THE MENTAL HEALTH IMPACTS OF RETURNING TO WORK

Talking to Arthur Ellis about mental health

Why might people be anxious about coming back into the office and how can you build this into your return to work strategy?

One of the main things we get asked by corporate clients is ‘can you help us identify the signs of mental health issues?’ The answer is ‘Yes, however, that person is already going to be unwell’.

Difficult situations can set off a domino effect, ultimately resulting in an impact on our behaviour, and unfortunately bad behaviour can become embedded quite quickly leading to long term issues. Instead of reacting when we identify unwellness, in ourselves or others, we need to live and work in a way that actively fights against negative coping strategies.

How our mental health is impacted by an event can be determined largely by how our behaviours are impacted. Positive behavioural changes may cause change for the good, however negative changes can have a deleterious effect on the mental health of us and our colleagues.

The best way to illustrate this is by looking at the banana and the doughnut. A banana will provide us with energy throughout the day, doesn’t have a lot of fat and has a lot of nutrients that are good for us. Eating one a day might not necessarily be something that we get excited about, but it would be good for us. This is what happens when we keep active, socialise (even digitally) or learn new skills.

A doughnut will give us a sugar rush, making us immediately feel great, but if we’re not careful and eat too many, we may start to see and feel the negative benefits. This is what happens when we watch too much TV, eat unhealthily, or don’t move much.

It’s easy to replace our healthy banana behaviours with a doughnut. When we are stressed, we crave a high-carb, high-fat or high-sugar treat. It’s called comfort food for a reason! If we are on the metaphorical treadmill at work, we often justify skipping our healthy lunchtime walk or trip to the gym under the premise that ‘I can’t possibly leave my desk’.

As with all things, doughnuts included, it’s a balance. If we have strong enough banana behaviours then we can have a doughnut once in a while without it having much of an effect on us. If we aren’t strong enough then one day turns to two, turns into ten, and all of a sudden we forget that we ever used to go for a lunchtime walk at all.

What happens to these behaviours when people work from home? Well, simply, they go for that walk at lunch instead of powering through. They can wash up after themselves without needing to ‘leave it to soak’. They make a healthy meal because they are not commuting home past ‘place well-known food chain here’. They have more autonomy to manage their time. Conversely, they may be feeling isolated. They may skip the gym as it’s not on the way to the office, and they might be disconnected from their work and colleagues. When bringing our teams back, we need to understand how their lives have changed over the last few months. What positive things have they stopped doing, what unhelpful things have they seen creeping in?

If our colleagues have seen positive changes, they may become unenthusiastic about returning to work, and even resentful. If they have been struggling at home, they will be more enthusiastic! We recommend talking to your teams to understand what their journey has been during lockdown so you can anticipate any issues.

By understanding our teams positive but vulnerable behaviours, we can:

- be less reactive and more proactive - recognise the positive behaviours dropping off before negatives creep in - consistently work towards mental health and well-being improvement - mitigate risks - recognise trends and shape company-wide initiatives/benefits

Arthur Ellis have developed an IMPROVE Programme to strategically improve organisational mental health and well-being. Our initial Insight Meetings are free and might help steer you in the right direction.

If you think we can help. Please head over to www.arthurellismhs.com or email info@arthurellismhs.com