Increasing our resilience to working from home

On Monday 19th July 2021, the final steps out of England’s lockdown came into effect and COVID-19 restrictions changed as agreed by the UK Prime Minister, with other countries around the globe taking similar approaches to managing the spread of the virus.

The last step of the road map out of lockdown (step four) for England included:

  • Removal of social distancing requirements
  • No limits on the number of people you can meet inside or outside
  • Face masks no longer a legal requirement
  • No limits on the number of visitors to care homes
  • All businesses to be reopened
  • Instruction for people to work from home ended

Although much of the world is navigating a ‘new normal’ after a traumatic sixteen months, many employees who have been instructed to work from home since early 2020 will see a very gradual return to a workspace and some will not return at all following office closures and restructuring. A shift to a flexible working style when compared to pre-pandemic working could be desirable to many employees but it might not benefit everyone and working full time permanently at home could be a challenge for many.

Rise in stress

A new paper released by the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) in the UK revealed that employees that have been living and working alone during the pandemic have suffered increased levels of loneliness and mental distress due to a lack of face-to-face interaction. The study by NatCen analysed data from interviews carried out with thousands of people before the pandemic, and during. The paper states, “The lack of new experiences and face-to-face interactions during the pandemic may be contributing to increased mental distress for home workers who would not class themselves as lonely”. Unsurprisingly, the blurred lines between work and personal life could be playing a part in mental health distress.

Staying resilient

Psychological research points to four fundamentals that we need in order to stay resilient. Known as the four Cs, these are:

• Community • Commitment • Challenge • Control Understanding how each C is important to be able to build resilience, improve performance, and ultimately help us create a happy and structured working day for ourselves. They can be used as a framework for our personal lives as well, and we can think about different aspects that we need to be mindful over under each of these areas to maintain our mental resilience:

Community - belonging, interaction with others

Commitment - setting a goal to deliver on something, being part of something important

Challenge - working towards something achievable

Control - control over our daily life, output and/or our environment

Combating loneliness

Positive interaction from a community outside of a friendship circle or family can be beneficial and employee resource groups at work can provide this. Many companies have voluntary, employee-led groups that are a resource for members as they nurture inclusive values and practices, and being a member enables you to join discussions and events. Sometimes these groups focus on diversity, such as gender equality, but each will be different. Employers could also think about a monthly magazine to help employees stay connected whilst working from home more.

Outside of work, some companies send free weekly or monthly e-mails to subscribers to stay connected. Penguin Books UK send regular e-mails to subscribers on different topics based around reading, and the online yoga entrepreneur Adriene Mishler of Yoga With Adriene sends weekly e-mails to all subscribers. This can also lead to positive interactions through platforms like Twitter, if you follow a topic, community or person. Now that COVID-19 restrictions are easing, we might consider social apps focused on sport, like Racket Pal, which can help users find a tennis partner.

Support services

Many employers offer an Employee Assistance Programme, which usually provides confidential telephone or face-to-face counselling, as well as other services, like childcare or eldercare resourcing.

It could be a good idea to find out what is available to take more control and increase resilience to this continued new way of working. We have included a further reading list below:

Revealed: rise in stress among those working from home | Working from home | The Guardian

Using psychology to boost mental health (peoplemanagement.co.uk)­­ Yoga with Adriene