Seeing your colleagues in their pyjamas is good for you
6 minute read
So much has already been written about the negative impacts of the pandemic and lockdown on mental health (plenty of it by me!) that I wanted to look at this experience from another angle.
What benefits has it brought us? What have we learned which we can bring back into the office and our wider relationships as and when we return to more familiar work environments?
Improved relationships
It might seem strange to suggest our relationships with colleagues have improved, given we’ve not seen any of them in the flesh for many months. However, by virtue of Skype, Zoom and Teams we’ve had a unique window into one another’s lives. A degree of intimacy which has created new understanding and conversations.
Spouses, babies, dogs and cats have been unexpected but fairly regular features on conference calls and catch ups. We no longer apologise for our personal lives transgressing into our work lives, because they are increasingly one and the same. We join the ranks of more famous people who have dealt with delightfully exasperating work interruptions with a smile.
And from this we gain a much richer awareness of those with whom we work. We can put a face (or at least a coffee-bearing arm) to the name we heard a newlywed colleague talk so much about. We can empathise with the additional stress of someone’s family situation when it stomps into our Skype call and demands a biscuit*.
And with empathy, with these intimate insights, come better, more fruitful relationships. We connect in a more meaningful way, and that’s a big deal. Good relationships are one of the many key aspects to wellbeing.
There’s a significant and growing body of research which shows that quality relationships are good for our mental health. If we’re dealing with or recovering from a period of mental ill-health, friends and family can be the linchpin of our support network. The foundation on which we rest when we need to. Work relationships are no less important, and returning to an office environment with all this additional wealth of understanding can only do us good.
A renewed understanding of our values
That’s just a fancy way of saying that this experience has, for many of us, helped crystallize what’s truly important in our lives. The experiences we’re missing the most, the things we are yearning to do, or the people we most want to see.
This is an opportunity to reflect on whether we’re living a life in line with those values and desires. For many of us who are working from home, lockdown has brought a somewhat slower pace of life and lifestyle. Without a hectic social calendar** we have more time to consider making substantial changes to our living situations. With the potential for longer-term increases in remote working becoming ever more likely, interest in country properties have skyrocketed. People who would have never previously considered living a life outside a major city now feel that this is a viable choice.
Even if we’re not thinking about moving to a farm, those working from home have benefited from a gift of time. On average, office workers were spending 59 minutes per day commuting. Focus on London and that number jumps even higher. Assuming you’ve not used that extra time for work (and I really hope you haven’t) there’s been brand new leisure time available for all of us. Sales of e-readers and e-books have increased.
The opportunity to reflect on what’s important has also meant many of us focusing more on self-care. Everything from a global shortage of gym equipment to almost 300,000 people in the UK giving up smoking. This focus on the importance of self – following the oxygen mask theory – is something which we can take back into our working future to positive effect.
We get why mental health matters
From my own myopic perspective, one of the most notable positive outcomes of this whole experience is that more people are taking mental health seriously.
Pre-2020, we were already in a global epidemic of depression and anxiety. Suicide is the biggest killer of men under 40 in the UK, and the second leading cause of death globally for young people aged 15-29. In the short term, COVID is likely to have worsened, but has simultaneously moved the needle in a huge way in terms of awareness.
So many more conversations are happening about how we feel. Our very remoteness has brought to the fore the importance of managers to make deliberate efforts to connect with their staff. Has meant heightened awareness of our own and others’ mental state. Has given permission for these topics to be raised in a work context as never before.
If nothing else, if we take this openness, honesty and desire look out for one another back into the office with us, we all stand to benefit.
*Spouse or child; you decide.
**Well someone’s got one, but it’s certainly not me!