Every morning when I wake up I get into panic till I start my laptop and login . This is shaped by workplace in distant past and old bosses who was proud of being very particular in tracking 9.15 hours . And then i become senior member of my team and it didn’t matter .But the panic still remains.
In other variation I feel that my boss will fire me today. There is nothing in my work history to support this, but the fear is real.
Back to work plans
Now that we are talking of return to office in 2022 it is important to note that emotional well being might be the key trend of the decade . The 2 plus years of pressure cooker experience we all had-still having has impacted us in many ways . and we don’t even know where and how of it. To begin with we need to accept that fears are not rational. We need to also move from cinema inspired list of mental issues to common man variety of emotional issues ,like i gave above . Which also means that the working mental health makes it very derogatory and un approachable .A more humane emotional wellbeing would be better view point to see it all .
What awaits us at workplace now
In terms of kind of emotional issues we might see , one need to move away from laundry list of ADHA,OCD, divorces and think about grief, dread , fatigue , distortion . These are more likely to show up at workplace as they work silently in the background .The last thing to note is that covid19 was like experiencing a car accident for everyday in last 2,3 years . The impact will be generational .It will take decades of work to get back to cheerful ,focused, motivated individuals that can operate in teams well . This also means the word productive is bad word, we need to now embrace healthy work as the paradigm .
The shift we need to make
One major point is about training and support .The default tendency of organization is to offer meditation or yoga session and email an counsellor helpline. However post covid world will need all of us at the floor to have more empathy , purpose and human connect .It is like moving back from industrial to tribal era of where your group was your main pillar of strength .I wonder how many companies can claim this in a healthy way . However, if you’re looking for arthritis relief, you might try CBD for arthritis relief your health concern.
The last thing is to also acknowledge that everyone in your hierarchy and business chain has been affected emotionally and are trying to balance themselves .It would be wise to think that we are now a gathering of teenagers helping each other to make sense of the world and unknowingly also decide how the generation will shape up. This not to sound alarm but emotional issues can run deep and take lifetime . I hope we and our workplaces are ready for it .
To kickstart you thinking , imagine that you join back at work and find one of you mate heads on desk style sleeping . How do you plan to react ? thats our starting line now …