Return to Work Stress (Transcription)
Hi! I am here to help with any sort of resources or tips that I can give you to help – in terms of mental health counseling or insurance-related daily struggles, stressors, things like that. So as always, if you have something that you want me to talk about, feel free to message me on Instagram or Facebook, and I would be happy to talk about it.
Work Re-entry Anxiety
So today we are going to talk about anxiety rates of re-entry. Specifically, if you’re working in a job that is going back in person because I think that is really stressful right now, I’ve heard a lot of things from people that this is kind of at the top of their list of things that are stressing them out. So we’re going to talk a little bit about how to help her do some of the anxiety of going back into the work workforce.
COVID-19 Transitional Stress
So if you look back on one of my videos, when the pandemic kind of first started, I talked about, you know, the transitional stress that being maybe feeling with going out of the office and working from home. So it’s kind of similar in terms of you’re going to be experiencing that transitional stress again with the summer, obviously the opposite of going back into the workforce. There’s going to be a lot of stress that you might be feeling. There’s a level of anxiety. That’s going to be very normal for what you’re feeling. And so I don’t want you to feel like you’re alone in that because a lot of people are scared. They’re angry, they’re emotional or sad. There’s a lot of feelings.
Working Remote
You know, we’ve been working from home for probably around a year, about a year and a half now. And to go back into the office could cause a lot of different emotions. So a lot of those are normal and we want to focus on how we can get through that and get through those emotions. So the first thing you want to do, like I said, in the beginning of the video, what can you control if your company is a company that’s saying that you have, when you back into the office, then that’s something that’s out of your control, right? You can’t really control what they say, what can you control? You know, what does that look like for you? What is your routine gonna look like? Try to control those things. And anything that you feel is in your control, you can control how you react to being back in the office and it seems difficult, but there is some sense of control that you can have with that.
Focus on the Positives
The next thing you want to do, focus on the positives. Try to find those positives that you have. You know, you’ll get to see your work friends again in person, you’ll get to kind of get that normal feeling, although it’s probably not going to feel normal anymore, but you knew that at some point it felt normal to you and it probably felt good for you. So try to focus on the things that are positive about this and just kind of make a list of that just so you can realize, okay, there are some good things that go along with going back into the office. And some things I talked about this in alumni videos, acceptance, is he here? Acceptance doesn’t mean you agree with it, and that you’re necessary enough. You’re necessarily happy with it, but accepting is for you to be able to move forward and accept it in order to hopefully then meaning some of those emotions that are going along with it.
Acceptance
So accepting that I can’t change this. This is the policy and this is what’s happening. This is the job that I’m doing. This is, it is what it is. I have to do this. Right. And also accepting the fact that things are going to be different, right? I mean, they’re not going to be the same as you, when you were first in the office before COVID, they’re going to be different than they were. So not trying to have that expectation of it’s going to be the same as before COVID or Trinity. The team is when I’ve been working from home, it’s going to be different and that’s okay. You just have to address to it just like you did when you came out of the office obviously reach out for help if needed, you know, if you’re struggling and you’re really stressed about this and you’re experiencing more anxiety or depression, or just additional stress that you feel like is just a little bit too hard for you to handle on your own right now, that’s totally fine.
Employee Assitance Programs
Reach out your company might have an employee assistance program where you get a handful of sessions with a counselor for free check that out. If they do, if not, you know, I’ve talked about different ways to reach out to a counselor. You can look back on my other videos on how to find a counselor, but there’s a lot of different websites that you can look to find a counselor or a therapist to be able to get help for that. And the last thing I want to talk about is finding normalcy. So I know I talked about this in the other video when we went from pre-COVID to COVID, where we went to work from home. So find anything that gives you that sense of normalcy that you’ve had from working from home. So if you’re used to having morning coffee, before you go into work, or before you open your laptop and start working, do the same thing and might be a little bit different, but try to get it as similar as possible.
Find a sense of Normalcy
So just making sure, okay, I’m going to have my coffee at home with my spouse or my partner or myself. And then I’m going to go into work, you know, try to find little things that you can do to get a little bit of that normalcy. You know, if you only take your lunch around noon and you watch a certain show during that time, do the same thing as if you’re in the office, take your lunch. If you cannot, at the same time, anything to feel that sense of normalcy of what you’re doing now is going to help ease that transitional stress. So it’s not such a shock to you. So again, a lot of what you’re probably feeling is going to be a normal experience – it’s anxiety-provoking. You know, there’s a lot of emotions that you might feel that’s okay. What’s not okay is ignoring them.
So you don’t want to ignore them. You want to confront them and figure out a plan to help yourself get through this transition. And just like when we’re transitioning from pre-call rate to call it and working from home, you will eventually most likely feel that sense of normalcy that when you’re burying the office, just like you probably have the past couple of months where you’re, this is your routine. Now you’re at home, you’re working, you find your group, it’s going to happen again. It just might take some time, just try to have that outlook of it will happen. And need to take it one step at a time, one day at a time, one hour at a time. So hopefully this helps. I’m going to tell you back, and again, if you have anything else you want me to talk about, please let me know, reach out and I will be happy to look into it for you. All right. Well, have a good rest of your week, everyone.