliness.

When people are emotional, they do not work as effectively as when they are stable, and in these situations, managers are often at a loss to know how to handle an employee in tears.

Should the manager have to manage tears?

Tears are one of those emotions that a manager will often ignore because they feel awkward and embarrassed.  Those of us outside the medical and caring professions are not really trained to manage highly emotional people.

The reasons for our apparent inability to communicate sympathy in times of loss, are more to do with our upbringing and culture, rather than with any innate reluctance to express ourselves.

So how do we manage emotions in the workplace?

We know that HR will keep a packet of Kleenex in their top drawer for such eventualities but does the manager need do the same, and would that be enough in any event?  Is it, in fact, part of their role to manage tears?

I would say, yes it is.  If an individual breaks down in tears, this is not the time to walk out of the room and telephone HR as if the employee had an infectious disease.  Such a situation can be properly managed but it may take some training.  So what are the things to do and the words to say, in such a scenario?

When faced with managing someone crying at work

Do not:

• Walk away from the person
• Leave the room
• Look out of the window as if the incident hadn’t taken place
• Interrupt the individual
• Say, ‘Big boys dont cry’ or ‘Pull yourself together’ or ’This isn’t going to help’!

Do :

• Keep calm / Allow for silences and don’t try to fill the space. Do say words like ‘It’s OK’; / There’s plenty of time’ / Is there some way I can help?
• Hand over a tissue if needed.
• Give the person the time and space to compose themselves and make sure it is in their time and not yours.
• Be cautious about being tactile. When I train people to manage such a situation, I usually caution against touching someone else as it may not be the appropriate action to take.

The person will probably feel extremely awkward and embarrassed, and it is your role to try to ensure that they feel that their temporary emotional state is justified and normal.

When an individual is emotional, the mind and the body is often slow to react to normal tasks and so time may be needed to help the person manage their normal workload.

Other team members may not know what to say and your support, and communication skills, at this time can prove invaluable to both the emotional person and his/ her colleagues.  The team may also feel awkward and embarrassed, and a short briefing session could be very helpful.

At the end of the day, emotions are normal, are part of the human condition and are by no means unusual. Sometimes we can hide what we feel, and at other times we can’t.

Exposing our emotions is sometimes dependent on our cultural upbringing and it has been proven over the years that those of us who continually repress our emotions instead of expressing them, can, over time, suffer mental and physical problems, as a result.

It’s a matter of letting it ‘hang-out’ when necessary.  Like putting a wet garment out to dry in the sun.  After a while, the creases disappear and it’s ready to wear again.

Key Learning Points

• Emotions are normal and part of the human condition
• Do not walk away from an emotional employee
• Anniversaries, both happy and sad, can be difficult

Read more:
Big boys don’t cry or do they?

Six years ago, British-Asian author Lena Shah, 41, left a high-powered career in account management, having worked for international travel and payment tech companies, to retrain as a French and Spanish teacher as well as a Mindfulness coach and Yin yoga instructor.

Whilst she gained a lot from her work and made numerous life-long friends, she became increasingly unhappy with her lifestyle, feeling unfulfilled with the ‘soulless’ and faceless corporate nature of her roles and yearning, instead, to share her true self more authentically by working in a more humanitarian sector.

However, she felt trapped, not knowing how to make an effective change while continuing to take comfort in the security and success corporate life provided, ignoring the serious impact it was having on her health and wellbeing. And with many of her peers within the wider Indian community frowning upon those working in fields viewed as less prestigious, she felt pressured to keep up a pretence. This constant unhappiness and pressure almost led to a breakdown. Finally, however, she found a new way forward.

Now, the languages teacher, mindfulness coach, and Yin yoga instructor has published Impetus  – No cover up, a transformative book of healing poems and prose that relay her experiences to help other professionals who feel trapped in their jobs or personal life circumstances.

You had a high-powered career yet felt unfulfilled. You, however, chose to ignore this because of wider social expectations. Do you think this is a common scenario for professionals, and what are the main general factors at play in their choice to stay in an unhappy situation?

I can best answer this by breaking it down, as follows.

Circumstances: I know it is common for many of us to make a compromise due to our situations and circumstances. Having dependents and other financial commitments can mean any short-term changes involving changes in income or lifestyle are very challenging.

Limiting beliefs: As psychologist Dr Rick Hanson says, “We have a brain wired to take in the bad and ignore the good making us worried, irritated and stressed instead of confident, secure, and happy.” Our ancestral and limiting beliefs constantly re-play old stories and attach on many occasions a false meaning to experiences that are not actually the reality of today. Our automatic knee-jerk reactions, thought patterns and consequent behaviours (life choices) to situations throughout the day are often based on traumas from the past. We are in a constant state of auto-pilot—“We are human beings, not human doings”, as the Mindfulness UK organisation puts it.

Addictions: When we think a desired situation or goal is not achievable, we have a (often subconscious) tendency to take refuge in addictive behaviour. Addictions take many forms; drugs and alcohol are well known. However there are many other addictions which are even more common but easier to hide and deny: addicted to thinking and strategizing, fear, control, pleasure seeking through mindless activities, whiling away time on the phone or the internet, gossiping and comparisons.

What I see happening, and what was beginning to happen with myself, it that we compensate for the unfulfillment we experience at work with activities that are not wholesome or fulfilling. We cover ourselves up with other things that will always lead to a break up of sorts in the long run, whether it be mental health, physical health or a breakdown of a situation or relationships.

Lack of time: This is one of the biggest myths we create for ourselves. Being open to having a coach, therapist or mentor who can help you challenge these beliefs can help you get out of a negative mould, and provide the space and time to dedicate your thoughts, time and life choices to things more aligned with your true inner desires, leading to a greater sense of joy and fulfilment.

In your case, you say that there were additional social expectations being a British-Asian woman. Can you briefly explain this, and how common do you think this scenario is among British-Asian female professionals?

The only way I can describe it (and how I realised my own blocks) is that we put our own happiness in the hands of people/society/role models who are often not involved with our lives in a direct way. The Asian community is strong and powerful, both for the good and bad. At times, it can mean someone becomes surrounded by people who cast judgements without wanting to know a person or situation in any meaningful way. We create a false, supposed moral society to live up to and then chastise ourselves for not conforming to superficial ideals.

If a professional feels unfulfilled in their current career, what can the consequences be if they remain?

There are many things but from my personal experience, unhappiness and a false way of living were the main issues. In time, this can become harmful to an individual’s wellbeing, necessitating an urgent change of scenery.

Since listening to my inner voice with respect to work, my network of friends and pass-times have evolved as a consequence.  I downloaded a new perspective and found another kind of richness. I decluttered!

What key advice would you give to any professional in an unhappy career?

You need to ask yourself a series of questions:

Do you love yourself enough to accompany yourself to make the change both practically and emotionally?

What are you prepared to give up to do it?

From a financial perspective, what expenses are controllable?

Where can you gain time?

Saying no to certain social things that are not fulfilling might be tough but is it worth it to you?

If you ask yourself these questions and decide that you cannot (or don’t want to) give any of these things up, then there is no longer any reason to be unhappy because you have made a conscious choice. You are less likely to feel like a victim.

Or, perhaps, the questioning makes you realise you are actually unhappy in another area of your life, or that in fact you DO want to make a change, making you feel less resentful of the things you are giving up.

What key advice would you give expressly to British-Asian female professionals?

The same as I would to anyone else, with the addition that you need to be prepared that moral and emotional support might be harder to gain. Be prepared to go it alone.

You retrained as a mindfulness coach. How did this meet your needs as opposed to your former career?

My former career served me at a certain point in my life and I have gained a lot from it both materially and in terms of some wonderful friends but I am in another place in my life now.

Being of service to clients 1:2:1 is a privilege—it is one of the most responsible, precious and fulfilling ways to live and work and I see it as a true blessing to be in a position to help others in this way.

I have a vocation now, not just a job.

As a mindfulness coach, what would you say are the main benefits to professionals of receiving mindfulness training?

Mindfulness can help achieve a greater sense of workplace and general wellbeing, leading to an improvement in productivity. Benefits to professionals and employers include:

• Reduced absenteeism
• Improved productivity
• Reduced employee burnout
• Improved communications
• Increased creativity
• Enhanced solution-based thinking
• Improved team work
• Improved workplace wellbeing

How do you think mindfulness can be incorporated into the wider corporate structure, and why would this be of benefit to companies?

A common reality in a busy and stressful workplace is having too many things to do in too little time.

This isn’t always true but there is a strong argument to say that unless top management are interested in promoting mindfulness to its employees, such programmes won’t work.

Another potential pitfall is that group mindfulness sessions in the workplace may not be conducive to a sense of stress reduction and wellbeing if you are not having an easy time with your colleagues in any case.

It is also important that the inertia to take on mindfulness comes from within each person and is not viewed as an authoritarian tick-box exercise. It should be seen as an effective way of exploring practical, voluntary and realistic ways for staff to find their own impetus to regain centredness and help reduce short-term stress and overwhelm versus having enforced mindfulness sessions after work or during lunchtimes.

It is important employees feel equipped with mindfulness tools that they can implement on their own during the work day. There might be different tools that work best in different workplace scenarios.—i.e.  whilst running between meetings, feeling overwhelmed during a meeting, during lunchtime or before or after work.

Enforced meetings on wellbeing run the risk of making people resentful when they already may feel that work has taken over their time and mind. They can of course, in some company environments, be very welcome so it really depends on the particular organisation and its atmosphere.

You are also a Yin yoga instructor. Why would you advocate that yoga becomes part of every busy professional’s regular routine?

It helps centre and set one up for the day, both physically and emotionally. At the end of the day it serves as a letting go. Even one minute of breathing is beneficial if that is all one can manage, but make it count.

I have a five-minute yoga routine (which can be done in bed!) at the start and end of the day. It brings me back to a state of calm if I have had a troubled sleep or busy day. The sequence is available on my website.

Your new book, Impetus – No cover up, shares your own journey of liberation and connecting with an authentic self through poetry and short prose. How do you think it will help other professionals?

I hope my book helps other professionals feel a sense of liberation, as I did. We often get so bogged down and become two-dimensional. I hope my book will enable professionals to stop and take an expansive, calming breath into their imagination and perhaps find a more creative outlook.

Here is an extract from one of my poems within the book, ‘Picking me up’, that is pertinent to our experiences as professionals and the need to find a path to authentic living:

Picking up my pieces

with sensitivity and compassion.

Binding them with gold

fostering myself

with care

AWARE.

Impetus  – No cover up by  Lena Shah is out now on Amazon , or via Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd. For more information on Lena Shah’s mindfulness coaching, visit www.metaworkscoaching.com. For more information about Impetus  – No cover up, visit the author’s website here

Read more:
Finding the impetus: Mindfulness coach & author Lena Shah

Over 10 percent of employees are willing to take prescription drugs to cope with strain from work, according to new research from the University of Cologne.

Three percent reported that they already did so in the past.

The researchers, Professors Myriam Baum, Sebastian Sattler and Mareike Reimann, investigated employee willingness to use prescription drugs to enhance their cognitive function as a response to strain.

They found that job demands, such as agreed working time, overtime, shift work, emotional demands, job insecurity and leadership responsibility, as well as scarcity of resources such as lacking social support, increased strain – making it more likely for employees to rely on drugs for cognitive enhancement.

The researchers used data from a representative survey of employees in Germany, which analysed various job demands and resources, levels of perceived stress and willingness to use drugs for non-medical purposes.

“Our study suggests that respondents who perceive more stress hope that taking prescription drugs is sufficient to help them cope with pressure, and therefore increase or maintain their brain function,” says Dr. Sattler.

The study also found that being a woman, higher in age, and a higher level of education also increases the willingness to take drugs to cope with strain.

“Although employees might experience such drug use as beneficial, they also risk side effects and longterm health consequences, while at the same time their colleagues might perceive such behavior as getting an unfair edge”, says Dr. Sattler.The researchers hope that these results delivered new insights into mechanisms behind nonmedical prescription drug use that can be used to prevent such behaviour and potential negative health consequences.

Sattler says that “employers’, physicians’, and at-risk individuals’ awareness should be raised that resources such as active strain management, resilience training, or job crafting can help to handle stress and increase work performance”.

Read more:
More than 1 in 10 employees willing to use drugs to cope with job demands

‘I keep losing focus’, complains Noreen. ‘I wish I could concentrate better’, says George.  Do you hear yourself sometimes saying this?

There are so many things to think about that you just cannot seem to concentrate properly, anymore.

Concentration is the ability to focus upon one thing at a time.  This is not necessarily an easy skill to develop and retain as life, for all of us, whether we are working from home or in the workplace, has so many disruptions.

Multitasking

Some of us pride ourselves on being able to do more than one thing at a time but the chances are that instead of doing one task well, we manage to do several tasks not so well. The reason being that trying to do too much contemporaneously usually leads to poor performance or mediocre outcomes.

Distraction and Boredom

You cannot concentrate properly until you stop yourself from being distracted!  Now this might seem obvious, but we can fail to take the requisite action to either remove the distraction from us or to remove ourselves away from the distraction.

Being overwhelmed

You may have a mountain of paperwork to do in your home office or in the workplace which is piled high on your desk.  Every time you look at it, you feel overwhelmed.  Sound familiar?  You cannot bear to face it and so you look for any excuse to be distracted so that you don’t have to address the problem. However, the longer you leave it the higher it becomes!

Social Media

Do you spend time on your Facebook or Twitter account when you should be using your mental energy to address a work problem? Admittedly, it may be more enjoyable because it doesn’t require effort. But you are not paid by your employer to chat with your friends online – that’s just a distraction.   So, if you want to play an active part in being sociable online, then schedule a time – your own time – to do so.  Don’t get caught up with ‘chat’.

Your mobile phone

If you jump every time your mobile phone rings, the chances are that you are addicted to it.  I was having a zoom call with a client the other day and we were having an in-depth conversation.  The phone rang and I had expected him to stop talking to me to take the phone call.  Imagine my surprise, when he said that the call could wait until we had finished our conversation.  He explained that he had trained himself to listen to his messages only at set times during the day so that it wouldn’t break his concentration.  ‘Good discipline!’ I thought!  I wonder how many of us do this ourselves.

Worries

There are many things that can worry you and get in the way of your concentration. And often financial or relationship problems can also affect your sleep. Sleep deprivation occurs when the lack of restful sleep is severe enough to compromise basic body functions and this can certainly bring about a lack of ability to focus upon necessary issues the following day.  Everyone needs adequate sleep.

There can be nothing more important than the ability to concentrate – particularly when driving and we hear of many sad cases when individuals decide to risk accidents when driving by looking at their satnav or talking on the phone – and it is at times like these when accidents can occur because of lack of vital concentration.

8 Easy Ways to Help You Concentrate

1. Make a note of every time that your mind wanders. Add a timeline and describe what you were doing when it happened.  See if a pattern emerges.
2. Make sure you exercise regularly during the day to help improve the flow of oxygenated blood to the brain.
3. Give your mind a quick break every 30 minutes or so. Have power naps to improve your concentration!
4. Every 20 mins, look away from your monitor or laptop and give yourself eye breaks. Try the 20-20-20 rule.  Every 20 minutes, look at something 20 feet away and for at least 20 seconds.
5. Practice doing one thing at a time. Sit back and feel the sense of satisfaction after completing one specific task, properly and within schedule. The feel of euphoria will last for a long time after and carry you forward to your next task.
6. Anticipate distractions and discipline yourself not to get caught up with them. If you are working from home, beware of the friendly neighbour who wants a chat.  Or if you are in the workplace, think of a way to keep a chatty colleague away when you are trying to concentrate.
7. Your bed is where you sleep, and your desk is where you work. Make sure you have a very rigid demarcation line.
8. Turn off your notifications and alerts on your phone! Not an easy one but certainly can be done.

Key Points

Do one task at a time – efficiently

Avoid distractions that kill concentration

To be productive, we need to focus

Read more:
The impact of losing concentration

While a smartphone, or tablet can be a hugely productive tool, compulsive use of these devices can interfere with work, school, and relationships.

After all, it’s rarely the phone or tablet itself that creates the compulsion, but rather the games, apps, and online worlds it connects us to.

Do you recognise yourself here:

1. You feel anxious when the phone battery gets low
2. You can’t leave the house without your smartphone
3. You feel annoyed when you can’t access your phone
4. You put your life or others at risk to check your smartphone
5. You use your phone to check for work updates while on holiday
6. Find yourself waking up at 3 am to check your email or Facebook account?
7. Your phone addiction is having a negative effect on your relationship?
8. You make sure you can see your phone whenever it is in your hand or pocket
9. Check your phone several times an hour to make sure you haven’t missed a notification
10. Use your phone when bored

If you can answer ‘yes’ to most of these questions, then you are probably experiencing Nomophobia [NO MObile Phone PhoBIA] This is a term used to describe a psychological condition when people have a fear of being detached from mobile phone connectivity and is now in the Cambridge dictionary and is also sometimes called cell phone addiction.

The symptoms are often associated with separation anxiety, low self-esteem, increased heart rate and blood pressure, social anxiety disorder, panic attacks, fear and panic.

The History

Just think how much technology we have now compared to 50 years ago when transistor radios were all the rage and you might listen to yours under the bedclothes. There was no TV in the bedroom, no iPad and most of all, there were  no mobile phone. we went to bed to sleep.

In 2021, many of us are checking emails and making calls on our mobiles before we are even out of bed or checking on the children!

Our phone goes everywhere with us. It sits in the bathroom as we clean our teeth and is never out of sight. We read the paper on our phone and we do our banking with a flash of the screen. We speak to friends on Instagram and Facebook, tweet on Twitter, chat on WhatsApp. We even wake in the night to take that transatlantic business call. BUT are we really more productive?

Technology has given us a new exciting life and it enables us to absorb so much more but what is it doing to our health and relationships? Are we really more effective at work or home when we are on call 24/7? I wonder.

Technostress and Gadget Dependence

Technology is impacting on our mental health, family life is suffering and are we really so efficient at work when we have to take time to share our thoughts with the world. We have become more angry and anxious and yes even depressed as we struggle to manage our technology which as we all know when it goes wrong or gets lost causes no end of stress. We live our lives on our phones, iPads and laptops but are we more efficient?

Do stress and technology go hand in hand?

We get irritated when we don’t get an immediate response to a text or email. We get frustrated when the WiFi signal fails in the middle of a conference call and when your child drops your phone and cracks the screen – it can all be too much to bear.

The weekend is  friends and family time  and where once silver graced the dining table now it is flashy technology sitting there waiting to interrupt and disrupt a pleasant evening.

So how do we manage this avalanche of gadgets designed to make our lives easier but instead extend the working day without extra pay. How do we avoid technology burnout?

It is time to take control of technology and put firmly back in its place. It is an accessory to help you do your job and run your life not a crutch.

Your mobile phone can be a life saver or a life destroyer use it with care.

Keeping your phone close by at all times is important but there is no real need to take it to bed with you. Charge it in a separate room. Not only is this safer but you will not be woken by messages from the other side of the world and different time zones.

Finally your phone is a tool and it enables you rapid communication – respect it for that and do not abuse it.

How to Beat Your Mobile Phone Addiction

1. Keep yourself on a schedule. Carve out specific time to use your phone.  If you have business calls to make, then make them at the same time – you will be more efficient
2. Don’t answer the phone just because it rings – voicemail works very efficiently
3. Turn off your push notifications so you don’t feel overwhelmed. You don’t need a ping or whoosh to tell you that there is an email waiting for you
4. Take distracting apps off your home screen
5. Limit your children’ screen to an acceptable level
6. Don’t play with your children at the same time as having your phone in your hand
7. Buy an alarm clock and make the bedroom a phone-free zone
8. Physically turn off your phone and other electronical at night and leave it in another room
9. Put the phone away while eating and socialising with friends.
10. Don’t try and multi-task with your phone with your phone, ipad or computer.

The internet can enrich our lives in many ways and we are fortunate to live in an era when we are able to reach out to the other side of the world in an instant.

The omnipresence of this technology addiction is having an impact on our lives and it can only increase as technology increases even more.

Many people consider their tech as an extension of themselves – the so-called extended self and it would be good to learn to manage time during the day without the addiction trigger in our pockets.

Rome wasn’t built in a day so if you recognise yourself in this article, then put some of the tips into practice one day at a time!

Good luck and see you at the other end of a conversation without a phone!

Read more:
HANDS UP – Are you addicted to your mobile phone?

It’s a seemingly silent killer of mood and health. As Stress Awareness Month begins on the 1st April, often regulated to business owners, even PAYE employees have had to live with uncertainty of whether they will be paid at the end of each month.

Over the course of a full year dealing with Covid-19, the sheer amount of cortisol, the hormone released when you are stressed, likely reached dangerous levels within most of the UK’s population. This can have adverse affects on memory function, sleep and overall health – both mental and physical.

Stress at work has been difficult to separate from stress at home. Social isolation and anxiety have also taken a huge toll: enquiries to private healthcare services about depression were 42% higher in January 2021 than in January 2020, with a 21% increase in enquiries about anxiety disorders over the same period.

Dr Ian Nnatu, a consultant psychiatrist at Priory’s Wellbeing Centre in Harley Street, says rising stress levels have been an emerging consequence of the pandemic: ‘I have seen a significant increase in patients with anxiety and stress over the last year, and I sense the pandemic, lockdown, and uncertainty about the future have all played a part.’

So how can people best handle stress, especially amid fears of a third wave of the pandemic? Here, Dr Nnatu answers six common questions people have about stress:

What is the difference between stress and anxiety?

‘Stress occurs when life’s external demands placed on us exceed our ability to cope. Stress is very common, leading to cognitive, emotional, behavioural, and physical symptoms. Cognitive symptoms include feeling overwhelmed, inadequate and unable to cope. People can have poor concentration and memory. Emotional symptoms can include feelings of anxiety, worry, apprehension, low mood, irritability, feeling overwhelmed. Some behavioural responses to stress include becoming more withdrawn from others, avoidance of tasks and people, procrastination. Stress can leave people feeling physically unwell, prone to colds and infections, having aches and pains, headaches, feeling physically exhausted.’

‘Anxiety is a person’s specific reaction to stress; its origin is deeply internal. It’s characterised by a persistent feeling of apprehension in many situations that are not typically threatening. Unlike stress, anxiety persists even after a concern has passed. In more severe cases, anxiety can escalate into an anxiety disorder.

‘It’s important to know how to identify and differentiate signs of stress and anxiety. Stress is a common trigger for anxiety and it’s important to catch anxiety symptoms early to prevent development of an anxiety disorder.’

Fight negative thoughts with the ‘catch it, check it and change it’ method

What’s the best way to handle financial stress, or stress around job loss?

‘Adopt a pragmatic stance and ask yourself if you can meet the expense. If you are unable to, could you consider a payment plan? The key thing is to do something about this. Get a strategy to pay this off and stick to it. Avoid the temptation to bury your head in the sand and put this off, as this often compounds the problem. Track your progress on a regular basis and make adjustments, as necessary. I would suggest forward planning to guard against this happening in future.

‘With a job loss, this can be rude shock to the system especially when you have not seen this coming. Be compassionate to yourself and avoid self-blame. Reflecting on what happened is a sensible thing to do, but avoid dwelling on this. Take what you can from this exercise and move on. Focus on the future and avoid dwelling on things that are not within your control. Look after your mental health and self-care. Regular exercise helps to build resilience and boost our immunity. Develop other interests and try not to be defined by your job. Stay connected with positive people.’

During the pandemic, uncertainty about the future is a common source of stress. What’s the best way to deal with this?

‘Try to stay in the present moment. Mindfulness and breathing exercises can help with this. Keep a routine and structure. Exercise, to boost mood, can be a useful source of distraction. Restrict your news consumption and try not to ‘Google’ your symptoms. Seek professional help instead. Notice your ‘faulty’ thinking styles; cognitive behavioural therapy can help to identify and change faulty thinking styles.”

If you have a higher intolerance for uncertainty, making you prone to negative feelings, and anxiety, what strategies can you put in place?

‘The first step is ‘noticing’ and being aware of this problem and then you can take steps to try and address this. Learn to accept the things you cannot change. If you cannot change your circumstances, then change your attitudes towards these. There are several things that you can do on your own to help with low mood and anxiety. Exercise can often be a quick and effective way of boosting mood and reducing anxiety. Thirty minutes of brisk walking every day is sufficient especially if you can do this when the sun is out.

‘Make sure you have a healthy diet with wholesome foods; the link between nutrition and our mental health is very powerful. Ensure good sleep and stay connected with close friends and family. Drink alcohol only in moderation and avoid smoking. Seek professional help if your symptoms do not improve.’

No one can avoid the unexpected, but are there simple steps that can help you face life’s uncertainties?

‘Try to stay in the present moment and avoid the temptation to dwell excessively on past events, or to try and predict the future. Breathing exercises, mindfulness and meditation can help with this. Focus on things that are within your immediate control. Keeping a routine and structure can help to boost your wellbeing. Accept that the future is uncertain and allow yourself to feel confident that you can cope with whatever comes up or know how to get help. Notice when you are becoming preoccupied with negative thinking and on a downward spiral. Use simple techniques to reframe your thinking by recognising these negative thoughts, challenging them and then replacing them with more adaptive thoughts. Some refer to this as ‘catch it, check it and change it’. Avoid social media feeds that can cause you to feel destabilised. Stay connected to friends and family. Try and find something pleasurable to do; giving, volunteering, and helping others is a great way of boosting your mood and sense of wellbeing.

How do you stop ruminating on negative events or making stress your ‘default’ emotional state?

‘Distraction can be useful to help break the cycle of ruminative thinking. Calling a friend or going for a walk helps. Reading a book or listening to music can also be effective. Try to identify what you are worrying about, and ask yourself if you can do anything to solve this. If you can, then use a problem-solving approach instead to try and address the problem. Use brain storming techniques to help come up with a strategy and work on problem solving. Use mindfulness to help you stay in the present moment. Find a comfortable spot in a quiet space and focus on your breathing. Identify your negative thinking styles and try and reframe these.’

Read more:
Employers: avoid mental health issues at work by lowering stress for yourself and your team

Organisations understand they must consider the health and safety of their employees and as we continue to come to the end of 2020 – with pandemic restrictions still in place- employers are aware they need to take greater responsibility for the health and wellbeing of their staff.

Brendan Street, Professional Head of Emotional Wellbeing, Nuffield Health looks at how the nation has collectively experienced the challenges to mental wellbeing brought about by the current pandemic. Here he says that if we act now, and act together, we can use this shared experience of distress to bring about change.

At Nuffield Health, our latest research is aimed at helping businesses to encourage empowering conversations around mental health, so more people access the support they need, earlier. Now presents an opportunity to change the nature and content of our language around mental health and mental fitness.

We believe most organisations, where possible, will look to bring employees back on a phased return to offices in 2021. However, a recent poll revealed when lockdowns were eased, many Brits felt “uncomfortable” going back to their normal lives but worryingly, a recent survey revealed only 15 per cent of employers surveyed staff this year to get an understanding of their needs during this difficult time.

We think this will be a greater priority in 2021 and there will be a bigger focus on the extension of support businesses offer their employees on a remote basis. Previous workplace benefits will, post-COVID-19, be a minimum expectation.

2020’s pandemic may have recalibrated, rather than reset employee expectations regarding perks they can expect from an employer. Many benefits focused on the physical office space may no longer be as relevant to staff post-COVID-19. In fact, most employees will now probably want continued access to remote working opportunities instead.

We will start to see a blend of physical and remote services offered to employees to ensure they continue to receive the same support they did in the physical office. This might include desktop assessments, to enable suitable ergonomic set up while at home, as well as access to remote services such as virtual GP or online emotional wellbeing services.

With the introduction of the UK furlough scheme, employees will expect their roles to be protected, should further peaks occur and there will be an increased focus on financial education. Money worries can have an enormous effect on mental wellbeing, and be both the cause and effect of mental health problems.

Considering this, employee expectations for mental health support from businesses will be, overall, much higher, as many reported experiencing distressing emotions, poor concentration, lack of motivation and stress, while working from home during lockdown.

Immediate and ongoing mental health resources, which can be offered to staff remotely, will become more accessible, including increased counselling options, and support through services like EAPs. Other types of virtual therapy we see growing in popularity might include interpersonal therapy, and access to psychiatric assessments.

Read more:
2021 workplace wellbeing predictions and priorities

If you’re healthy you’ve got a sporting chance at business and at life. Entrepreneur of the Year winner 2008, Barbara Cox merges the worlds of business and nutrition and takes ten minutes to dispense some vital knowledge to Business Matters readers.

No stranger to the business world, the chances are high that you’ve already enjoyed some of her products without even knowing it. She designed and launched the first flapjack protein bar which was snapped up by Selfridges before launching her nutritional meal delivery service nationwide. Both of these set the trend for the following fifteen years of easy protein fixes and subscription based businesses.

Today she works as a nutrition consultant and wellness coach as well as sitting on many lifestyle advisory boards across the UK and Europe. After discussing how important the need is for business owners everywhere to boost their immune system to maintain control of their health and business, she shared the following insights, all designed for Business Matters reader’s to be easily implemented and help to guard against winter colds and covid.

After studying the research, Barbara has compiled her top 5 tips that you can action right now, to boost your immune system. Since 2004, Barbara’s ethos has been to ‘protect & correct’ so make sure you have a Covid19 strategy ready for protecting against the virus and the right things on hand in case you catch it …

Drink plenty of water, the right kind of water

You’ve probably heard it before: we’re composed of 70 to 80% water – it’s true! As well as being the main component of blood and other body fluids, water plays a vital role in maintaining correct body temperature and flushing toxins out of the body. You should aim to drink at least two litres a day.

She advises that you be choosy with your quality of water and be careful of water filters that can cause more issues than prevent them. For example, the Brita water filter pitcher uses an activated carbon filter that removes chlorine, zinc, copper, cadmium and mercury, however, it doesn’t remove all nitrates, dissolved minerals or bacteria or viruses in water. These pass freely through the filter.

After researching it thoroughly she recommends the best, safest and most cost-effective water filtration bottle called Puritii that the Armed Forces are currently using.

Eat plenty of fruit and veg

Fruit and vegetables are simply the best kinds of food for us. They provide a variety of essential minerals and vitamins and fruit and vegetables contain pigments such as carotenes and flavonoids, which are powerful antioxidants that provide significant protection that can support the respiratory system which is attacked by the virus and naturally boost our immune system and helping the recovery process after illness too.

Aim to incorporate these 10 super immune boosting foods in your diet weekly:

Shiitake Mushrooms

Blueberries

Mango

Curcuma Root (fresh turmeric)

Goji Berries

Blackberries

Kelp

Pomegranate

Green Tea

Pear

She recommends meal planning to make sure you’re getting a huge variety of food in your weekly meals.

Consume fish and fish oils

As well as providing us with nucleic acids needed for cells to thrive, fish naturally provides oils which neutralise harmful free radicals in the body. Free radicals are highly reactive molecules that rip parts off healthy molecules – such as DNA – often leading to reduced immune system and leading to disease.)

Great choices of oily fish are wild salmon, sardines, mackerel, herring and trout. Vegetarian sources are walnuts, flaxseeds and chia seeds.

Try aromatherapy

There is growing concern that topical use of chemicals in our personal care products can make their way into our blood stream and cause allergies and reactions leading to an impaired immune system. I personal try to use non-toxic alternatives where possible.

I adore aromatherapy to naturally enhance my immune system, freshen and disinfect my home and build a natural defence barrier as a natural hand-wipe and to inhale when travelling on public transport, planes, visiting hospitals or crowded shopping areas.

Get your sunshine vitamin

In normal circumstances, sunshine, not food, is where most of your vitamin D comes from. So even a healthy, well-balanced diet, that provides all the other vitamins and nutrients you need, is unlikely to provide enough vitamin D if you aren’t able to get enough sun. People with vitamin D deficiency may need supplements. A review of 25 studies found vitamin D supplements can help protect against acute respiratory infections, particularly among people who are deficient. Take a walk in the sunshine daily for at least 10 minutes to keep that vitamin D topped up, if this is not possible, then take a look at supplementation.

A note on supplements. It’s important to consult your doctor if you’re already taking other medications before trying new additions to your regime. If you get the ‘all clear’ from them, you need to ensure that you source bona fide supplements. Barbara knows the exact ones to purchase for those who need an extra boost and might not have the time to research all the best products, manufacturing certificates of those products and EU compliance. Please contact her through www.barbaracox.me In the meantime, keep building that resilience.

Read more:
Five essential tips from leading nutritionist Barbara Cox to boost your immune system from covid

For people running businesses from home offices what is the reality of UV-C light as a Covid deterrent? Could it be a solution for the millions of UK SME’s?

With Covid lockdowns and precautions set to last at least another six months, UK businesses are having to get used to operating in a restricted and curtailed fashion. The challenge of keeping premises safe and clean is one that is testing organisations of every size. The use of UV light to disinfect against Covid has been talked about in the media – but only in relation to large-scale sites such as hospitals or airports. Little has been said about UV usage on a smaller scale. We investigate …

Official cleaning guidelines

The latest Government guidelines for businesses include advice on implementing social distancing, the usage of face coverings, the tracing of customers and other safety measures. There is also specific guidance re ‘cleaning the workplace’.  Advice regarding how to clean, depends on the type of business in question – the direction for restaurants and bars differs slightly to that for close contact services such as hairdressers and beauticians, for example. However, broadly speaking, guidance points to increased handwashing, provision of hand sanitiser, and making enough space to allow for ‘frequent cleaning, disinfection and sterilisation of work areas, tools and equipment between uses, using your usual cleaning products’.

This last point about using your usual cleaning products is interesting. The guidance here assumes firstly that these cleaning products will be readily available, which certainly was not the case during the height of the pandemic, and secondly that businesses have the capacity in terms of staff and time to conduct a deep-clean.

Like any manual process, the effectiveness of the deep clean will depend on how thorough and experienced the person doing the cleaning is. This is not to cast doubt on the good intentions of staff, rather, to acknowledge that thoroughly disinfecting any area is no easy task – particularly when it needs to be repeated daily, or even more frequently.

So what is UV-C light all about?

It’s important to note that it is UV-C light energy that has been shown to be beneficial, this is not the same as the UVA used in tanning beds or UVB which, as well as occurring naturally from sunlight exposure, is also used for curing within the dental industry. The size and cost of UV-C light solutions has previously been prohibitive to most organisations. Now, more portable lamp solutions are being developed, making this a solution that can work in any situation.

Businesses must be sure to research solutions thoroughly. A number of smaller, hand-held devices are currently flooding the market claiming to offer UV disinfection. However, these products are typically ineffective and, in fact, potentially do more harm than good if business owners believe their premises have been safely cleaned.

How does it work?

Generally speaking, UV light will kill microorganisms by damaging their DNA or RNA depending on the type of virus. The UV light breaks the microorganisms down on a molecular level, destroying existing bonds within the microorganisms and causing new ones to form. Once the microorganism’s DNA or RNA is severely damaged, it will no longer be able to function or survive. Portable UV-C light lamps can be plugged in, switched on and, within fifteen minutes, all viruses, bacteria and fungi within a defined area will be eliminated.

These UV-C light lamps are powerful, requiring users to leave the room while the lamp does its job. Remote control operation makes this an easy process. Additionally, air disinfection units are available which can remove harmful microbes from the air while rooms are still occupied.

Take-up amongst smaller businesses is quickly rising. Hertfordshire-based vet Lauren Hammond, who recently invested in UV solutions for her veterinary practice, comments: “We’re not replacing personal protective equipment with UV light, we’re adding extra layers of protection. UV is a very clever, safe and sensible idea that is saving our business time and, more importantly, helping our people and our visitors to feel less vulnerable.”

This sentiment is shared by Jennifer Green, a therapist based in Liverpool, who states: “We plug the lamp on and leave it in the room. Depending on the size of the room, the lamp will completely disinfect all surfaces in 15-30 minutes, meaning we can safely occupy that room and switch the lamp to another space. This investment was a response to the challenges of now. But it also enables us to future-proof against any future outbreaks or disruptions of a similar nature. That’s really reassuring.”

Could this help SME’s to get back to ‘normal’ and stay clean more easily?

Coronavirus is here to stay and businesses are looking to find solutions that enable a return to some semblance of normality. Manually cleaning premises is difficult, placing a strain on staff and resources. UV light – previously only a solution realistically affordable to larger-scale operations – is now portable, powerful and cost-effective for smaller businesses. Forward-thinking businesses are already benefitting.

Adapting his own business through covid to bring out portable devices for small areas and easier use, Keith Wyatt, director of UV Clean Light has pioneered the process in schools and hospitals to great success said: ‘We know it works, it physically destroys the covid virus on surfaces. We’re seen it work on a larger scale and have now opened up our products to be portable. It feels very good to have contributed something that has such a positive effect in these trying times.’

Have you had an experience with UV-C light in your business? Tell us about it. Contact cmartin@cbmeg.co.uk

Read more:
Can UV light protect your home office and business from covid?

Learn to recognise when your negative thoughts are holding you in a mental rut and instead move forwards with success

Vicky Stanton worked in both the private and public sectors in HR finishing her corporate career in the police service after many years. Knowing full well that HR were mostly called in to deal with the negative issues when they arise she wanted instead to empower people within their roles as business leaders and unblock the issues that she’d been privy to over the years. By asking the right questions she helps business owners become unstuck from the problems that bind them and instead move forwards confidently. If you’ve been feeling overwhelmed recently read on, one of these golden nuggets of advice might just be your meal ticket to getting going again …

Why do we get stuck or in a mental rut with our businesses?

One of the biggest reasons is fear: it’s the fear of change, the fear of failure or even the fear of success that can build up negative thoughts in our minds.

But people started up their businesses wanting to be successful – why does that fear hold them back?

Often when I start talking to clients it seems to be the fear of change more than the success; who will I be, will my friends treat me differently, do I need to change personally to accompany the success? Can I maintain the success? Will I be judged if I can’t?

Fear of failure is a big one, yet of course you can’t succeed if you don’t try, so by not taking any action you’re failing by default …

Yes absolutely. Fear of failure is paralysing and the amount of pressure we put on ourselves to succeed doesn’t help in the slightest. This notion of ‘one shot at success’ can prevent someone from leaping yet in actual fact you can keep re-trying. Often it can be linked to a confidence issue that may stem from a much earlier life incident. Someone repeatedly calling you ‘stupid’ when you were younger may harbour your initiative now. This kind of negative self talk can be so detrimental to your success. It’s vitally important to recognise it and talk to yourself like you are your best friend.

So how do we begin to see the warning signs that we might be stuck in a business confidence rut?

I think there’s eight quick fire signs of being stuck – let’s see if any of these sound familiar:

• Putting off a task? You don’t physically know how to do the task at hand – training or delegation is called for but it’s an effort that you want to delay for time or cost reasons, so you let it slide …
  
• Procrastination – suddenly it’s vital that the laundry is done or the kitchen cleaned or you’ll just get started after you’ve made a cuppa.
• Control – perhaps you’re in a situation where you’re trying to control something or someone that is uncontrollable and it’s making you feel frustrated and anxious.
• Instinct – perhaps you’re blocking a task or moving forwards because it just ‘doesn’t feel right’. This might be the right course of action but you don’t know what to do next.
• You’re confused without a clear, defined plan.
• Every business owner struggles with overwhelm at some point. Client stress, work demands, to-do lists, health and exercise, family obligations – having to often be more than one person on a team … the list is seemingly endless and the priorities all seem to bear down on us. making us feel completely and utterly powerless and stuck. This also leads onto the next aspect that can make us feel stuck …
• Perfectionism. Insanely debilitating, the feeling of ‘it’s never quite good enough’ harbours so many tasks from ever feeling 100% completed.
• Oddly the final aspect of being stuck is seemingly the opposite of all of the above – laziness. We’re wired to chill. Great, but success comes from taking action, so its really important to  find the time to really relax as well as the time to work.

So what can our readers action immediately to start ‘unsticking’ themselves and moving forwards with an element of calm and decisive action again?

I’d encourage everyone to revamp and refresh their plans. It’s been proven that our brains sees the benefits and value of actions for longer term benefits so the more you can plot, plan and visualise the future six months, year, five years the better and more focused you’ll feel.

• We need a plan of action when it comes to business. You’d never start driving in your car without knowing where you were going to or at least having a SatNav on hand and it’s the same in business. Taking time to plan and route your way to market can give you certainty and a level of focus that keep you on track even when things seem out of control.

• Have and use lists. Know what your one key action for the day is and list the other two or three afterwards. Even if you only manage one thing a day make sure it’s the most important one that will push you forwards. Setting task lists and goals will help to overcome the notion of perfectionism by keeping your time management for the completion of tasks dialled. Collaborating with someone who can honestly critique your work and tell you when it’s fantastic, will help build your confidence to know when to stop and be proud.

• When you hear yourself saying ‘I haven’t got the time’ or ‘I can’t do this’, ask yourself: ‘is it true’? Challenge your own thoughts and you’ll reprioritise your day.

• Trust your instincts – often in business we feel as though we have to do it because it’s our business and we should. However if it’s really not feeling right for you then just … don’t! Delegate the task or trust your gut instincts and think of another way round the problem.

• Complete control is unrealistic. Accept this. It’s essential that you learn to park any controlling kind of thoughts – Covid 19 has been the perfect example of this – so much has been out of our hands and we have literally only been able to focus and control on what we’re able to within our realm. Yet people have adapted and made some extraordinary things happen. Instead of worrying about control ask yourself what does this change make possible for me and what can I action to ensure it has a positive result.

• Start journaling.Writing regulates our emotions so get any worry, stress or concerns or possible plans and dreams out onto paper. From that moment on they’re not weighing you down any more so you can be free to rid yourself of them or action them if you need to. It’s a totally safe space to access your own wisdom.

• My final tip is to always plan tomorrow before today is finished. Before you close down for the day, write your list of your key actions for the next day. This way you know exactly what your first action is as you ‘arrive’ at work. No more faffing – just action.

Read more:
In a mental rut with your business? Let’s sort that out right now …

In today’s busy workplace it has almost become a badge of honour for some professionals to try and function while in a constant state of stress. The results, however, are poorer performance and illness.

Those wanting to get ahead should learn, instead, to manage stress and access their flow state, which can be achieved through self-hypnosis, as Harley Street clincial hypnotherapist Gail Marra explains…

“I am the greatest, I said that even before I was.” – Muhammad Ali

What does it take to be successful? You might fire off a string of words like, “intelligence, determination, motivation, drive, enthusiasm, confidence, self-belief.” And you would be right.

When you succeed at something, your brain releases the neurotransmitter dopamine, one of your ‘feel good’ chemicals which along with serotonin, oxytocin and endorphins, trigger the pleasure and reward centre of your brain. You feel happy and excited; life is good. a good surge of dopamine affects your movement, memory, and focus and helps you to stay at the top of your game.

Until life delivers an unexpected blow. Maybe a knockback, a disappointment, a criticism, a deal that falls out of bed, or an idea that you backed that didn’t back you. Taking a hit like this can have a detrimental effect on your self-confidence and self-esteem. That buzz you had when things were going well has been replaced with stress and anxiety; the adrenaline that was once your friend is now your arch nemesis. And so rather than falling apart, how can you keep it together?

First and foremost, breathe. For those of you who are rolling your eyes right now, bear with me. When you are under pressure, stressed or anxious, you shallow breathe. You breathe into the upper part of your chest, taking in less oxygen and increasing your levels of carbon dioxide.

Now, we are pre-programed to shallow breathe when the sympathetic nervous system is stimulated; in other words, our ‘fight or flight’ response. Fight or flight is needed for short, temporary bursts of energy. For example, early man comes face to face with a sabre-toothed tiger; fight or flight response is activated. Man either takes the tiger on or flees from it. After the situation has been avoided or averted, calm is restored and early mangoes back to feeling calm. The problem with many professional people today is that they remain in this heightened state of alertness for so long that it becomes a habit. The human body is not designed to be in a constant state of stress and as has been proven, chronic stress is the cause of many diseases that can bring even the mightiest tumbling down.

Deep diaphragmatic breathing—or abdominal breathing—on the other hand, is our natural breath. A fine example of this is if you were to observe the steady rhythmic breath of a newborn baby. Babies naturally breathe by using their diaphragm, a muscle under the lungs that pulls oxygen into the body. Their stomach expands as they breathe in through their nose and as they exhale, their stomach contracts.

Deep diaphragmatic breathing lowers your blood pressure, reduces your heart rate, relaxes your muscles, decreases stress hormones, releases your ‘feel good’ chemicals, and increases energy levels. What’s not to like?

I know that in business, time is of the essence. I hear people all the time saying, “I don’t have time for that. I’m too busy. I have a deadline.” Well, the great news is that in order to feel the effect and experience the calming benefits of deep breathing you only need to find 60 seconds. That’s right. All it takes is five cycles of deep diaphragmatic breathing over the space of one minute to stimulate your parasympathetic nervous system—the opposite to fight or flight—and, just like early man, calm is restored.

Try taking this a little further into the realms of self-hypnosis.

Self-hypnosis is a way in which to reprogram your subconscious mind—thoughts, feelings and behaviours—and has been a secret weapon for successful people around the world for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. CEOs, entrepreneurs, celebrities and elite athletes use it all the time, and often without even realising it. When you are in a state of focused attention—often described as ‘the zone’ or ‘the flow’—or are so engrossed in what you’re doing that everything else seems to fade into the background, then you are in a hypnotic trance. It is in this space, or more accurately, this brainwave frequency, that you can get to work rewiring your subconscious mind. But how?

Visualise

The language of the subconscious mind is imagery and emotion. Words and affirmations are simply not enough to evoke the power of your subconscious mind. Repeating words like, “I am successful” when the emotion or feeling behind the words are, “Things always go wrong for me” or “I’m no good at this”, will be a fruitless exercise. Instead, try aligning your emotions with your vision of success, as though it has already happened. This is known as mental rehearsal and it’s key to success. I’m sure you’ll agree, there are not many people out there who have visualised failure and gone on to succeed.

In my book ‘Health, Wealth & Hypnosis – The way to a beautiful life’, I write in more depth on the subject and the art of self-hypnosis.

At my clinic in London’s Harley Street, I work with aspiring and already successful individuals who, by taking control of their subconscious mind, have gone on to create and enjoy the life of their dreams. With this same knowledge, and with practice, there’s no reason why you can’t achieve the same.

Health, Wealth & Hypnosis by Gail Marra is released on July 31^st, 2020, published by That Guy’s House. It is available for pre-order now on Amazon, priced £9.99 in paperback, £12.99 in hardcover and £7.99 as an eBook. For more information, visit www.gailmarrahypnotherapy.com

Read more:
De-stress to success through self-hypnosis

It would be easy to read off a list and say, “do these five things and all will be alright”. Sadly, mental health isn’t like that.

Everyone has their own journey to undertake and their own paths to follow. Even the people trying to act as guides or help others along their path need to follow their own at times.

Remember that this isn’t just about employees; this includes employers, management, leadership and everyone in between. Mental health and our wellbeing is important to us all! Also, don’t expect complicated psychology or neuroscience. There’s none of that here. Well, at least not from me, I’m an accountant!

I share what I’ve learned from my lived experience; a lived experience that I almost stopped living by my own decision. These are simply ideals I feel we should all try to live by in our lives, whether at work or at home. Live by them. Preferably don’t die by them! But remember them as you go about your life, regardless of whether you’re an employer or employee, regardless of whether we’re in lockdown or back to ‘normal’.

It all starts with Communication.

Everything always does. What is important about communication is that it’s open and two way. You need to be willing and able to share, just as well as you need to be willing and able to listen. You need to be receptive towards all topics of conversation and happy to discuss as much as you can. People struggling with their mental health may not always follow logical lines; tangents happen often. Everything they talk about will be important to them in some way, so please listen and be considerate.

Next follows the Respect that each person deserves.

There’s a line from a song that always gets me; “The frightened fall as often, yet far closer than the brave”. We believe, in general, that being brave is a strength and that being frightened is a weakness, but that simply isn’t the case.

Opening up and talking about your real self, your real feelings, admitting you are frightened, scared, struggling and having a hard time, and sharing that with a somewhat-stranger is actually being incredibly strong. Admitting that need for help and support is frightening, but in that fear, you find true bravery! Respect that those sharing their struggles with you, also struggled to find the courage to share!

These are the conversations we want to be happening, but the only way we can encourage them is by showing Vulnerability.

Stepping out of the employer-employee relationship for a bit and just into being people; who are you most likely to open up to and speak honestly with; the armour-clad, emotionless, near-perfect demi-god? Or, the ‘other guy’ who has the same fears, frailties and insecurities as the ones inside of you?

For decades we have raised the former to the tops of organisations, but only now are we discovering that real leadership, true leadership, comes from the latter. Being vulnerable, sharing and talking about how you, yourself, are struggling, will help encourage others to talk themselves and empower you to better help them on their journey.

Acceptance is one of the hardest lessons in life and it is no different here.

I find it hard to explain properly without referring to the words that kept me going; “It’s not what I wanted. It’s not what I planned. It’s not where I thought I’d be. It’s just where I am.” Life happens. It just does. You cannot control everything. And even when you can control everything, you can still lose. That isn’t failure. It is just life!

When people are struggling with their mental health, often they can find themselves looking into the past, or staring into the future and merely ‘surviving’ the present. Helping someone through these times is about helping them let go of ‘what was’ and ‘what can be’ and helping them see ‘what is’. This is particularly important now, during lockdown, when there is just so much uncertainty in the world.

Finally, and this is the most important, do all the above Every Day.

Do them all regardless of whether someone is struggling. Having good communication, showing people respect, being vulnerable and helping people accept life, all cost absolutely nothing but are invaluable!

We all crave these things in our life, whether struggling or not, so forget about being an employer or an employee and just focus on being a person helping another person. We are all just people after all.

Andy Salkeld is just another guy. He is also a finance director, mental health advocate and author of Life is a Four-Letter Word: A Mental Health Survival Guide for Professionals – available from 14 May 2020 on amazon.co.uk.

Read more:
Five ways to help employees struggling with mental health

Video chat has always existed.  But right now, we’re relying on it more than ever. We do our work there. We speak to family there.  We see our friends there.

But do you ever notice how exhausted you feel when you get off video chat? Is putting up with screen freezes, accidental microphone incidents, and strange background noises that tiring?

How does it differ from face-to-face communication?

It is thought that using video calling apps requires much more focus than face-to-face conversations. Our brains must work harder to process non-verbal behaviour such as facial expressions, body language and voice intonation. This consumes more of our energy. Partnered with the fact that although mentally and emotionally we are engaging with others, our bodies are not, and our minds can’t trick out bodies into feeling this way. This creates conflicting feelings which can be exhausting for us to experience.

The technology behind it also comes into play. For example, silences in face-to-face contact provide a natural flow for organic conversation. However when this happens over online conversations, we worry that there might be issues with the technology. To avoid talking over the top of somebody, we often wait longer once they’ve fallen quiet, before we begin to speak which also creates lengthy, sometimes uncomfortable pauses.

Finally, there’s the visual element. Although we are physically present in natural conversations, when we’re on camera, we’re very aware of having an audience- even if it is only one person. You know that everybody’s looking at you.  Many people feel as if they are performing which creates an even more anxious and stressful experience. I’ve had video chats with people who say they struggle not to look at their own face when they see it on the screen. Most of us will definitely become more aware of our behaviour.

Has the pandemic affected this?

The short answer is yes. Of course, the use of video calling apps bring more stressors than face-to-face conversations, however if you’re feeling exhausted after them, there are probably other factors at play.

Many people may be experiencing stress and anxiety as a result of the lockdown. Video calls can become a constant reminder of your life pre-pandemic. Of course, there is much sadness and upset in the news right now, but that shouldn’t undermine the things you’ve lost that were important to you. Simple things like seeing your colleague come into work or having a chat in the break room. Each time you come into contact with that person on Skype or Zoom, it’s a reminder of what things were like before. This can cause distress for many as we’re again, forced to face the disruption that has affected our daily lives.

It’s also important to consider that due to the pandemic, every aspect of our lives takes place in the same space. Work, friends, family. Our old lives were filled with variety. A variety of people and a variety of places. Our days now are almost identical. We might struggle to switch off from work and fully engage with our family and friends when they call, leaving us vulnerable to negative emotions.  We’re confined to one space with only a computer screen available for interaction.  There’s also the fact that our downtime might suffer as a result of work and family commitments as well as the time spent worrying over our health and our economy.  This can be another factor adding to our exhaustion.

But what about fun video calls?

I know many people are interacting with groups of friends and family members through virtual dinners, catch-ups or birthday parties. These are events that should cause a lot of joy. But we’re still feeling tired. This might be to do with the feelings of obligation. Even if it’s something you want to do, and you enjoy at the time, the likelihood is that you’ve had to schedule it ahead of time and planned for whatever activity is taking place.

This increases the amount of time you feel switched on, increasing feelings of fatigue. It’s important then to engage in video calls where you feel you can completely be yourself. You don’t have to put an act on, or ‘perform’ as it is. The experience will feel more natural and joyful.

You should also be aware of the fact that the tools we are using for video chats are ones that we’ve come to associate with work. You’ve probably never relied on Skype and Zoom in your personal life. You might not even be conscious of this, but the likelihood is that your brain has developed a connection between these tools and work which might explain why you feel tired even logging in.

How do I fix the problem?

• Limit video calls to those that are necessary. Only use the camera if you feel comfortable to do so. Eliminating an audience can cause people to feel more relaxed. There should be an understanding with the group that cameras do not always have to be on if they don’t need to be.
• If your camera is on, try adjusting the camera angle so that your screen is off to your side. This can create the feeling of an adjoining room as opposed to staring at someone straight on which can be quite unnatural in a working environment.
• Consider using other tools that might be more efficient for work such as shared files in Google Drive. Documents can be edited, viewed and commented on by others in the group, and can avoid information overload.
• Dedicate time to small talk. Now that we’re doing business on screens, many of us get straight into the meeting. You should make time at the start of meetings to engage in chit chat with your colleagues and have general catchups that aren’t always centred around work. This can help to feel reconnected as a team again and reduce fatigue.
• Include transition periods between meetings. These can help employees to feel refreshed. Encourage exercise or going off to have a drink. Even stepping outside for some fresh air. It’s vital to set boundaries and create buffers between our professional identities and our personal ones.
• If we’re talking about personal video calls, maybe consider using an alternate method. It would be difficult to substitute large group chats, but in the case of a one-on-one conversation, try writing a letter which allows you to be completely away from your screen. Writing is thought to make us feel more relaxed when it involves the physical act of putting pen to paper. It’s also a very touching thing to receive as you appreciate the time and care it takes to do it.

Although lockdown might be easing off, we are still not able to meet up with loved ones and probably won’t be for the near future. Our reliance on apps such as Skype and Zoom will continue so I hope these tips are useful for staying connected with friends, colleagues and relatives throughout this difficult time.

I am still offering walk-and-talk sessions which can take place over the phone or via Skype or Zoom. Our conversation will allow you to talk through the challenges you’re facing professionally and personally. I am here to listen to what you’re going through and provide confidential help and support.

Continue to look after yourselves and to look after those around you.

Read more:
Ever feel tired on video chat? Here’s why

Introversion is a personality type that typically characterises an individual who prefers a more solitary and subdued experience.

This isn’t however, to be confused with shyness or loneliness, which can be often characterised incorrectly as. Those who identify and reflect with this personality type are likely to take joy from their own company and inner world as opposed to busy social events which may over stimulate their nervous system.

Typically, they will often prefer environments which are calmer and more reflective, which allows them to thrive. However, it is worth noting that we are, by nature, a social species to some extent. This doesn’t mean that introverts don’t enjoy or need the company of others but are likely to experience this in ways which are often 1 on 1, or more individualised.

The terms ‘introversion’ and ‘extroversion’ were popularised by the Carl Jung who defined them as more of an attitude type, extroversion being characterised as interested in the external object and the introvert interested in the subjective, internal world.

How has remote working impacted introvert personalities?

Kirsty Lilley, mental health specialist at CABA, the wellbeing charity explains that getting used to working remotely and the reduction in physical and social contact, will take time, for some more than others. It is likely that introverts will prefer this style of working, potentially blossoming as they work at their own pace without interruptions or over-stimulation but, the additional demands to take part in video meetings and calls may prove quite stressful for an introvert or they may not engage beyond dialling in.

There can be a sense of pressure to ‘perform’ and engage in large group video meetings, and it isn’t always possible to have a direct and meaningful conversation with every participant. This may prove overwhelming and for some, over stimulating, particularly those with introverted characteristics. Speaking up and sharing comments within online spaces can be stressful and tiring for many people – especially introverts, and research has suggested that we pay attention to stimuli in a slightly different way within online communication. This can result in people becoming hypervigilant to social cues as we are missing the ‘in the room’ visceral sense of another person. The brain’s job is to respond to the environment and scan for cues of relational safety, which is of course harder to do when we may not be able to see other participants faces during online interaction. Add to that the social pressure to be ‘positive’ and ‘motivated’ during lockdown and the online world may be a challenge for many to be their authentic best self.

There is some research to suggest that introverts are more reflective by nature, consider data more thoughtfully and this can be of great benefit to business and organisation. Motivation which is fuelled on inner reliance and preparation is a great asset within the workplace and the ability to take in different perspectives also a much-needed skill. Introverts can also make good listeners and tend to exude a calm and steady presence. With things moving at such speed in the present ‘always on’ culture the ability to stay focused and attentive is a great asset, especially in an age of constant distraction and over stimulation. It’s certainly essential for workplaces to have a wide variety of personality types which offer diversity of thought and opinion.

How can employers and managers support introverts in our new remote working environment?

It’s well known that the key influence on a persons’ wellbeing and performance within the workplace is the quality of the relationship with the line manager. Enabling introverts to play to their key strengths and work in a style and at a pace that suits them as much as possible are key ways of ensuring we continue to get the best from our people. Having open, honest and meaningful dialogue is essential and building meaningful and respectful relationships is cructial, especially at a time when we are socially apart in many ways.

Honest communication is vital to help a person prepare for how they may deal with any alterations and changes to working practices. Perhaps try and limit the number of online meetings for the entire team and look at how each member will be able to get involved. Ask about methods and frequency of workplace communication and checking in with people in a way that they feel comfortable with and supported. It’s important for a manager or leader to avoid assuming they know how well their employees are getting on.

Employers also need to provide clear expectations of what is to be reasonably expected of their employees during this time. Laying ground rules for online group interactions with the whole team and avoiding putting people on the spot without preparation will go a long way in ensuring the comfort of all involved. Having the courage to ask individuals what they are finding most difficult at this time, what support they might need and how you might work together to ensure that things run smoothly is vital in building up meaningful and responsive workplace relationships.

Keeping an eye on your employees

The key to noticing whether an employee needs any additional support during this time is to pay attention to any changes in the individuals’ typical behaviour patterns and workplace performance. Is the individual withdrawing more than usual? Is it more difficult to maintain contact via the usual helpful channels? Do you notice that they are uncomfortable with an increased number of online meetings? Or just not engaging?

Rather than looking for ‘signs’ it’s important that we strive to create an environment where individuals feel able to share their concerns, worries and individual working preferences. Whilst it’s important to focus on the individual, it’s also vital that we acknowledge the environment in which they are operating and offer support and understanding about those issues too.

Read more:
How can we support introverted employees during lockdown?

Many employees are now being forced to work from home and physically isolate themselves from friends and colleagues, this has resulted in loneliness for many.

However according to new research from Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM) there are ways to stop us from feeling so lonely.

According to PhD candidate Hodar Lam, Professor Steffen Giessner and Dr Meir Shemla, working from home can make us more efficient. But it’s the face-to-face interactions and opportunities to give, support and help our colleagues or clients that make our work meaningful.

They have provided four tips that can help to prevent loneliness while working from home:

Engage in self-disclosure. Sharing your feelings and information is a powerful way to maintaining relationships at work. The more you share with your colleagues and your supervisors – for example talking about your worries about the current situation – the more likely you will feel connected and authentic. But be careful; sharing information that disrupts the way others have usually seen you may backfire. Appropriate, ethical disclosure is key.

Create meaning in virtual work. Are you starting to feel bored by working on tasks in front of the computer? By focusing on the needs and feelings of others, you can add meaning to your work relationships and pay less attention to thoughts and emotions that trigger loneliness. You can reach out to your colleagues, give some support or advice, and say thank you to those who have been nice and helpful to you at work. Ask yourself and your colleagues why they do the work they do. This way you can create meaning. Realise and appreciate that you are doing important work – whether it’s from home or the office.

Reminisce about the good old times. Studies have found that recollecting the positive incidents helps reduce loneliness. The next time you feel lonely working from home, try recalling a happy outing with your colleagues or eat something you might eat in the office canteen – our brains automatically associate comfort food with meaningful relationships. You may also share these “old” stories and pictures with your colleagues on socializing platforms – for the sake of
nostalgia.

Know what your tasks are. At home, we are easily distracted. And if you are uncertain about your role in your team, you may feel helpless when isolated in remote working conditions. In other words, you need to know what your tasks are and how they contribute to your team work. If you are feeling uncertain about your tasks, duties, and responsibilities right now, ask your supervisor to clarify your role in the current working conditions.

“When we work remotely for a long period of time, we lose the vast majority of our spontaneous interactions with others. Non-verbal information from virtual work interactions is limited. For example, we can’t see a friendly smile or a worrying frown through email exchanges and instant messaging. These signals, provide strong socio-emotional values to keep us feel connected. In addition, the COVID-19 crisis requires us to keep any social face-to-face contact to the minimum. So, not surprisingly, feeling lonely at home is now more likely. No one is an island. It is normal to feel lonely while working from home, as loneliness is a signal reminding us to stay connected. And we can stay connected, be it at the office or online,” says Professor Steffen Giessner

Read more:
How to combat loneliness caused by the COVID-19 crisis

Amid all the lockdown uncertainty, the one constant throughout this challenging period for businesses has been the need to quickly adapt to significantly disruptive change.

And in order to successfully promote the mental and physical wellbeing of employees, it is more important than ever that employers adapt to this change far quicker than they expect their workers to.

In fact, a recent report from the Institute for Employment Studies (IES) has revealed the UK workforce unsurprisingly has many issues weighing heavy on its mind, and that there is still a measurable proportion of workers that are struggling with the transition almost two months into lockdown.

More than half of the survey respondents reported new aches and pains related to home working, with 64% reporting a loss of sleep due to worry and 48% reporting working patterns that include long and irregular hours.

The report also showed that a third of employees are eating a less healthy diet, and as much as 60% acknowledged that they are exercising less. But perhaps most worrying of all, half of all respondents reported being unhappy with their current work/life balance; with a third feeling isolated, and 21% worried about job security.

Top takeaways for employers to consider

Based on these findings, the report has suggested the following actions for employers:
• Ensure that the home office set-up is safe and ergonomic and that employees are mobile and undertake regular exercise
• Provide mental health support via informal messaging groups, virtual coffee mornings, access to assistance programmes and via regular contact with bosses and colleagues
• Focus on ‘high risk’ groups – financial concerns, eldercare, those struggling to adjust, those prone to feelings of isolation, those at risk of domestic abuse
• Rethink performance targets and monitoring, involve employees in decisions about reorganising work and reallocating tasks and priorities

The growing importance of forward planning to pre-empt major change

The first step to adapting to change is forward-planning, and to have an agile and flexible business model that is able to seamlessly implement major changes with minimal disruption. Modern businesses at the head of the pack would have already ensured that all staff have access to the data and systems that they require to do their jobs proficiently from their home office setup.

This includes cloud-based software that creates a virtual office environment for remote working. Another key aspect for any IT department is to ensure that all other operational tools and procedures are all set up in such a way that they can be accessed and worked upon remotely, i.e. desk phones should be routed through mobile apps, and a VPN should be ready to access.

It is also essential to regularly test disaster recovery systems in order to ensure that any fundamental flaws are identified and addressed to enable an entire workforce to work remotely at the drop of a hat. But it goes beyond that. When it comes to remote working, employers should enable their staff to replicate the office environment, by encouraging them to take as much office equipment as they need to make their home offices more comfortable.

Of course, this is just the first step in a marathon to regularly gauge and monitor employee wellbeing and happiness.

Remote support

Once the systems and processes are in place and work well in theory it is essential to remember that it may be difficult for staff to adapt to the new set-up, from an emotional and physical perspective. For this reason, any employer’s focus on staff wellbeing should be stronger than ever and in this period of remote and virtual living, companies should take extra steps to make sure that remote and virtual emotional support platforms are accessible to all of their staff members.

An effective approach could be to offer confidential online access to Q&As with a certified therapist, emotional coaching sessions, and online therapy sessions if the need arises. To keep employees happy and productive, another useful tool to strike the right balance is continuous performance management software that enables remote workers to rate how they are feeling to provide line managers with more context and a better overview of the performance of an employee that they do not engage with regularly on a face-to-face basis.
This approach will enable senior management to analyse data and to spot trends that could assist them in painting a clearer picture of who may fall into a high-risk group, and to take the appropriate action to assist them in a discreet and professional manner. What’s more, it also helps managers to determine whether performance targets are fit for purpose or whether they need to be relooked and adapted to reflect the current conditions employees are working under.

A work / life balance is difficult to maintain when at home on an almost 24/7 basis. As a result, regular breaks away from the screen to spend quality time with loved ones should also be encouraged. And to get fitness levels up while encouraging some good-natured competition, employees should be motivated to join social fitness networks too.

The future of work

Very few would debate the fact that almost every single worker in the UK has had to dramatically adapt their lifestyle and routine to accommodate a new work / life balance amid the Coronavirus lockdown. From my own personal experience, I have learnt that if you do it properly, home working really does work just as effectively as onsite working and when we finally come out of lockdown, Tempcover will certainly consider the remote working option, while always placing the health and wellbeing of our employees at the top of every decision that we make.

About the author
In 2006, Alan Inskip had a lightbulb moment – an insurance provider that can offer truly flexible cover for the time drivers actually need. No long-term commitment, no auto-renewals, just the cover they want for the time they need. The UK’s first InsurTech company, Tempcover, was born the next day. Alan sets himself apart from other InsurTech business leaders, as he is an experienced insurance broker whose parents spent more than 40 years in the industry too. As a result, Alan has since grown the business into a market-leader and is today responsible for overseeing company strategy, policy and performance.

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Taking a proactive approach to mental and physical wellbeing of employees in a time of isolation

It’s important to know how to manage the morale of your team and the ups and downs that will come your way during the current pandemic.

Nothing like this has been seen before which means we’re in unchartered territory. How do we recover? How do we plan for the future? How can we support our employees when we don’t have the facts ourselves?

During economic low points, businesses are likely to downsize and rationalise their operations in order to make it through. Some of these changes will surely be up to you to make – if not, to deliver and explain to the rest of your team.

What Can You Do?

Managing people during difficult times can be a tricky task, however following tried-and-tested strategies, you can help to keep your team and your business on track and moving forwards.

 Communication is Critical

If you’re a manager trying to navigate through rough waters, the one thing you want to avoid is fighting against the rumour mill. Uncertainty can cause stress for many people as well as anxiety, worry and fear. It is said that people would rather face risk than ambiguity. We’re creatures of habit and when that habit is disrupted, we look for something to fill the void – even if the information is false or grasped out of thin air. If this is not dealt with swiftly, rumours can spread dangerously through the organisation.

The best thing to do is to keep your staff in the know and listen attentively to them.  Not every manager is a good listener but the good news is that this is a skillset that can be taught.  Even no news can be worth reporting. Be open about the state of the business and the plans for the future (even if there aren’t any yet). Attempts at playing things down or sugar-coating can build distrust among your team.

Never put off relaying negative news. Withholding information or avoiding addressing things directly makes it look as if you have more to hide. Try addressing your whole team as one and allow them to ask questions. They will appreciate being kept informed and will leave with a greater sense of understanding of the situation and respect for you as their manager.

Although it is likely that your team may experience disappointment during this time, allowing negativity to persist is unproductive and will greatly impact the morale and mood of the team. Try to steer the conversation into something more positive, or at least something that is within their power – and yours – to change. This will help your employees to feel a sense of control that they’re likely lacking right now.

Morale is a Must

Morale is one of those things we talk about and might not really appreciate how vital it is to the functioning of a team and a business. Morale is the confidence and enthusiasm of your team, and it greatly impacts employee relations, productivity and trust.

You want to focus on keeping spirits high without avoiding the difficult conversations that may need to be had. Morale is often impacted by stress. It is when employees are stressed that they worry about their job security, they might doubt the managers capabilities and their work suffers as their time and energy is devoted to over-analysing the situation.

You should know – and also make sure that your team know the warning signs to look out for if an employee is suffering from stress. Here are some of the most common signs:

• Not concentrating and making mistakes
• Increased incidence of mistakes and work errors
• Poor decision making
• Frequency and content of communication deteriorates
• Productivity falls
• Increased incidence of mental health issues

If your company is one that is remaining social through virtual group activities, you might identify a team member isolating themselves from these.

If you notice these signs in any of your employees – or maybe even recognise them in yourself- then it is time to involve Human Resources to make sure the stress they’re experiencing is managed and resolved. But for your team as a whole, how can you truly boost morale in the midst of a crisis like the one we’re facing now?

Here are some suggestions…

• Many surveys show that employees are willing to take pay cuts in exchange for more time off. If you’ll need to trim budgets, consider asking your staff if they would be willing to take this course of action. Of course, days off right now aren’t exactly going to go towards holidays abroad, but as working from home can be challenging for many, this could be an attractive option. If you’re colleagues are struggling to work from home, my guide to remote working shares my best tips for staying productive and focused.

• Although many of us around the country are working from our homes, we tend to stick to our 9-5pm day as closely as possible. Consider being more flexible with the times that your employees can work. As long as they’re present for online meetings and video calls, allowing them to work best to their schedule at home can increase efficiency and productivity, bearing in mind that some employees may be caring for children or have other commitments and priorities to uphold. Increasing the length of lunch breaks can also prove effective as it gives people enough time to get some exercise, fresh air and relax before returning to work with a clear and focused mind.

• Now more than ever, people need to feel valued. They want to know that they have a purpose and that their efforts are worthwhile. Remember to show people that they matter. Give praise and rewards and do so in front of the rest of the team to give them the recognition they deserve. Remember the power in a simple thank you – it can make someone’s day and lift their spirits. Give your employees greater opportunities to make a difference to the company and have an impact by inviting them to share their opinions and ideas with the group.

Focus is First Concern

Your team will be facing many distractions right now. Physical distractions whilst working from home, and emotional ones such as the worry for their jobs and the future amidst such uncertain and unprecedented times.

So, how will you ensure that your employees stay concentrated on their tasks?

• Lead by example. A team looks to their manager for guidance. Stay focused yourself and uphold the standard of behaviour that you wish to see in them. Give them a model to replicate and a level to aspire to. Focusing on your work and showing that you’re in control of your tasks might also give hope to your team and calm their fears.

• Goal-setting. Right now is a time when people need to be kept busy. If they’re not, minds will wander, and people might find themselves over-analysing and worrying about the crisis we’re facing. Make sure you set specific tasks to achieve with strict deadlines. People crave order and routine – especially when they feel they lack control over their own lives. Give them something real to devote their attention to.

• Help them to remember that although we’re facing challenging times, things will not be this way forever. Busts are often followed by booms. The cycle goes on and one. Without dismissing anyone’s feelings or undermining the situation, talk about the fact that this will eventually be over. Be hopeful and keep perspective.

Where do you go from here?

Being a manager is not always easy and being a manger during Covid-19 can be even more challenging.  You not only need to look after yourself, but you also need to look after the needs of your team.

You will need the knowledge to identify the early warning signs of stress and the ability to attentively listen to your employees.

Hard – no!  Easy to implement – yes! Do you have the skills to do this?  Don’t worry – get in touch with me for a free consultation.

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Managing during a crisis

I’ve written about task and communication overload in the modern workplace many times before.

I call it Corporate Whack-Attack. It often feels as though we’re playing the Whack-a-Mole game that you see at fair grounds and amusement parks.

COVID-19, and the sudden shift to mass homeworking, has just created Extreme Whack-Attack.

In the past few days, I’ve noticed people getting over-whelmed with the sheer volume of messages that are coming at us through multiple channels. You’re probably a member of more WhatsApp groups than ever before, and they’re probably busier than they were two weeks ago.

Your inbox is probably getting busier. You’ve no doubt got more instant messages, MS Teams notifications, Trello notifications, Zoom invites etc, etc.

It’s hard to keep up with everything, right?

And whilst we feel like we’re drowning in this sea of communication overload, we perpetuate the problem by sending more and more messages ourselves.

Where are you up to on X? Can I get a status update on Y? Hey, check out this funny video someone just sent me on WhatsApp…

And then we get frustrated when people don’t respond to us as quickly as we’d like, on what’s important to us, at that moment in time.

A friend and supplier to my business made a very generous offer to everyone in a particular WhatsApp group that I’m a member of last week. He essentially offered to help us for free, or defer payment, on anything that would help us or help us better serve our clients.

I completely missed his message, as did everyone else in the group. I only spotted it days later, completely buried in the conversation thread; and I felt really bad. It felt like I’d just been completely ignorant and kicked sand in his face.

What was worse, was that everyone else in the group missed the message too.

As leaders, we need to be aware of this and take action. We need to demonstrate Communication Empathy by focusing on three key areas.

Communicating mindfully

Ensuring our teams feel connected whilst working remotely in these uncertain times is critically important, so yes, we do need to communicate more. (Watch my video about leading remote teams in uncertain times here.)

It’s also important to maintain morale, have fun and occasionally share some of those amusing memes that we’re seeing. And at the same time, we must be mindful of not sending so many messages that we add to people’s stress and anxiety.

Be patient…not demanding

Everyone has a lot going on right now.

Our team members may be self-isolating or shopping for friends and family who are. They may be worried about their health or that of a loved one. They may be juggling their work, their partner’s work and trying to home school their children (that’s my particular reality right now).

All of this means that people may not respond to us as quickly as we would like them to. It also means that the emails and messages will get missed.

Be patient. Give people time.

Be empathetic…not angry

If you offer to help someone and they don’t respond, it can feel like they’ve kicked sand in your face. When we’re feeling anxious and stressed ourselves the natural, instinctive response can so easily be “well screw you, that’s the last time I offer to help”.

But that person may be just like me…and you. They may have just missed your message due to communication overwhelm. Or they may have read it, planning to respond later but got side-tracked by something else.

In all of these circumstances, stay empathetic.

Be understanding.

Be a leader.

Read more:
Communication Empathy

As a former Captain in the British Army, I have led people in life or death situations.

Now as a leadership mentor and performance coach I have put together some strategies to help you lead your teams better as we all adapt our way of working.

Rise Early

The way we start our day determines how our days unfold. Rise early and create your own, personal morning routine that will set you up for success. It could be running, a few stretches or yoga poses, mindfulness, journaling or simply planning your day before others start placing demands upon your time.

Exercise

Research tells us that the optimal amount of exercise for maintaining good mental health is just three or four sessions of 45 minutes per week. This could be a jog, virtual yoga, a HIIT session or just a brisk walk.

Routine and structure

Every decision that we take during the day draws upon our limited cognitive bandwidth. Having a routine reduces decision fatigue, thus allowing us to apply our full decision making abilities to the most important challenges. It will also help us adjust when the world goes back to normal, whatever and whenever that will be.

Shop well, eat well

Will power is like cognitive bandwidth in that it’s a limited resource. The more we exercise it, the weaker it becomes. If our cupboards are full of crisps, biscuits and chocolate we’ll eat them (and feel more tired). If the junk food isn’t there, we can’t eat it.

Turn off notifications

You’ve probably never had so many messages coming at you as you do during the COVID-19 lockdown. There are WhatsApp groups for work, friends, family and school. Then there’s MS Teams, Email, Slack, Trello, Messenger, Zoom calls etc. It’s a communication tidal wave. Turn off as many notifications as you possibly can and check them on your terms.

Limit your news

The Media Psychology effect describes how the media we consume impacts on our mental health, well-being and productivity. With that in mind, limit the amount of media that you consume each day and ensure you’re only paying attention to credible sources.

Audit your social media

There are some truly heart-warming stories about acts of service and human kindness on social media right now. There is also a lot of scaremongering and fake news. The solution is to avoid the channels and people that drain your energy and seek out those that lift you up.

Clear you desk

The start and end of the working day can be a little fuzzy right now, which has an impact on our productivity and well-being. Where possible, close the door to the home office or clear your work things off the dining room table. Having the laptop out of sight really does help get work out of mind for a few hours.

Re-calibrate

Everyone’s COVID-19 experience is a little different. Whilst some are finding that they have more time, I’m finding that juggling my work, my wife’s work and looking after out daughter means we have less time. Everything seems to take a little bit longer and feels a little bit harder. I’m trying to re-calibrate my expectations as opposed to fighting them.

Pause to plan

This has never been so important. Back to back Zoom calls and the communications tidal wave mean that if we don’t start each day with fifteen minutes of planning, we’ll simply spend the entire day reacting to everyone else’s priorities.

Mono-task

Multi-tasking isn’t actually possible. When we think we’re multi-tasking, we’re actually in a process of continual task switching, and every time we switch task we leave a little of our attention and energy on the previous task. It’s called attention residue.

(Try to) be fully present

This one is tough, but it’s worth trying. Do your best to be fully present in each moment. When you need to work, do all you can to be fully focused on the work. When you’re with your children or partner, do all that you can to close the laptop and put the phone away so that you can be fully present with them. When you do, you’ll experience some wonderful moments that would otherwise be missed.

Have a digital sunset

Replicate the setting of the sun each day with your technology. Close the laptop when your work is done. Put the mobile and tablet away an hour before you go to sleep. Turn off the television. Relax, read and enjoy a good night’s sleep.

Wobble freely

We’re all human. We’ll all have bad days. We’ll all have a wobble from time to time. We’ll all snap at our children, partners or work colleagues. We’ll feel that lockdown life is getting on top of us. And that’s ok… because we’re all human beings navigating a totally new way of life.

Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash

Read more:
14 Strategies for leading in lockdown

In attempts to keep to the government’s advice, many companies are turning towards remote working in order to delay the spreading of COVID-19 whilst allowing employees to keep up to date with their tasks.

How many times have you said to yourself ‘gosh, I’d love to work from home’? You fantasise about working from your bed – still in your pyjamas perhaps – and swapping your commute for a longer lie in. But is remote working all it’s cracked up to be?

Well, it can be difficult to focus as you’re surrounded by more distractions without a manager watching your every move. Plus, many remote workers will often tell you about how much they miss the social interaction within an office environment. It can become easy to feel down and isolated when there’s no one around to socialise with.

The pros and cons of remote working

–        No commute. You can literally wake up and get straight to work- eliminating the amount of time you waste travelling into work and the costs associated with that.

–        Costs. For the employer costs will be saved on renting office space, electricity, air-conditioning, heating and equipment.

–        Flexibility. Remote working means that employees can set their own hours and breaks, whenever they need to, provided all the required work is completed. In general, staff are happier in being more able to control their work-life balance.

Disadvantages

–        Lack of face-to-face contact. Those who enjoy social interaction with their co-workers will lose this aspect. No coffee machine chats and interactive conversation time when walking down the corridor.

–        Long hours. We can be contactable 24 hours per day and if we don’t have the self-discipline NOT to look at our emails every minute, then we are continually on ‘duty’. And even if you do have this discipline, it could be that your boss requires to contact you at any hour, so there can be a challenge here.

–        Distractions. You may have to deal with friends who drop in for a chat, house repairs, children or domestic items that need to be attended to, so one has to be very disciplined.

Now that you know the downside to working from home, let’s discuss ways that we can minimise this and guarantee the best results…

Create a workspace

Many people’s first thought when they start working from home is that they can get all of their work done from the comfort of their bed. I would never encourage people to work from the same place they sleep, but even working within your bedroom may be a bad idea. But if that is the only space you have, then put a screen behind you so that it encloses your office area and it also looks better if you are carrying out a virtual conference call.

You need a dedicated space to work so that you know when you’re there, you’re there to work, and when you leave, you’re off the clock. Don’t let the places where you spend your downtime crossover with where you complete your work. Creating strict boundaries will help your brain to get into ‘work-mode’ and function more effectively.

Make sure you can be free from distractions and that you can make yourself comfortable. Think of this as a permanent situation. Set out a proper procedure that you think you could stick to if you were to work from home long-term.

Find someone in the same boat as you

Although you might find yourself with extra time on hand now that you’re no longer surrounded by chatty co-workers, the psychological effects of remote working are often overlooked. Working from home for long periods of time cuts you off from social interaction which is essential for our mental health and wellbeing.

Humans are very social creatures and it’s something we are used to including in our every day lives. For all of this to suddenly go away can force us into feelings of loneliness, anxiety and/or sadness and it is at times like these when you may like to speak to someone outside of your friends and family.

Look to fill this social gap with a buddy / colleague who you know you can get in touch with whenever you need a chat. Or maybe you have other friends who are also working from home due to COVID-19. Hop on a video call when you fancy seeing a friendly face. Even texting can be beneficial.

Implement structure

You should aim to have an even more structured daily routine than when you head out to work in an office. Although many of us believe that we don’t like structure and routine, a lot of us fall apart without it. It can become difficult to get the simplest of tasks done when you think you have all the time in the world.

And if you think about it, usually most of our day is influenced by other people. You go for lunch when you’re told to. You might go to the gym because you go with a friend. You have dinner when the rest of your family eat. Suddenly, you are the one in control of your own time, so you need to be strict and set deadlines.

It’s important to set out the times that you will actively be working. The upside is that you can do this in the time of day you know you’re most productive so this might be early morning or maybe late in the evening. Plan your breaks in advance and plan how you will spend your break time – whether you take your dog for a walk or you read the newspaper.

Communication is key

It can be tempting to rely on email whilst remote working. However, relying on email alone can increase feelings of isolation and loneliness due to the lack of actual contact whether that’s seeing someone’s face or hearing a voice.

Don’t be afraid to increase communication within your team using apps or video conferring. Screen-sharing is also effective at keeping everyone on the same page and working together. Even having a video call with a colleague whilst you eat your lunch can give you that same sense of belonging to a team and staying connected. Better communication whilst working from home helps to maintain relationships with colleagues and managers.

During this time away from the office, you might feel the need to speak with somebody who can allow you to talk through some of the struggles you’re currently facing. It is better to do this sooner rather than later so that steps can be taken to help you overcome your challenges. I encourage my readers to get in touch with me if you would like to have  a chat or just need someone to listen to you.

With the increase in employees needing to work from home, it is vital that communication is maintained and that managers do everything they can to help support the wellbeing of their employees and help them navigate these unchartered waters.

Read more:
A guide to remote working

Making sure we can get to work each day is one of the fundamentals demanded by an employer.

If we are reliable, our managers can plan the day’s and week’s work with confidence.

To demonstrate this reliability, you also need to show resilience.  Life will send health issues our way, whether it is a headache, back pain, IBS or mental health issues. Our employer has some responsibility to help keep us healthy.  However, we should take seriously the preventative and curative methods we can use to manage these health issues.

Here we offer a guide to the common health problems you could face and some of the preventative measures you can take to keep yourself well.

The impact on our gut

Our stomach, colon and bowel are highly susceptible to conditions caused by our day to day life.  Poor diet, limited exercise and high levels of stress can result in a host of ailments.  At a basic level, we may feel sick each time we get emotional in the workplace.  When the pressure gets too much, this feeling of nausea can become chronic.  People with consistently high stress over a long period might also struggle with indigestion.  While for most this can be mild, for others indigestion can develop into breathing problems, a sore throat and even balance issues.

IBS is also thought to be a result of our modern lifestyle choices.  The constant pressure can cause an imbalance in our gut.  IBS can result in cramping, abdominal pain, constipation, gas and diarrhoea.  The impacts can be quite debilitating.

The prevention of each of these conditions is similar to one another.  First, there may be trigger foods, particularly high fat, highly processed products.  It would be much better to eat a lot of leafy green vegetables and fibre to help your gut process material efficiently.  There are also lifestyle factors.  We spend a lot of time scrunched up in a poor posture which does not support our gut.  We would be much better to exercise regularly.  A better diet and more exercise would also help combat the high levels of stress that are also seen as a contributory factor in IBS.

The impact on our mind

In many ways, our gut is playing out the challenges we face with our mental health.  Increases in anxiety and depression might be a cause for concern – and a direct result of the heightened pace of life and pressure we feel.  However, it could also be a consequence of our confidence to talk about these issues, and the rise in numbers should be seen as a positive.  We are turning to each other for support when before we would have suffered alone.

However, there is no doubt that the amount of workplace burnout does seem a problem.  To counter the impacts on our mental health, we have to demonstrate a lot of self-care.  We should undertake to balance our work and our life.  We should employ sleep hygiene, so we can recuperate overnight – and find time for relaxation and to engage with nature.  The need to wind down and chill out is not an indulgence but an essential ingredient in our commitment to being reliable and resilient in the workplace.

The impact on our joints and muscles

Sitting down at a computer screen for hours on end is detrimental to our physical wellbeing.  We were not designed to sit down for so long.  First, we may feel eye strain from looking at the computer screen.  We may feel tightness and soreness in the neck and shoulders from a poor posture at the computer screen.  Then, we may find that our lower back begins to complain.  We might slouch at our desk and not move for hours.

The combined impact on our body from poor ergonomic practices can lead to creaks, groans and genuine pain.  Carpel Tunnel Syndrome (CTS), for instance, can lead to numbness, tingling and pain in our hands.  Therefore, we must employ appropriate health and safety measures to combat this. A proper chair, a wrist rest, a filter on our computer screen, as well as regular breaks, can all help manage the condition.

The one other way to prevent pulled muscle or muscle damage is using muscle percussion therapy. It can be used to boost muscle function, increase range of motion & blood circulation, relieving pain and speed recovery. You can use Exogun – best percussive therapy device, which will encourage your blood circulation and increase oxygen flow to targeted areas, which will help you to recover faster and enhance your performance.

Read more:
Common health issues employees face

You don’t become a high-level employee or CEO without working hard. There really is no secret to success in terms of output.

It could be for this reason that many professionals find it hard to maintain a healthy diet and lifestyle.

And this problem only gets worse for those that travel regularly for business…

It’s easy to get into the routine of having expensive meals (that aren’t the healthiest) in restaurants while you’re in different cities or countries.

Now, we’re not saying that you shouldn’t enjoy the perks of business travel. But there are certainly small changes you can make to ensure you stay healthy while on the road.

Here are 5 ways to stay healthy while traveling for business:

Whole-Food Multivitamins

We mentioned that we don’t want to stop you from enjoying the luxuries of business travel.

Well, if you really insist on eating out at (not the healthiest) restaurants you can find, then one thing you can do is take a whole-food multivitamin with you.

Multivitamins can be great ‘nutritional insurance’ to ensure that you fill nutritional gaps in your diet. So even if you choose to eat the best steak and chips in town, you’ll still be providing your body with essential vitamins and minerals to stay healthy.

But when choosing a multivitamin, avoid the cheapest ones you find from the supermarket; these may be the most cost effective, but your body will simply excrete it (ever wondered why your pee went bright yellow?) – making cheap multivitamins a waste of cash.

Instead, go for the ‘whole-food’ multivitamins. The vitamins and minerals found in these products are much more likely to be recognized as ‘food’ by your body and being absorbed to support your health.

They say that ‘your health if your wealth’. So it makes sense to invest in products that can support your health.

Make Healthy Food Choices

Being ‘healthy’ isn’t just a few decisions. To succeed, you’ll have to incorporate good health into your lifestyle.

Small things such as choosing a banana or apple to further support immune system over chocolate bars when you need quick snacks on-the-move will yield impressive changes to your health in the long-term. Even going for a sugar-free syrup over sugar in your daily coffee will make a positive difference without too much compromise.

If you can, though, making big choices will benefit you the most; if you sacrifice your steak and chips for healthier options such as grilled chicken breast and rice during a business trip, then you’ll cut down on fat and calorie intake – important for maintaining optimal health.

You should value your health status as much as your career. After all, there’s no point in working hard to earn more if you’re not planning on sticking around as long as you can.

Get Enough Sleep

It can be difficult to get enough sleep while on the road for work.

There are many of us who simply struggle to sleep on long-haul flights. And everyone knows you don’t sleep as well in hotels as you do in the comfort of your own bed.

However, poor sleep has been linked to a variety of health issues; including weight gain, cardiovascular disease and depression.

As a result, even the most successful CEOs such as Jeff Bezos in the world make sure they get their eight hours of sleep.

The important of sleep has been backed by countless sleep physiologists such as Dr Guy Meadows who states: “‘Sleep is the most powerful performance enhancer known to man”.

The good news is that you can promote better quality sleep by taking one of a natural sleep aid. Look for one that contains a natural source of melatonin, instead of taking melatonin directly (to avoid feeling drowsy in morning after you wake up).

Not only will getting enough sleep make sure you stay in optimal health while traveling for business. It’ll also boost your daytime brainpower too, to make sure you can perform in important business meetings and events.

Conclusion

It was only in 2020 that government researchers found about 40% of U.S adults are obese. Regardless of excuses, that’s a pretty bad stat.

If you consider circumstances, then CEOs and high-level professionals that travel for work do have it hard – in terms of ‘staying healthy’. You don’t always find yourself with a hob and pans to cook healthy meals in hotels on a business trip.

The good news is that you can give yourself the best chance of maintaining optimal health while on the road.

Such things as adding a whole-food multivitamin to your suitcase and lifestyle will ensure that you’re feeding your body the optimal amounts of vitamins & minerals – without having to spend too much time planning your eating schedule. If you really don’t want to sacrifice those meals out in expensive restaurants (which aren’t always the heathiest) then this is your best option.

However, if you also choose ‘healthier options’ while eating out, then you’ll certainly be promoting health benefits – which you’ll reap the benefits from in the long-term.

Finally, don’t disregard sleep.

Everyone can be guilty of working too much, which isn’t something you can control at all times. However, one thing you can do is ensure you get enough sleep.

As mentioned in this article, even Jeff Bezos ensures that he gets the optimal eight hours of sleep each day.

Don’t forget that good quality sleep can have the most impact on your work productivity too. As Dr Guy Meadows has stated that ‘sleep is the most powerful performance enhancer known to man’.

Read more:
3 tips to stay healthy while traveling for business

Many people at work suffer with stress, depression and anxiety. In fact, sometimes these mental health problems are triggered by work alone.

Quite often, this can leave you feeling as if you don’t have the skills you need to accomplish what you set out to do. This is usually because stress, anxiety and depression can cause you to worry, and even fear typical daily tasks.

Some tasks at work that many people admit to worrying about include…

• Taking meetings
• Achieving deadlines
• Building relationships with your co-workers
• Getting on with your manager
• Maintaining quality work

Here is how you can learn to conquer some of your stress and anxieties at work, and turn them into accomplishments…

1. Make a numbered list of tasks you need to accomplish that day, ordered from most important to least important. Tackle this list in small chunks – one task at a time.
2. Focus on building positive and transparent relationships with your supervisor and other co-workers. It means that you have people you can trust and rely on, and who you feel comfortable enough to ask for help when you need it, rather than suffer in silence.
3. Get into the habit of communicating in person as much as possible. The more you do something, the easier it becomes. Also, a lot can be misinterpreted or misunderstood over phone calls and emails which does not help you progress.
4. Avoid office politics. This can be difficult when it feels as if it’s surrounding you everywhere you look. However, drama only tends to increase anxiety, giving you one more thing to worry about.
5. Be realistic with your workload. It is very common now to say ‘yes’ to every project and every favour your boss asks of you. Over-committing to tasks and biting off more than you can chew will surely see you failing to stick to deadlines.
6. Progress reports. These don’t have to be official, it can simply be a weekly conversation. It is good to keep people in the loop throughout the progress and delivery of a project. That way, if you encounter difficulties, people are on hand to help you out as they have the knowledge to assist or advise.
7. Find a sense of peace at work. I wrote a post last week about sensory experience which has proven effective in easing stress. For some, sound is most effective so listening to music at work can help. If taste helps you, it could be chewing gum, or for sight, it could help to work by a window or carry a photograph that calms your mind.
8. Talk to someone about your worries. It’s an old saying but ‘a problem shared is a problem half-solved’ still rings very true. Sometimes you’ll find that others feel the same way. Nearly all the time, you’ll feel so much better getting something off your chest, knowing you don’t have to struggle with it alone.

Depression at Work

Now, depression at work is a separate issue – whether this is personal or career-focused. Depression can cause you to feel unworthy, unmotivated and as if you can’t accomplish the things you want to. The best way to tackle depression is creating a lifestyle that helps you cope with it. It’s about focusing on how you want to feel, rather than how you feel right now.

The American Psychiatric Association lists these symptoms of depression, which any or all can be an indicator that you’re experiencing depression.

• You’ve lost interest in activities you once enjoyed
• Your appetite has changed
• You have trouble sleeping
• You find it difficult to focus
• You lack energy
• You think about death and/or suicide

If you feel depressed at work, it can become such a struggle to keep performance levels high and to maintain healthy relationships with your supervisor and co-workers, which can make you feel even worse.

Yet, this is a place that you have to come to five days to a week, so it’s important to know how you can tackle this on a daily basis…

1. Find out what your company can offer you. Many organisations offer free counselling to their employees. If you bring this up with the HR department, they should be able to direct you to the person or place that will best be of help and that is why we offer a nationwide employee counselling service which provides workplace stress and trauma support services to industry.
2. Make your workspace more personal. Most people who struggle with depression, anxiety or stress, don’t feel as bad when they’re in the comfort of their own home. Being in the workplace itself can cause feelings of dread for people, before they’ve even begun tackling deadlines and presentations. Bring photographs in to stand on your desk, hang artwork or arrange plants. Something so little can be a huge comfort.
3. Take breaks often enough. Exposure to daylight, even in the winter months, is thought to lift our mood. Take yourself for a walk outside. A brisk walk might even result in the release of endorphins – natural mood-boosting pain-killers!
4. Incorporate exercise into your daily routine. When you feel depressed, the last thing you want to do is work out. However, exercise is good for the mind, heart and soul. It can also be extra beneficial if you recruit a workout buddy from the workplace. This is great for accountability and can help you combat feelings of sadness.
5. Make more use of your lunch break. Whether this is the time you’ll fit in your work out or a walk, or perhaps you’ll take some coworkers out for lunch, You can try new restaurants or coffee shops, and the company will help to take your mind off feeling sad.
6. When things start to feel worse, it can be extremely beneficial to leave work early or to book a few days off to relax, rest and rejuvenate. You can come back after a much needed break, perhaps even feeling more productive and motivated.

By using the tips above, you can help to manage your stress, anxiety and depression at work, and to turn that negative energy into accomplishments.

As workplaces are beginning to witness for themselves the success of wellbeing initiatives, and with the stigma around mental health slowly being reduced, Mental Health First Aiders modular training is becoming a popular choice. There is on-going modular training offered, covering issues such as workplace bullying, stress, change and resilience. Feel free to get in touch if you have any questions about this training.

The tips in this article won’t completely solve your problems, but they will lessen the impact on your personal and professional life

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Turn your work stress into accomplishments

A robust wellbeing programme is really more than just a solution to improved performance and reduced rates of absenteeism.

It is a proactive way to attract and retain top talent, helps employees to work better together, and keeps employees healthier and happier at work.

Almost all managers see a direct correlation between workplace wellbeing and performance. However, the CIPD’s 2019 Health and wellbeing at work report, shows that only a third of private sector employers have a wellbeing strategy.

It does not need to be costly and over-complicated, but it should be based on thorough research to get the RIGHT wellbeing programme for your employees and your organisation.

Here are four ways to implement your wellbeing programme easily.

CHOOSE YOUR GOALS

What is the end goal? And, how will you measure it to know it has been achieved? Most organisations implement a few activity days and think that’s all there is to it, so committing to measurement already puts you ahead of most. You can do this through employee engagement, absenteeism or self-reported performance. Ask behavioural questions that will generate actionable data for example ‘to what extent do you enjoy your work?’

BE REALISTIC

Before beginning any changes, it’s important to know where you are RIGHT NOW. It helps you chart the impact of wellbeing and prove that it’s worth continuing. Dedicate time to audit what you already offer. Ask your employees for their opinions and accept what they have to say. Then, you can identify areas that need the most improvement which will deliver the greatest impact and have the highest value.

DO YOUR RESEARCH

Find out what people might want. Simply ask for opinions around the workplace. Find out what your competitors offer and consider whether you could realistically offer the same or maybe even better. Some options are group fitness sessions, nutrition classes, Boardroom briefings, workshops, counselling services. It is a good idea to appoint a dedicated wellbeing team to be responsible for your strategy and measurement. The strategy should be varied and last all year long including regular sessions and one-off activities.

A LONG-TERM INVESTMENT

You should invest in your wellbeing programme in a sustainable way. This isn’t simply about holding a one-off session and deciding that it has done the job. Wellbeing needs to be front and centre all year round, for many years to come. There is no harm in starting off with small steps, but ultimately you are aiming for long-term improvement that can only be brought about through the process of research, feedback, trial and review.

Any wellbeing programme needs to start from the top and cascade throughout the organisation. Employees need to see that the senior team are on board with any wellbeing initiative that is rolled out. It is vital that those in managerial positions have the people management skills to recognise the wellbeing needs of their employees.

Wellbeing programmes are becoming increasingly popular as managers are witnessing for themselves the proven benefits of implementing them.

So, join those today who are already reaping the rewards!

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4 easy ways to implement a wellbeing programme

New research has revealed that a third of people in the UK have felt ill or suffered from a lack of sleep as a result of travelling for work.

Whilst some people do enjoy travel, these journeys can be draining, especially when it’s a common part of their working week. Whether they’re heading off to an early meeting and hitting rush hour traffic or arriving home too late to spend time with their family, travelling for work can affect life outside of their jobs.

Unfortunately, these impacts appear to be significant.

33% of business travellers admit traveling to meetings has affected their sleep and 24% said that early starts/late finishes caused by travel has resulted in an argument with their partner.

The survey also revealed that almost half of business travellers get takeaways on the way home when travelling for work and just over a quarter said they had arrived at a meeting to find out it wasn’t necessary for them to attend.

The findings also identified that 41% of those surveyed said that they end up working beyond their core hours when travelling for work.

Of course, some degree of business travel will always be necessary, but with Smarter working principles in mind employees can be educated on how to avoid unnecessary travel, shift to better behaviours and make these journeys fit into their lives better to reduce the impact on their overall health.

The survey was carried out by Capita Travel and Events and the companies behavioural psychologist Jonti Dalal-Small has commented on the side effects which come with business travel and how these can be mitigated:

 “For many, business travel used to be thrilling – but for most people it’s now a real chore. Rather than be an adventure, it causes dread, uncertainty and all sorts of problems.

“Whether you enjoy travel is linked to whether you have a sense of purpose about your job. Our survey highlights how many people travel to meetings without understanding why the meeting has been called or why they are needed.

“To support organisations overcome these challenges, we are the first travel management company to shift our business focus and introduce roles dedicated to understanding behaviour and improving travelling wellbeing. By making employee welfare a priority, implementing the principles of smarter working and reducing unnecessary travel, you can increase employee engagement and will see a reduction in expenditure too.”

Capita Travel and Events has put together a new Unnoticed Impact of Business Travel report, which takes a deep dive into the issues surrounding business travel and how their expertise helps employers tackle these cost effectively, with health and wellbeing in mind.

You can read the download the entire report for free by clicking here – https://www.capitatravelevents.co.uk/impact-of-business-travel/

Read more:
Cross-country meetings affect workers mental health

Hi Kate,

I’m struggling to feel fulfilled within my current role, and I think it’s partly because I’m not being challenged enough, but also witnessing all my colleagues receive promotions makes me feel like I could do better. What would your advice be?

Kate replies:

There is something about the tone of this that really makes me feel your lack of fulfilment! I’m not saying you are a lack lustre person but I get a sense that you feel stuck and flat. I’m going to approach this two ways – look at what could be going on at your place of work and also what could be going on for you as an individual. Let’s start with the latter.

One of Sigmund Freud’s many pioneering contributions made to the study of the mind and human behaviour was the explanation of defence mechanisms that we use to hide true feelings. Ways we describe people – ‘he’s in denial about how much he fancies her….she’s really repressing her anger right now….I know I’m just projecting but…’ – all of these descriptions of behaviours are now common language but was a ground-breaking way to understand human behaviour over 100 years ago. In my experience of being a counsellor in private practice I see that sometimes deep emotions in a part of our life that can be too difficult to bear are displaced onto another part, displacement being one of Freud’s defence mechanisms. There is something about seeing all of your colleagues getting promotions that seems a little farfetched. So, the difficult question is, what are you defending? In other words, what’s going on in your wider world beyond this job? Is there some other part of your life that perhaps feels a bit too painful to acknowledge is unfulfilling (relationships spring to mind…)?  

I’m looking for clues in what you have said to work out what your patterns of thought and behaviour are. A good chunk of my time with my clients in my private practice is around working out what of these patterns are outdated and damaging. So, I’m wondering whether there is something in the way you use the phrase ‘makes me feel I could better’. Is feeling like you could always do better a familiar feeling to you? Can you remember the last time you felt you did exactly the best you could? I’m sure you can see what I am getting at here – how loud is your inner critic?! We all have ways of telling our story and sometimes we can get locked into an outdated and simply untrue narrative about ourselves. And although it’s a very unfriendly voice, it can become very familiar – and can also be a way of protecting yourself against looking more realistically at what qualities you and your apparently more successful colleagues have in relation to promotion in the workplace.

Or perhaps there is something about the culture of this workplace that makes you feel you should always do better which can lead to bad work patterns such as chronic overtime and fear of taking days off sick. I am the relationship manager at Add | Wellbeing, which is a workplace mental health and wellbeing initiative from an established NHS Mental Health Trust and work with businesses to create a better environment for productivity. Presenteeism is the word given to employees who turn up for work even though they are unwell enough to be at home. It is really rife in businesses that don’t speak openly about mental health which compounds to create toxic working environments. This is a hard for you to solve alone but if it feels safe enough could be really impactful feedback to give to someone at work that you trust and who can do something about it. We all hope that our senior leaders can listen and take action to make changes to the culture but from my experience sometimes that message is too hard for them to hear so this is a decision you will have to make.

Lydia Hartland Rowe is an experienced psychotherapist and clinical lead for Add | Wellbeing. She brings another point of view to your situation. She says: ‘I’d also be interested to know how you feel about being managed –  and how you manage your own competitive and rivalrous feelings? Is it possible that some of those more messy feelings are getting in the  way when you are trying to make good use    of your relationships with those senior to you?’

Lydia’s words do back my curiousity as to why there has been no mention of personal development plans or appraisals and these, whilst not a legal requirement are common place in organisations. If you don’t have these, request it and take a lead on writing it. Your line manager isn’t a mind reader and perhaps doesn’t even know that you don’t feel challenged. Once you vocalise that, it is your manager’s responsibility to support you and if that doesn’t happen then you need to flag that as an issue within the workplace. Employers have a legal duty of care to make the workplace a safe place to work and this also means on a mental health level, not just physical. Many businesses are now recognising this and developing Mental Health initiatives for their staff.

My advice? Work on finding your voice to share your feelings of being unfulfilled at work to the right person who will support you make a very clear workplan to give you the best chance of getting the next promotion. Find the courage to vocalise the impact the culture in the workplace may have on your Mental Health.  You might also start to look at what you feel about competing with others, and about being managed by other people – sometimes these are really difficult feelings and they can get in the way if not noticed or acknowledged. That might help you to start to give yourself more proactive advice and challenge unhelpful, untrue and ultimately damaging narratives you say about yourself.

Read more:
Dear Kate: I’m struggling to feel fulfilled within my current role

How many times have you heard ‘New Year, New You’?

The New Year is often a time for reflection- what went well? What went wrong? What have you learned? And perhaps most importantly, where do you go now?

You probably listen to your family or friends or colleagues back at work discussing their decisions to do better next year. Whether that’s losing weight, taking up a new hobby, travelling more or saving money.

But I urge people to indeed use this time for self-reflection and use it to set proper, measurable and achievable goals, not to make desperate resolutions on a whim just because it’s the time of year that everyone does.

You’re more likely to achieve goals than stick to resolutions because we see them as long-term commitments, and they’re a reflection of our actual desires and ambitions. They dive deeper than a resolution, so we tend to take a more practical and realistic approach to achieving them.

Your goals should be specific – nothing general like losing weight. Instead, ask yourself how much weight do you want to lose? And when do you see yourself achieving your ideal weight? It’s important to be realistic and give yourself enough time to achieve it. Making SMART goals (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-sensitive) gives you the tools to succeed in all of your goal-setting endeavours.

Tips to Setting SMART Goals

Write your goals down. This helps you to visualise them. How will they look when you have achieved what you’re setting out to achieve? How will they feel? This will also work as a motivator to keep going when things get more difficult, or your life ultimately gets busier. It will remind you that this was once very important for you to achieve. It also demonstrates a commitment in hard copy. How many times have you said something to yourself like ‘I’ll go to the gym tonight’ or ‘I’m going to join my local theatre group next week’ and you don’t do it. Well, you don’t have to. No one else is going to push you to do it, and most of us are notorious for going back on what we’ve said, especially if no one has been around to hear us and hold us accountable.

Stop comparing yourself. Isn’t it easy to look at your friends or even people you went to school with long ago and think about how much more successful they are than you with a better job, a bigger salary, a family, a spouse? It is practically unavoidable too with social media giving us instant, constant updates and multiplying the number of people we’re exposed to. Feeling envious or bitter or down about your own progress is a complete waste of energy and time that you could be putting into your self-improvement. It is vital to remember that whilst we might all have similar goals, we all have different journeys, and that is the beauty of life. Wouldn’t it be boring if we all experienced everything at the exact same time? Life is unexpected and unpredictable, and just because you might accomplish something later in life, it does not make you a failure.

On the subject of failure, it is important to embrace the likelihood of failing. Failure is often necessary for success as we learn and grow as a result of it, improving ourselves each time. Failing at your goals might cause you to readjust them or to gain an insight or idea you might never have had before. Failure also makes us more resilient which is a key skill that is relied upon to bounce back and prosper in the wake of defeat.

Enjoy it. Although we make goals because we want to alter a part of our lives, it doesn’t mean that you should despise where you are right now. Celebrate every part of your journey – from deciding to make that goal in the first place, all the small victories along the way, and eventually achieving it. It does you no good to force yourself into doing something when you’re doing it for the wrong reasons.

To keep things enjoyable, remember that whatever your goals are, they are only aspects of your life. Never put your whole life on hold as you try to pursue something huge in a small period of time. Continue to live your life the way you want to but dedicate a proportion of your resources towards achieving your goals. And remember to take each day as it comes. Celebrate the small steps you’re making to success- whether your jeans fit a bit looser each day or you manage to save 10% of what you’re aiming for. It’s all part of achieving the big one at the end.

If you think you could benefit from some help in clarifying your goals and how to go about achieving them, my Talk to Carole sessions may well be helpful to you. These are online 30-minute confidential coaching sessions where you will receive an objective viewpoint and another perspective.

Happy New Year and good luck with your goals!

Read more:
New Year: Setting Goals, NOT Resolutions

As last week was Mental Health Awareness Week, I thought I would help people to understand how they can manage their mental health in the workplace.

Those suffering with mental illnesses will tell you that there is no typical day. Anxiety isn’t always triggered by the same events, depression can hit hard on different days and last for varying durations, and sometimes mental illnesses can manifest themselves in the loudest, most emotionally-charged way, and other times it’s quiet and slow.

It can be a blessing and a curse that mental illnesses, unlike physical ones, aren’t always visible to those around you. A blessing, because if you’d prefer to keep it to yourself, undisclosed – you can. However, mental illnesses can make it difficult to do your job effectively, where your colleagues or employer might just see a poor performance.

Use these tips to help keep your mind healthy and happy at work…

Find flexibility

Employers are becoming more aware of the importance of employee mental health, but if you don’t feel as if you can speak to your boss, try asking for a more flexible work schedule which will suit you. For some, the rigid routine and stable structure of the 9-5 can be a comfort. For others, work-from-home days, flexible hours or a more accommodating work environment might help. If you don’t feel comfortable speaking with a manager, it can help to speak with a complete stranger. Our online pay-as-you-go consultations can provide a confidential sounding board to discuss your struggles and challenges. We also provide a nationwide employee counselling service which can offer you instant support when you need it.

Match your work to your mood

Many people who struggle with their mental health, will often experience ‘down’ days and then days that aren’t so bad, whilst most jobs will include creative, careful tasks balanced against more tedious and mind-numbing jobs. Try to get the mentally demanding work done on days when you’re feeling your best, and save the repetitive, less-stimulating tasks for when you’re having a ‘down’ day.

Take control of your personal life

Unfortunately, we won’t all receive accommodation and help within our working lives, especially if you choose not to talk with your manager about your mental health challenges. However, you can control your home life, the way you spend your time outside work and your personal relationships. Take care of your hygiene and maintain some sort of exercise regime as neglecting self-care can simply make you feel worse. Give yourself ‘me time’ when you need it and let yourself feel whatever you might be feeling.

Stop comparing yourself

I often talk about the switched on, 24/7 lifestyle many of us now lead. Dealing with the pressure to reply to emails at the weekend or spend extra time at the office because that’s what people do in these big corporate organisations. If you feel better taking small breaks more regularly as opposed to working in big blocks, then do it. As long as you’re getting your work completed, how you arrive at that destination shouldn’t matter.

A Note For Employers

‘Even if they looked at it from a coldly transactional cost-benefit viewpoint, every employer should want to reduce staff sickness and improve people’s productivity at work.’

– Martin Edwards, Chief Executive of Julia’s House which runs children’s hospices

Whilst mental illness has become less taboo than it once was, it is still not universally accepted. This year The Guardian reported that 300,000 people with long-term mental health problems in the UK lose their jobs every year.

The best way to eliminate the stigma surrounding mental health in industry, is to encourage companies to start talking about it. One of the first things Martin Edwards did as Chief Executive was recommend to trustees that they fund an employee assistance programme – a confidential counselling and specialist information helpline for staff and their immediate families. Many other companies are seeking external help in order to provide effective employee assistance programmes. Some managers and HR departments are being trained to identify the symptoms of employees who are suffering, and know how to offer support. It is also important to encourage employees to receive training such as arranging Senior Masterclasses, Resilience Workshops or Wellbeing Programmes.

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Managing mental illness at work

Although it might not seem like it, small talk is a skill. Like any skill, it needs to be practised to get right and the more you do it, the better you become.

Let’s admit it- most of us hate small talk. It seems meaningless, superficial and a complete waste of our precious time. It can also be excruciating to know which topics to discuss and how long to dedicate to them. In fact, some people hate small talk so much that two behavioural scientists hosted a dinner party where small talk was completely banned. The article published in Wired said that the removal of small talk made all guests feel happier.

Unfortunately, we can’t all successfully ban small talk from our lives. If we did, we’d never make new friends, we’d never get our bosses to like us, and we’d never survive another date again. For that reason, it’s better to prepare yourself and feel confident engaging in small talk with anyone and everyone.

Have Faith In Yourself

Most of us dread small talk because we think we’ll say something stupid, offensive or be viewed as a social disaster. For that reason, it’s better to stay schtum, right? Wrong. A 2018 study published in Psychological Science showed that people consistently underestimate how much their conversation partners enjoyed their company. Remember that you blame yourself when you have a wish-the-ground-would-swallow-you-up encounter, and so do they! They’re not thinking that you’re a complete and utter failure at conversation- they’re thinking that they are. So, have faith in your abilities and be confident that despite what you might think, some people actually will- and do- enjoy your company!

Destroy The Cycle

You can’t escape the mind-numbing experience of ‘How are you?’ ‘Good thanks, how are you?’- so make it better. The key here is not to simply reply with ‘how’ you are but ‘why’ you are. For example…

‘Hi, how are you?’

‘I’m really good. I went for a lovely run this morning before work. Do you ever run?’

Tell them why you feel a certain way and accompany this with a relevant follow-up question. This could end in…

Option A: ‘Yes, I love to run. How far do you usually go?’= you’ve got yourself a running buddy or at the very least, a go-to conversation topic with this colleague.

Option B: ‘When I’m catching a train’= a joke to help build a rapport

Make It About Them

Some of us avoid making small talk because we’re not always comfortable talking about our personal lives- especially with colleagues at work. Well, you’re in luck. Most people are good at talking, and they enjoy it. Think about when you’re engaged in a conversation and you need to get away to pick up your daughter, or to catch the bus, or get home in time for dinner.

It can be so hard to get the other person to stop speaking. Put them in the spotlight by asking open-ended questions. Showing enthusiasm for their responses will extend the communicative exchange and they’ll appreciate you listening to them. If you would like to learn how to improve your relationships through active listening, then take a look at one of our training programmes which will provide the tools and strategies to help improve your conversation skills.

Talk About What You Care About

As I mentioned earlier, one of the reasons we shun office chit chat is because of its superficial value. Generally, we don’t talk about anything meaningful or fascinating. We stick to the three w’s- work, weather and weekend plans. But you are in the driver’s seat. Take control of the conversation and bring up topics of interest, whether that’s a new series you’ve started watching or a hobby you’re passionate about. We tend to enjoy listening to people who are passionate about what they do or what they’re speaking about.

Have An Arsenal Of Stories And Questions

If you really want to be able to talk to anyone confidently and without the fear of knowing what to say, it’s best to have a few core questions or a bank of anecdotes which you can rely upon whenever. This might be a story from a workshop you recently attended or perhaps a question about a current article you’ve noticed in the newspaper in the break room. Have these on hand to avoid trawling through your brain or desperately searching for common ground.

Faux Pas Will Happen

If you fear small talk, the chances are, it won’t always go to plan. Even if you put into practise the points in this article, you might occasionally find yourself in that moment of silence that lasts for an eternity. Take this as a lesson. Think about what went wrong and why it occurred. Use this to better your conversation next time.

Small talk is never going to go away, otherwise what else would Shelly from accounting do whilst reheating her leftovers for lunch, or how else would Brian from sales fill the walk from his desk to the car park at the end of the day. So, your choices are to continue feeling the dread, the intimidation and the anxiety that you might currently feel, or embrace it. Building rapport with people builds trust. It might help your boss overlook small mistakes. It might get you an interview for a promotion. And it can even help get you the job in the first place as people tend to hire those that they want to work with.

If the thought of chit chat makes you shudder or the idea of break room banter makes you want to crawl into a hole, you could benefit from upgrading your communication skills. We’re not all born with the ability to speak in a confident and compelling way, and we’re also not all natural listeners.

Fancy testing your communication skills? This 2-minute assessment will provide you with immediate results, honest feedback and tailored follow-up actions. May you never say, ‘I’m good, how are you?’ again.

Read more:
Learn to love office small talk

Migraine can wreak havoc on people’s lives, both personally and professionally. Not only is it underdiagnosed and undertreated, it is highly stigmatized.

As people living with migraine are mainly in their prime working years, it can be a huge challenge for employers. More than 90% of people with migraine literally cannot work or function normally with a migraine; and people with migraine have reported a productivity decrease of as much as 13% compared to a comparison group of people without migraine.

In this piece, Caroline Barth, head of pharma people and organization at Novartis writes about her experience of working to support people living with migraine in the workplace. One of the strategic priorities at Novartis is to unleash the power of people; supporting people with conditions like migraine is linked to that. Although it affects as many as one in seven people, supporting those living with migraine does not have to be costly and can make a real impact.

Hiding in plain sight

The effect migraine has on the workplace – both on wellbeing and productivity – is significant.Research has shown that 60% of employees reported missing almosta full working week due to migraine in the month preceding the study.In addition, over two-thirds of employees say their employers know about their migraine, but only a small proportion receive support.

Employees living with migraine may be hiding in plain sight, minimizing their attacks because they fear criticism, discrimination or demotion. Migraine is an invisible disorder; many employers have little or no idea what their employees may be battling.

To combat this, open communication and an open atmosphere is needed from employers to foster a workplace where employees feel safe to speak out. This type of openness is at the heart of our new culture at Novartis. We believe it helps create a psychologically safe environment which is key to enabling disclosure and meaningful discussion.

Employers have a pivotal role to play in employee health and wellbeing

The health and wellbeing of employees is an important priority and responsibility for any business. Migraine is now the leading cause of disability in those under 50. As such, its impact can be magnified as these are generally years in which productivity peaks, and during which families and careers are forged.

But there are steps that can be taken towards fostering migraine-friendly workplaces. For example, at Novartis we are modeling workplace adjustments such as creating quiet hubs in our offices where employees can rest and recharge their batteries when they are experiencing an attack.  We are moving towards an environment that “gets” migraine through awareness and education of the entire company.

We also know that migraine-specific wellbeing programs can have a real and beneficial effect. We initiated the Migraine Care Program to provide an independent, complimentary service for all Swiss-based Novartis employees, and their immediate family members, living with migraine to improve their quality of life.

Specifically, the Migraine Care Program supports employees with migraine by providing access to education, advice and appropriate healthcare professionals.  Initial results from this program have been very encouraging: we had over 320 employees and their families engage and receive support and approximately 30% of these were receiving a diagnosis of migraine for the first time.

Since launching the Migraine Care Program, I experienced a very meaningful moment when an employee came to my office and asked if the blinds could be lowered as the glare could trigger their migraine. This moment showed me how being supportive of those living with migraine can help employees to feel accepted and also allow them to ask for small adjustments which can help them be at their best.

Paying attention to employee’s wellbeing

Experiencing a migraine at work can result in reduced performance with employees not being able to fully function in their role despite being at work; this is often termed presenteeism. Presenteeism is known to be a bigger issue than absenteeism for employers.

The equivalent of 43 million workdays are lost to presenteeism due to migraine in the UK alone, at a cost of £4.4 billion. A study in the US of one large financial services corporation with over 80,000 employees estimated the costs stemming from migraine-related reduced on-the-job productivity to total $24.4 million within the corporation alone. Increased awareness of the burden of migraine may contribute to reducing the stigma.

Furthermore, workplace accommodations can mean that people experiencing a migraine do not have to push on through, they can take time out and return when they are at their best. In fact, workplace adjustments could even reduce the number of migraine attacks experienced by allowing employees to avoid triggers.

The workplace is an ideal place to identify, support, and provide care for people living with migraine. Businesses need to recognize the importance of developing programs that could effectively reduce presenteeism due to migraine.

Paying attention to your employees’ wellbeing may seem like a big undertaking, especially for employers with a large workforce, but improving working conditions can boost diversity and productivity.

At the end of the day it’s a two-way partnership – a caring and compassionate working environment for employees with conditions like migraine fosters the highest levels of creativity and productivity. Ultimately, a workplace that is good for people living with migraine is good for everybody

Read more:
Why supporting people living with migraine matters

We all make mistakes, to err is human, and so on. These phrases are clichés for a reason, and yet many of us continue to strive for perfection in our personal, professional and social lives.

Sophia Durrani, managing partner, strategy at media agency UM explains that they recently carried out some research to see how prevalent this feeling is, as it has major implications for how people behave – and, more importantly, for their ongoing mental health. It revealed that 41% of the 1,683 adults from UK and Ireland we surveyed – with a roughly equal gender split – would describe themselves as ‘perfectionists’.

That figure is highest in young adults, as more than half of those aged 16-24 and around half of 25-34s identify that way.

Unsurprisingly, that need for perfection puts a lot of pressure on our shoulders – and it seems women are facing the perfect storm, both in the workplace and from society at large. The study further revealed that women are not just perfectionists but they feel the pressure to be perfect the most acutely: 75% say as much, compared to 62% of male respondents. Some of the biggest areas where they feel this pressure are being a parent, being attractive and meeting family expectations. There are many ways to relieve this pressure, such as attending therapy for low self-esteem, boosting your self-worth, and focusing on your own individual journey, rather than comparing yourself to others. Remember that perfection is impossible to achieve, but excellence is always within reach.

In addition, and perhaps most relevantly for the business community, around a third of adults say they feel the most pressure while at work. Although more men say they feel this pressure than women, they’re rarely under pressure to “be attractive”, “look nice” and “always be on good form” in the workplace the way women are. The research found that these pressures affected females the most.

Frankly, these figures should be a wake-up call to managers about mental health in the workplace, particularly for their female employees. A huge amount has been written about the negative effects of stress, and according to the Health & Safety Executive more than 11 million days are lost at UK businesses every year because of stress at work. If nearly half of employees consider themselves perfectionists, with all the associated pressures that entails, that figure is unlikely to go down without serious help.

These findings highlight that businesses need to do more to respond to the challenges of this constant pressure to be perfect – to do more to help their employees in the moments that matter. Hence more and more are developing initiatives designed to reduce stress and bring balance back to their employees’ lives.

In some cases, that means smarter, more agile working practices and understanding that not everyone works the same way. Email policies, for example, can reduce pressure on employees by noting that an immediate response outside working hours, even to a message from the boss, is not expected.

There are other potential initiatives for businesses to try too: ranging from mindfulness meditation to health and fitness courses to flexible and remote working. And let’s not forget the impact that one-to-one coaching can have on employees’ wellbeing in the workplace.

But it has to be more than this. Yes, these programmes are really helpful in helping employees manage stress, but this doesn’t get to the root of the problem. We need to radically rethink our attitudes to what’s realistic, as opposed to the ideal outcome in the workplace.

Essentially, something has to give. It isn’t feasible to be a high-flying executive and a domestic goddess managing an unfair share of the domestic load and to be the perfect parent. Yet we try and that’s simply not possible unless we can afford help or have (willing) family living nearby. Let’s be realistic, the former is highly unlikely for the average millennial. And then there’s the constant guilt: either you aren’t achieving at work, or you’re letting down your nearest and dearest.

Perfectionism means everything takes longer. And so either you put in the extra hours, or other things start to slip. Either way, perfectionism can breed stress and ultimately leads to burnout. It’s little wonder that there’s a lack of senior women in the highest echelons of the business world – and that’s not healthy for anyone.

Photo by Gokil on Unsplash

Read more:
Why the pressure to be perfect is impacting our mental health – especially women

Burnout is a health hazard in the workplace. Paul Friday, Director of Strategic Relationships at leading HR and payroll provider MHR explores how HR can help protect employees from stress before it spirals out of control.

Be honest…do you ever dread going to work? Do work worries hang over you all weekend to the point where you can’t relax or enjoy yourself?

We all feel stress from time to time. But if you feel like that all day, every day, to the point of exhaustion then the problem isn’t just stress. It’s occupational burnout, something that’s just been recognised as a legitimate medical diagnosis by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

HR would act fast to fix something that causes physical injury to employees, but what about their mental health? That has a physical impact, too. And stress can be contagious.  It’s time to take a closer look at the causes of burnout and how HR can help save people from its grip.

What is burnout and how do you recognise it?

Burnout is chronic exhaustion caused by long-term workplace stress that has not been managed successfully. Its symptoms are:

1. Feelings of depleted energy or exhaustion.
2. Increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativity and/or cynicism related to working life.
3. Reduced professional effectiveness.

This is not only bad for an individual suffering in their job, but for organisations too. It could mean a reduction in productivity, an increase in absences, and talented people resigning. On a deeper level, burnout should raise alarm bells about the culture of your organisation. Any illness that’s caused by work needs a workplace solution.

Bad relationships can breed a burnout culture

Technology is a double-edged sword when it comes to our personal and professional wellbeing. The speed, convenience and sheer ease of communication that it brings is hugely empowering. For workers who aren’t desk-based, or who need more flexible options, mobile technology is vital.

On the other hand, 24/7 access to work emails and other systems can make it impossible to switch off mentally. When you’re waiting for a stressful situation to be resolved, it’s easy to keep checking that inbox. But are you really just adding to your anxiety? It’s clear our relationships with technology need to change so we can embrace its ability to reduce work pressure, rather than letting it hold us hostage.

Access to fast and easy communication doesn’t always mean that our relationships with each other are healthy. Workplace culture is mostly dictated from the top down, so managers must be sensitive to how their behaviour can influence others negatively. Research by Mind shows that less than half of people with a mental health condition had told their manager. At the same time, many managers are not trained to identify when people are struggling or know how to reach outwhen they do.

The answer is to create a culture where people feel comfortable talking about their wellbeing in the workplace without fear of judgement. And where everyone knows how best to reach out to people who are showing signs of stress – before it spirals into burnout.

What can HR teams do to help fight burnout?

HR teams are in the ideal position to take a lead on tackling burnout. Here are 5 things you can do to help reduce stress in the workplace:

• Create a wellbeing charter – A formal document that states your organisation’s standards and expectations for wellbeing shows a real commitment to your people’s happiness. It can guide training and development goals, and make sure that employee wellbeing is considered during times of organisational change.
• Check in regularly with your team– Regular 1-2-1 check ins with the people you manage can give them a ‘safe space’ to talk about anything that’s on their mind. It’ll also make it more likely that you’ll spot changes in their demeanour. 1-2-1s can be run online for remote employees, to avoid feelings of isolation.
• Train people to identify stress and offer support – It’s not only crucial for people to notice signs of stress in others, but also for people to diagnose stress in themselves. The earlier it’s acted on, the better. Regular training on wellbeing should be mandatory for all staff, starting with their onboarding process.
• Survey your employees for ideas and feedback– You’ll get a sense of what it’s really like at ground level if you can regularly survey the mood and opinions of the workforce.
• Encourage people to use their annual leave – When people are under pressure, they can sometimes feel guilty about taking time off work. Reminding people to use their full annual leave entitlement shows you appreciate they have a life outside of work.

It’s time to change the way we think about workplace stress

In an ideal world, our working lives would be stress free and we’d switch off as soon as we got home. But human nature just isn’t like that, and it’s perfectly normal to worry about work just as we do with any other aspect of our lives. But that doesn’t mean stress should be normalised into your working culture. Burnout is both a mental health and a physical problem, and it shows how our entire wellbeing can dependent on a positive work environment. Organisations have a duty to provide this, or risk becoming the type of employer that nobody wants to work for. Healthy employees mean a healthier bottom line – so act now to make burnout one less thing to worry about!

If you want to talk to your employees about mental health but don’t know how to start the conversation, see our adviceon how to reach out.

Read more:
Fighting burnout in the workplace

Stress and mental health in local government is often in the news but it isn’t a new problem. Pressure is part and parcel of all work and helps to keep you focused and motivated.

But excessive pressure can lead to stress which undermines performance, is costly to the public sector and can make people really ill. A survey by the mental health charity Mind has reported in the MBJ that public health workers are more likely to be suffering with mental health illnesses compared with those in the private sector, whilst they are less likely to feel supported when they disclose these problems.

The need to tackle stress is recognised in law. Under the Health and Safety at Work Action 1974 and the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulation [1999], employers are obliged to undertake a risk assessment for health hazards at work – including stress – and to take action to control that risk.

Organisations have a duty of care to uphold towards their staff and failure to put effective measures in place to prevent, or at least give access to immediate assistance, can often lead to heavy financial penalties.

The Challenge

Many employees find they are unable to cope with the pressures of work and become overwhelmed. Add to this, the pressures of commuting and modern day living, the organisation may find that it is suffering with extended absenteeism putting pressure on already overstretched resources.

Every Council will have its own stress fingerprint and with an increased workload, high rising levels of stress can be exacerbated by feelings of job insecurity, prolonged uncertainty and threats of further spending cuts.

This can lead to:

• Low morale
• Loss of confidence
• Physical harm and injury
• Low staff retention
• High absenteeism
• Loss of talent

All of which will affect the bottom line and spirit of the organisation.

The Solution – Build a Healthy Workplace Culture

The solution is not rocket science and does not need to be a costly intervention. Many Councils will already have interventions in place such as an EAP counselling service, mental health first-aiders and health and wellbeing initiatives. However, these interventions will not work unless stress is identified at the frontline. The frontline is of course line Management, team leaders, supervisors and in fact all individuals who have responsibility for other employees.

They are the ones whose role it is to manage their teams, look out for early signs of stress, make time to talk to them and introduce whatever interventions might be needed to support them. An employee may have problems with childcare, flexible working, eldercare, role ambiguity, and the sooner the manager makes the time to talk to them about what they can do to help, the sooner the employee will get back to full performance and productivity.

That is why it is not rocket science!

Wellbeing Habits

Of course, it’s also important for e managers to appreciate that they can’t look after their team members if they don’t look after themselves. Leading by example and having good wellbeing habits in the workplace is key to reducing absenteeism and getting their teams to thrive. If a manager keeps their email on 24/7 and expects their employees to respond every time they write to them, they are setting a very poor example of good wellbeing habits and putting their employees under unnecessary pressure.

Managers are busy people. However, busy people are quite able to ignore their own signs of stress, become an adrenaline junkie and then find themselves on the road to burnout. It can happen to anyone at any time.

Imagine a vase that has been dropped and has been glued and put back together again. You may well be able to use it for artificial flower arrangements, but you will never be able to put water in it otherwise it will leak. It works the same for our bodies. Your body may break down and you might get back to some form of work again, but it will not be in the same capacity.

So, what are the signs of burnout?

• Feeling tired all the time
• Inability to concentrate
• Increased anxiety
• Anger management issues
• Lack of motivation
• Severe health issues
• Prolonged absenteeism
• Lack of care with appearance
• Overuse of alcohol, medication and recreational drugs

But it is important to remember that no two people are the same.

Walking-the-talk

The role of line managers in employee wellbeing is so vital as they are often the first port of call when an employee has a problem. With the right skillset in place, they will have the capability and confidence to tackle those sensitive conversations with an employee, intervene when they can, and signpost to other supportive interventions that may be required.

Managing people and being perceptive about their needs is key to a healthy workplace culture. Now I know Managers may tell me that they don’t have the time to listen to their teams or don’t have the skillset to do so and let us not forget that many managers are promoted into managerial positions because of their technical skills and not because of their people management skills. Accepting the promotion is easy and the realisation that they have to manage fifty people may not actually dawn on them until they are fully ensconced in the job.

If Managers don’t have the listening skills to communicate with their teams, it’s only a matter of getting trained. It is as simple as that. Leaders who support a listening skills culture will enjoy a more productive and profitable team. That is why we offer Senior Executive Masterclasses in active listening. If leaders know how to look after their people, they will look after their team objectives which will drive the bottom line.

What Next?

Managing stress takes practice and discipline. It doesn’t come naturally to everyone as there are so many different calls on your time – whether that be from home or from work. However, it is vital to make mental wellbeing an everyday habit and make sure you build personal and team resilience to manage the ‘21^stcentury overwhelm culture’.

You may do little about the stress you’re having to manage at work – in some ways this could be out of your control. But what is inside your control is your resilience to manage it. Take time to learn what it will take to be more resilient, know how to switch off after work, and achieve a healthy work-life balance.

As a manager having the right attitude and mindset will carry you forward. Don’t be an invisible force around the office. Don’t be the Manager who says ‘my door is open’ but always has it closed! Walk the talk and engage with your staff.

Don’t forget that employees like to feel valued and appreciated. A hand-written thank you note will go a long way to increasing motivation and morale – and all for no extra money in the pay packet! It’s really that simple.

Turn a culture of ME into a culture of WE and put a healthy workplace culture, wellbeing and work-life balance, top of your agenda. If you’re unsure of how to develop a culture of wellbeing in the workplace, take a look at my most recent article which explains the benefits of wellbeing and ways to promote it. Don’t sweep stress-related issues under the carpet and think they will go away. Odds are they won’t!

Given how much time we spend at work and how much mental ill-health there is, it is really important that Managers engage, involve and inspire their people – and carry them with them!  They need to encourage a positive working environment where people will look forward to coming to work. A workplace where employees feel included and part of the way forward. The positive impact that this will have on employees will be enormous and the organisation will benefit from a happier, healthier, more engaged and productive team of employees.

Need to Reduce Absenteeism in your Organisation?

We can help.  Just click here and book a 30 minute complimentary Discovery Call with me to find out how we might be able to help you.

A Case Study

Bill James worked as an IT Specialist in a local City Council for over five years. He knew his boss was leaving and was waiting to hear who was going to take over from him. The CEO called him into her office and asked if he would like the post. More money, more recognition, more responsibility. He jumped at the chance. Three months into post, he realised that managing people was not his forte.  He was a left-brain person; happy with machines but not with people. At first, he didn’t like to admit this to himself but when things started to get out of hand, he went to HR and shared his concerns.  He was ‘not to worry and would learn on the job’. He never did. He stopped sleeping, was answering emails late at night, found himself irritable with his team members and lost the pleasure of going into work. He ignored all these signs until he started to get chest pains and his wife made an appointment for him to see the doctor. The doctor said that if he didn’t start to control his working life, he was on the road to burn out. The next three weeks he looked after himself, switched off from work completely, walked and ate well, and even learnt mindfulness. Bill was one of the lucky ones as he was able pull back from where he was. He went back to work and immediately went to HR where he insisted on some managerial training. 

First of all, he wanted some support in leading his team and immediately put himself onto a listening skills programme for Managers. He had people to manage and had received no training to do so.  He knew he had to recognise signs and symptoms of stress in his team early but did not have the skillset to do so.

His email was out of control, so he placed boundaries and limitations as to when he did and did not answer it. Before he would stop what he was doing every time an email popped up on his screen! He allowed himself to switch his phone off, so he was not available 24/7. He learnt how to close his office door at the end of an evening and switch off from work. 

A year into the post, Bill now heads up a successful team in the Council. There are of course still many challenges due to job security and threats of more cuts, but he feels in control of what he is doing.  He knows he is a role model to the rest of his team and every day he walks the talk and spends time communicating with his team, providing praise and recognition to his valued employees.

Read more:
Stress: The silent problem within local government that you may never notice

Corporate culture and practice have gone through significant change over the years.

From the deeply sexist and toxic Mad Men-esque environments of the ’60s and ’70s, to the mind-numbing and isolating cubicle-based layouts of ’80s and ‘90s offices (where sexism was still there in more subterfugal ways).

Dr. David Plans, CEO and Co-Founder at BioBeats, says that looking at these examples, one might think we have made good progress in terms of culture in the workplace, but there are still many issues to be resolved; chief among which is the stereotypical vision of what makes a great leader.

Corporate culture is often defined by its leadership and in how people believe they need to act to climb the ranks. The stereotype of a leader is a mix of strength, power, and resilience, with a laser-focus on results and the ability to suppress all emotion.

Leaders are meant to remain stoic and unyielding in the face of stress. Such personal traits are idolised, rewarded, and sought out in today’s corporate culture, but are they really the qualities we ought to look for in our leaders?

This deep-rooted stereotype has led to decades (if not centuries) of gender assumptions around leadership traits being easier to find in men, who in many cases grow up being told vulnerability is a sign of weakness and systematically confuse emotional restraint with resilience as a result.

The ability to suppress emotion isn’t a skill we should praise. In reality, suppressing emotion while simultaneously combatting the stress and pressures of a leadership role can turn anyone into a ticking time bomb.

It can bring a person to the brink of an explosive episode, where any challenge may trigger toxic behaviour, which makes people around them unwell (and kills productivity). When we add a lack of good-quality sleep, constant and often difficult decision-making demands, and the continuous challenge of maintaining a work/life balance (particularly in employees with families), it can all bubble up and manifest in burnout.

Corporate culture is in crisis. This is not hyperbole; it is the stark reality of how work impacts our lives today. Data from Mind shows a staggering 95% of employees who have taken time away from work due to stress named another reason for their absence, such as an upset stomach or headache, in order to avoid discussing their mental wellbeing.

Meanwhile, research by the Mental Health Foundation found 29% of people had felt so stressed that they started drinking or increased their drinking, and 16% had started smoking or increased their smoking.

The impact goes beyond individual health. For businesses and the wider economy, poor mental wellbeing manifests in increased sick days, high levels of presenteeism, and unsustainable staff churn, which translate into higher costs for training, recruitment, temporary staff and lower productivity overall.

At a time when the UK economy is suffering due to its productivity levels and when poor mental health is costing employers £42 billion per year, the corporate culture crisis must be at the forefront of all business leaders’ minds.

So how do we combat this issue? Partly, the issues found in corporate culture are embedded in the values we are taught at an early age. Boys are still too often told to “man up” and to hide perfectly valid emotions. This encourages children, as they grow, to bottle up their feelings and to dismiss poor mental health as something that happens to ‘other people’.

With men still dominating the board room – only 6.4% of full-time executive roles at FTSE 250 firms are held by women – tackling how we ingrain gender stereotypes must be part of how we discuss mental health as a society.

We must educate our children from a young age on the difference between vulnerability and weakness; emotional availability and vulnerability are foundational to a balanced psychological life and should be taught (as well as basic tenets of mental health overall) in the same way basic maths skills and science are.

Understanding and being comfortable with vulnerability is essential to be able to accurately calculate risk, pursue innovation, and recover from failure. It is a core part of how individuals and organisations grow beyond known their known parameters. In other words; to lead successfully, one must understand how to be open and vulnerable.

A leader who understands the impact their behaviour has on employees will treat them more fairly, because they will understand how to be compassionate towards themselves, first, and how to be more emotionally available in discussions and negotiations as a result.

They will be able to understand the stresses put upon employees, identify problems before they manifest as something much worse, and break the cycle of ‘power and strength’ being seen as the defacto standard mode of operation for a successful business.

Better leadership leads to many positives. Better business, a better economy, and perhaps most importantly, better mental health for the nation as a whole, which will inevitably translate into higher productivity. The male mental health crisis is fueled by widespread ignorance of the points this article has raised, and it is one of the factors crippling our productivity. Change is required; right now.

Read more:
Combatting the male mental health crisis in corporate culture

According to research conducted by the TUC, the average daily commute now sits at 58 minutes, meaning that people are spending 27 working days a year commuting to work.

According to the same research, the number of commuters travelling over 2 hours to work has increased by 34% over the last 10 years. Whether you travel to work by train or car, it will come as little surprise that the stress of commuting can have a negative impact on your mental health. One report stated that half of commuters say that the commute increases their stress levels and over one third say that the commute decreases the amount of time that they spend sleeping.

Read more:
How to reduce stress on your commute

If you run your own business or are employed in a managerial position in someone else’s, then looking after your team is key.

As well as ensuring they have the support needed to work to their full potential, it is also vital to consider the pastoral side of your role. A good leader will always keep an eye on the emotional state of their employees and help them to feel happy at work too.

One thing to be on the lookout for here is how stressful working conditions may be impacting certain people. If you notice this happening, then you need to take action to deal with the situation.

How can you manage or avoid stressful conditions affecting staff?

Perhaps the best way to begin doing this is by making your workplace and the conditions staff exist in as low stress as possible. You could, for example, implement a firm policy on how customers treat your staff in person or on the phone to reduce any unpleasant incidents impacting them.

If your office is cluttered, then you could tidy up to make it feel like a nicer place to be in. Of course, some stressful conditions are simply caused by people not getting along! In this case, you need to act as a mediator to bring both parties together and solve the issue for everyone else’s good.

But what if stressful conditions cannot be avoided or totally eliminated? Your business may, for example, require staff to work long hours, have a full role at all times or deal with sometimes distressing material or situations.

The best approach to managing stress in others involves undergoing comprehensive training on dealing with it yourself and then using this knowledge to help others in your team or business.

Just how do stressful conditions affect staff output?

Some business owners may wonder if the above efforts are really worthwhile. Stressful conditions and the impact they have on staff performance should not be underestimated though. It is not only morally right to address these problems but also much better for your business. In simple terms, happier staff are more productive staff! But what specific ways can working conditions that induce stress in some harm their output?

More days off sick

The first way this can damage employee’s performance is through increased levels of absenteeism. As well as people being off more if they are stressed, the timescales involved with people feeling well enough to come back to work can be lengthy.

Stressful conditions could cause a staff member to take time off at regular intervals and for weeks at a time. This naturally is a barrier to them performing at their best.

Poor engagement with your business

For business owners to really get all they can from your employees, they have to feel engaged and connected with your business. If the working conditions they come into each day are stressful to them then this will just not happen. In fact, they will resent you for making them work in such a situation and disconnect from your goals. Ultimately, this will cause them to perform much worse over the long term.

Inability to produce their best

Even if staff do love your brand and believe in what you are doing, stressful conditions may make it impossible to perform at their best. If there is one colleague who is being nasty to them each day, they will simply not be in the right mental state to work to their maximum potential. This is the same for conditions where noise, clutter or poor lighting may affect them.

Customer service will drop

If you have staff that are stressed by where they work, then it is unlikely that they will deal with customers in a sympathetic or pleasant way. As they will be feeling tired and irritable from the constant stress of their working conditions, they are highly likely to take this out on your customers when speaking to them. Customer service is key to the success of any modern company and the decreased performance in this area could be disastrous.

Try to manage stress before it becomes an issue

The good news around this area is that, as a manager or business owner, you have the power to address staff concerns around working conditions. This gives you the edge in helping to avoid them or manage them as needed. The above shows just why this is so key – if you do not, then the subsequent drop off in staff performance could derail your whole organisation. It is much better to do the right thing before then and help staff to deal with any stress they feel through the environment they work in.

Read more:
How do stressful conditions lead to poor staff performance?

Have you ever gone through life where you keep on experiencing the same uneasy feelings, the same set-backs, the same self-doubts, and often reverting back to the same behavioural patterns that don’t seem to benefit you?

I certainly have, no matter how well I am be doing I return to the same self-doubt, no matter how confident I may be at a given time the feeling doesn’t last, when the drive and determination occurs I know a few weeks later the dips and self- sabotage will also occur.

This was until I discovered Mindfulness and Meditation, but what really helped seal the deal was discovering Rapid Transformation Therapy.

What is Rapid Transformation Therapy? Wow where do I begin?!

This therapy which is a hybrid of hypnosis, NLP, CBT and psychoanalysis was created by UK’s best voted therapist Marisa Peer. From childhood we create scripts in our mind based on everything we experience around us. Our interaction with parents, teachers, friends, colleagues, employers and their behaviours, opinions, and thoughts go towards forming our own beliefs about ourself. All of this begins to form our identities and the way we act and portray ourselves.

These beliefs are wired onto our brain, and as we reinforce these though patterns, the wiring becomes stronger. If these opinions are negative then we will perceive ourselves in a negative manner, the self doubt, and lack of self love will influence our present life. A lot of these thoughts are in the subconscious part of the brain and we aren’t even aware of their existence, but they are there, continuing to have an impact on our daily life.

Rapid Transformation Therapy begins by exploring the root cause of where these beliefs have stemmed from; by working deeply on the subconscious level. When you are able to understand where the belief came from we can work to release this, and rewire the brain with positive beliefs instead. The brain is very suggestible to new ideas, so allowing the new positive beliefs to be embedded on the subconscious level can then allow the transformation to begin.

Understanding our beliefs is key to knowing why we behave in certain ways and attract the same friends, ‘luck’, and relationships that may not always prove to be positive. To break this cycle we need to understand the root cause of it, often we would not make a connection between an experience in childhood or even later has been having a direct impact on our life ever since.

Most of my life my mind was trapped in the belief I wasn’t enough. I was always searching for friends to accept me and doing absolutely anything to make them ‘like me’, I would be the one waiting for text messages and taking it super personally when there wasn’t an instant reply. I was the one wishing I had the outgoing personality of my cousins, the intelligence of my partner, the confidence and motivation of my friends.

For me understanding that I was holding onto so many beliefs from childhood and how they were having an impact on my everyday life for the last 20 years was a game changer. Experiencing Rapid Transformation Therapy was incredible, I was able to break free finally, feel the weight lift, and almost feel like a completely new person. The process was deep, very emotional and a huge eye opener, however through it I found my own self worth, self acceptance and self love and that truly set me free.

I began to finally set my own goals, created my own vision for the future, felt like an equal who was able to push past any judgements and soar forward. The results continue to amaze me, my friendships are thriving and continuing to grow, family relationships getting stronger and stronger and my business is flying.

Working on goals is fantastic, working on self development is amazing, but if you are ready to really dig deep and transform to become the person you absolutely deserve to be then rapid transformation therapy is definitely the game changer you’ve been waiting for.

Read more:
Breaking through using Rapid Transformation Therapy