CATEGORY HEALTH & WELLBEING
Mind Your Mind Looking After Your Mental Health During a Pandemic
Looking after your mental health is extremely important during these challenging times, and whilst work can be a welcome distraction from the anxiety of a global pandemic, it can also be difficult for some people to feel ‘productive’ under such extreme circumstances.
I chatted to various members of the Organisation
body’s individual circumstances and support them
about how they managed to sustain a sense of ca-
as much as you can. I’m sure that those people who
maraderie during lockdown and their tips for mov-
did have to leave will come back once things are
ing forwards as lockdown starts to ease. Despite
properly up and running again, and we will welcome
the geographical separation, there are still ways in
them with open arms’.
which you are able to feel connected to your col-
Kevin Nash
leagues and your friends; it is these connections that help pull you through the difficult days and
‘A vast majority of the people we recruit are quite
ensure that you still feel like you are part of a team.
young - in the 18-35 age bracket - so they don’t necessarily have children to home-school or as many
‘The strangest thing for us has been the separa-
other responsibilities. This has meant that they’ve
tion. We are such a face-to-face company, we spend
been able to fully throw themselves into the online
most of our days in each other’s pockets! We thrive
coaching programme and have kept themselves
off being in busy places, attending events, travel-
busy in a way that’s been incredibly productive’
ling the world and are used to lots of physical con-
Fran Colam
tact, you know, hugging and high-fiving each other as a way of establishing a tangible sense of what
2) Staying connected
we’re about: people! So it’s been a difficult time, but
‘I made sure that 90% of people had contact with
I’m very proud of the way that every single one of
at least one other person in the organization every
our offices has dealt with things; we’ve found the sil-
single day. This was so important in keeping a sense
ver lining in all this and have made a lot of progress
of cohesion and togetherness across the company.
in terms of the way we operate as an organisation.
Even just one conversation with someone else in
It was very much a case of, let’s pull together and
your company means that your bubble of solitude is
not just ‘get through it’ but come out the other side
broken and you are able to see things a little more
even stronger’.’
clearly. It means that you’re not so stuck in your
Fran Colam
head and you’re able to, well, simply communicate! Weekends were by far the hardest. The weekdays
1) Respecting each individual and their needs
flew by because there was a solid structure in place.
‘We’ve been doing things like Zoom Quizzes to
A lot of the guys were starting their day with a call at
keep everyone together which has been great. It’s
8.30am and had a solid timeline in place for the rest
different for everybody though; some people have
of the week, whereas the weekends really dragged
slipped through the gaps regarding government
on because when you don’t have anywhere to go, or
support and so have had to take other employment,
people to see, you become acutely aware of time!’
but then on the flip side of that, we’ve had a fantas-
Phil Reid
tic period of recruitment. You have to respect every-
049
