Workplace Wellbeing: Reviewing 2020 and Exploring Trends for 2021

Speaker 1

Hey, everybody. Welcome back to Zevo Talks. I’m John Paul Hughes. I’m a Health Coaching Content Strategist here at Zevo House. And today on this podcast, we’re going to be looking ahead at 2021. We want to start looking at some of the trends that we’re seeing and we’re predicting to see in 2021.

Speaker 1

This is based off the year of craziness that we’ve had in 2020. So today for this experience, I’ve brought in Ann Gleason. Ann is a qualified humanistic and integrative psychotherapist. Welcome to the podcast, Ann.

Speaker 2

Well, thank you so much. Glad to be here.

Speaker 1

Brilliant. So what I wanted to start off on is kind of setting the foundation for everyone. So overall, what does the past year look like? What are some of the challenges that a lot of individuals and organizations have seen in regards to wellness?

Speaker 1

And is this going to carry on true into 2021 and even beyond?

Speaker 2

as you’re aware, and as I’m aware, as everybody is aware of, it’s been an interesting year. Let’s put it that way. And that’s putting it mildly. But I think that there’s something to be said for the different types of emotional impacts that we’re getting over the year.

Speaker 2

And just to start with that, I think that there’s something in the experience of being met with such a certain kind of messaging on a consistent basis. So let’s say if we think back to last week, which was March, which it feels like for me, we think back to the immediacy of the effects and the impact of the pandemic, and the kind of immediate knock-on effect that it’s had in our lives in lots of different ways,

Speaker 2

including from a workplace perspective. So there’s been a lot of change. There’s been a lot of having to adapt very quickly. And there’s been a lot of normalization of very, very scary, very frightening kinds of messaging and information and stuff like that.

Speaker 2

So if you think about how we kind of survive as humans, there’s a number of ways that we survive. But one of them is by making sense of things that are overwhelming. So normalizing things quickly. It’s how we’re not overwhelmed by things.

Speaker 2

It’s how we get from day to day. So this is part of who we are. So if you can imagine the effect of waking up in the morning, turning on the radio, turning on the telly, and seeing all of these very frightening statistics, very frightening pieces of information, and having to look at that not just every day, but all day, every day.

Speaker 2

So we’ve normalized so much, but from a rational point of view, we’ve normalized all of these kind of messages about all the kind of tragic figures of people passing away, and people getting sick, and the effect that it’s having on everybody’s lives, and instructions on what to do to stay away from people, to stay home, to wear masks, to use hand sanitizers.

Speaker 2

It’s all very overwhelming. So we normalize in order to get through the day. But while we normalize these things from a rational perspective, the emotional impact is something that we don’t take into account on a conscious level, but we do experience from a day to day basis.

Speaker 2

So that kind of causes high levels of stress, high levels of anxiety, high levels of fear, but it’s not something that we’re necessarily clued into. That makes sense. So if you’ve ever had that experience yourself, where you have a certain day, you’re going through a particular day, and nothing from a kind of a tangible or conscious point of view has happened, but you still feel absolutely exhausted,

Speaker 2

take into account that even though we have normalized so many things, we’re still living in the midst of a global pandemic. And we’re still holding down a job in the midst of a global pandemic. We’re dealing with so much change within that job if we have to work from home.

Speaker 2

And also there are many people that are wearing different hats from day to day. So be it taking all of your meetings and working through the day in the corner of your bedroom or the corner of your sitting room or whatever it is, and then racing out and trying to pick up the kids.

Speaker 2

And maybe you’ve done some homeschooling, or maybe you have to get the dinner on and everything like that. So there’s so much pressure on everybody, but it’s pressure that we don’t really recognize for that point that I’ve made around kind of normalizing things in order to cope.

Speaker 2

But also there’s definitely a collective feeling of, I’m sure I can’t be given out because everybody’s in the same boat. You know that kind of way. So like, I often find in my own work, let’s say people would come in with very real, very valid anxieties and fears and really complex emotional experiences, but they kind of cut themselves off at the pass and say, oh, I can’t be given out because.

Speaker 2

I have a job or I can’t be given out because it’s happening to everybody. Whereas they’re not allowing themselves to process that difficulty or process that pain. You know, and I heard it being pushed beautifully by somebody, uh, the other day when they said that, uh, you know what people say that we’re all in the same boat.

Speaker 2

It’s not that we’re on the same boat is that we’re all in different boats, but it’s the same storm, you know, that kind of way. So like, yeah. So whatever your situation, you are dealing with suffering and difficulties and pain.

Speaker 2

And, uh, it might look different to the next person, but it’s no less valid. Yeah. And it’s no less real.

Speaker 1

And say, you know, we’re getting some more positive news at the moment, depending on when you’re listening on this podcast, things like vaccines and things like that. And I think a lot of people are hoping that there’s a slow transition now back to somewhat more normality.

Speaker 1

It’s never going to be the exact same where we left it from. But are these, these almost scars from that hit on emotional well-being, how long do you take them into, you know, next year, the year after?

Speaker 1

Are they something you can suddenly get over once things start to return to normal? Or is something that we need to be addressing going forward, even if things do return back to somewhat more normality?

Speaker 2

Yeah, I think it’ll take a while, because with any kind of stressful experience or with any kind of trauma or suffering, you have to allow for a the process, like you have to process what your experience has been.

Speaker 2

And also, you know yourself with any kind of emotional experience, you don’t just switch back to normal overnight, because certain things have been resolved or certain things have been changed or rectified.

Speaker 2

There’s always something what I would call the residual effect. So kind of allowing yourself to come to terms with a new change. And again, this will be a new transition. So there will be a lot of people that are in a position where they’re finally finding their feet in certain parts of their lives.

Speaker 2

Yeah. And now it’s all changed again. And I think that when you look at that kind of when you look at that process, you have to bear in mind that there’s something around uncertainty. There’s something that is very stressful, of course, and something that is very disconcerting around not a not having control of a situation, and be just kind of walking on eggshells as such.

Speaker 2

So for the last year, there’s been so much uncertainty that we often find ourselves getting into a situation whereby we’re just waiting for the other shoe to drop. You know, when they’re when they’re so over and back, and there’s different messaging, and, you know, timelines for lockdowns are changing and stuff like that.

Speaker 2

So I wouldn’t be surprised if while there is probably a sense of hope around things coming back to quote unquote normal, we will have to kind of address that emotional impact of the long term effect of uncertainty as well.

Speaker 2

And, and, you know, I think that a lot of people might have found that they were putting pressure on themselves to get into a new routine when they were working from home and when they were restricted with regard to distance and stuff and stuff like that.

Speaker 2

And that’s something that we will have to be mindful of is that pressure on ourselves and those expectations for ourselves going forward.

Speaker 1

Well, I think that brings up a really important topic and it’s that idea of pressure and the external pressures that we’ve been faced with during this kind of remote working phase. And even if we do transfer over to maybe, you know, some kind of mesh or remote first structure, this idea of the pressure of things like productivity and the pressure to be, you know, constantly productive at home.

Speaker 1

And yet we have all these challenges that you’ve already brought up, you know, you might be a parent, you might need to, you know, put the dinners on and all these external pressures, like, how can how can individuals manage that pressure to be productive, among other things?

Speaker 2

Hmm. Yeah. Well, I think that productivity piece is a major thing that has shown itself within this process of living in lockdown and living in COVID and stuff like that. And I know if you were to take a glance at social media, you’d see, you would have seen people from the start.

Speaker 2

I don’t know. Did you bake banana bread? Cause I know I didn’t.

Speaker 1

No, I expected me that.

Speaker 2

I barely went near the cooker. I think I threw a few slices of bread toaster and that was it.

Speaker 1

and the rest of it, yeah. All that jazz, yeah, exactly.

Speaker 2

but it’s just interesting that kind of trend or that kind of nuance of culture that has shown itself at the start and all the way through the kind of COVID times and stuff like that and it’s interesting what it means.

Speaker 2

I think on the surface there can be a nice feeling too where there is a kind of a connection of the kind of zeitgeist of what it means to be living in a COVID world but definitely if you were to kind of break it down a little bit and to look at the impact of what these kind of messages mean let’s say if you if people are putting stuff online saying that they’re working on their side hustle or that they’re flat out like from morning to night making banana bread or Guinness bread or whatever kind of bread you’re having yourself or that they’re saying that they’re going to come out of this this lockdown with after losing the COVID curve and all that kind of stuff whereas if you think about it what are you actually doing in this situation and I know I’m repeating myself but we are living through a global pandemic we are in survival mode we are on high alert because of all of those experiences of stress and anxiety and of uncertainty and stuff like that so we’re doing that that’s the kind of base level right on top of that we’re working in it can be the same job it’s a very different process you know and you’re doing it while maybe the kids are roaring at you or maybe your partner is roaring at you to get them a glass of milk or glass of water or whatever it is and you’re trying to adhere to previous kinds of deadlines and priorities and responsibilities that would have been in place when you are perhaps in more of a kind of a setting that’s geared more to the work that you have you’re doing all this and then imagine on top of that you’re being told okay you have to do more you have to show something for your day or else it’s been a wasted day you have to prove that you’ve used every single bit of time that you have in the day because you’re working from home or because you’re in lockdown you’re not on holidays you still have all of these responsibilities and you’re juggling them and many more on top of that so you can imagine that pressure that that’s putting on people to try and have all of these things don’t have the the side hustler to have the brainer to have whatever it is at the end of the day and that’s really problematic in itself because it’s saying that you’ve wasted your time and that you’ve done nothing for it if you can’t show it to the internet that you have it done and there can be many people that dealing with a kind of an internal struggle whereby they for whatever reason it could be influenced from their caregivers from their home environment it could be influenced from their school days that you have to prove that you are worth something by the things that you produce or that your your output or your achievements whereas in in reality you are full worth and full value as a human being from the start that’s the given that’s the jump-off point but there are people that that struggle with that connection because for many reasons they have developed that that kind of connection in their mind that they need to have something to show but to remember that productivity itself it’s it’s not a consistent thing right we have to remember that we’re human and that our kind of emotional experience comes in waves our energy levels come in waves our moods come in waves that’s fine that’s part of being human so if you feel like you have done certain things throughout the day on a particular day all well and good if some days what you’ve had to do is do your best and get through the day and and and do it without having tangible or like social media worthy things to post about that’s fine too it it all comes in waves so you have to allow yourself that process as well and and not to kind of use it as a stick to beat yourself with to to to feel like you’re lazy or anything like that and i think i think you know there’s something as well in the setting that we’re in so we’re I’m sitting here talking to you,

Speaker 2

sitting on my couch. Now, normally in my pre-COVID days, this is my relax time, this is my chill out mode, right? On the couch. But now I’m sitting on the couch or I’m sitting at the table and I’m working away, but there can be something in the kind of the psychological cues that we have.

Speaker 2

So it would maybe mean to some people that because you’re at home, you’re in your own personal time off mode, but really you’re not, you still have stuff to do and you’re working away. So you might feel, God, why am I so tired when I feel like I’ve done nothing and I’ve sat on the couch all day, but you haven’t done nothing and sat on the couch all day.

Speaker 2

You’ve been working away and you’ve been trying to figure different things out throughout the day. All the while, again, sound like a broken record, but all the while living and working through a global pandemic.

Speaker 2

So I think we need to kind of be realistic about that as well. And I think a lot of us have this idea of imposter syndrome or being found out or having that sense of because they’re working from home that they can relax or they can be in their pajama bottoms or their slippers or whatever, but still you’re doing a job and still you’re interacting and you’re engaging with people and you have deadlines to meet.

Speaker 2

So it is exhausting. So we have to kind of marry that kind of what would seem like conflicting experiences, I suppose.

Speaker 1

Yeah. And then maybe on the flip side of the coin, from a managerial standpoint, I’m sure they feel the pressure as well for their staff to be productive. And it’s that conducive maybe to managers being a little bit more micromanagy and putting that additional pressure on their employees just because they can’t visually feed them throughout the day working at their desk doing things.

Speaker 1

So is there that extra pressure for managers just to be always keep an eye directly messaging what are you up to today, having more meetings, having just trying to have more control? Is that an extra pressure that managers are often putting on their staff?

Speaker 2

Yeah, I think it can be because I think that communication has changed so much and connection has changed so much. So like the ease of standing up at your desk and now I would never do this and I know you wouldn’t either but shouting across an office and so like, Hey, can you pass me over that joke there?

Speaker 2

But the ease of that is now gone. And there are so many barriers now of communication. So it could easily feel intrusive if you’re on the receiving end of lots of messages around, Are you doing this?

Speaker 2

Have you got this done? Can you can you do this or whatever? Whereas in a workplace setting, ideally, like a manager could just look up and see that something is happening, or perhaps they’d have like a shared document or something like that, they could kind of keep an eye on things without having to be very kind of consciously inquisitive or observing what’s happening.

Speaker 2

There’s more of an ease of that. Yeah, definitely. Because there’s so many more hurdles to jump.

Speaker 3

Yeah.

Speaker 2

regard to connecting with people, it may have that sense of, of being intrusive as well. So you kind of have to find the, the happy medium with that as well. And I think that something within this process of figuring out new ways of communicating is a acknowledgement of the situation and be transparency all the way.

Speaker 2

And having those open conversations about how are you feeling, next question, how are you really feeling? You know, because we, we fobbed that, ask your not too bad, ask your grand, yeah, no complaints.

Speaker 2

Yeah. Sure. What have I got to be given out about blah, blah, blah. But getting to the nitty gritty of what your own specific individual struggle is like. And it can be a struggle at times. You know, you might find there are certain parts of it that work for you and that you enjoy.

Speaker 2

That’s grand. But to actually connect on a very human level from a kind of, from a managerial point of view is excellent to get an idea as to what life is like, because we’re all learning at the moment.

Speaker 2

We don’t have a clue. This is, you know, the usual crack of no precedence for this situation and the new normal and all this kind of stuff. But we have to be open to learning and we have to be open to hearing from somebody and, and let them be their authentic self as to what their experience is like and gather that, take that information forward and work with this.

Speaker 2

Do you know what I mean?

Speaker 1

for sure. Yeah. And I think then that brings up another challenge that a lot of people are facing. And it’s probably around that social connection piece, and that loneliness piece. And before the office was such a hub for social connection and friends and that you just had that daily disconnect from home.

Speaker 1

And then you’re in this other bubble of people that you could talk to. And now with remote working and even going forward, because we want to be keeping an eye on remote first working, you know, and what a talk a little bit about that challenge that people are having, and possibly some ways that you know, we can address it somewhat.

Speaker 2

Yeah, I think that it’s definitely a challenge because we, like I say, the ease of connection and the ease of communication that we would have had in an office setting, like we absolutely took that for granted.

Speaker 2

I’m not saying that is a bad thing, but I’m saying that it was just such a wonderful part of our everyday that you would be bound to get used to it. And there’s something very disconcerting around having a suggestion of connection or having a hint of connection through something like a video call or something like that, that makes us think that we’re connected with people.

Speaker 2

But then the call suddenly ends and we’re sitting in a quiet room with a dark screen going, what just happened? You know, so making sense of that for ourselves over the course of the last number of months is so difficult because, like I say, there is that sense, there is that suggestion of connection, but it doesn’t quite feel the same.

Speaker 2

And often when we can’t place the changes in something or we can’t place why something has left us feel a little bit lacking, it can be quite unnerving. And it’s something that we carry, but we don’t properly process because we don’t fully understand it.

Speaker 2

So, I mean, it’s a tricky one to look at because of the fact that for safety reasons and to adhere to government guidelines and for the purposes of what’s in place over the last number of months with COVID, there’s nothing you can really do about it.

Speaker 2

Now, I don’t like saying that because it’s very like deal with it, you know, but it’s not about that. It’s about, okay, this feels different. Is that okay if I allow myself to acknowledge that this feels different?

Speaker 2

Bring it out into a group. This is very strange that we’re all talking on this and not trying to, like I would have spoken earlier on about normalizing things very quickly, not feeling like you have to normalize these things, not feeling like you have to be okay with them, to know that while it is a temporary structure in place, it’s not as good as the real thing.

Speaker 2

And fingers crossed, hopefully, when all the all the vaccine trucks come in, we’ll be flying, we’ll be laughing, so we will. But yeah, it’s such a difficult one to try and manage because

Speaker 1

importance to it, isn’t it? I think that that’s probably the main thing we see the importance of that social connection, and even just recognizing that it’s important, and that, you know, hopefully, we’ll be getting back to do it, you know, appreciating it a little bit more is important.

Speaker 1

I guess is there, like, if the if companies are doing that remote first model and say, you know, a company might decide a year down the line, okay, we’re going to do remote first three days a week, and maybe in the office one to two days a week?

Speaker 1

Like, should they be trying to actively support social connection and any kind of communication additionally to what they normally be doing? Should they be having extra meetings, where we say, hey, we’re not going to do this business related, we’re going to be talking about something else?

Speaker 1

Or is there additional things that a manager or an organization do? Is that okay, if we know this is an issue, we see it as an issue? Is there anything at all that we could maybe add into our weekly schedule, or even trainings that we could do with our managers, emotional intelligence, anything like that, just that we not only acknowledge it, but is there something that they’re pro actively going to be doing next year?

Speaker 2

Yeah, I think absolutely. I think you hit the nail on the head with regard to bringing in a space that is not just work-related. Knowing that as humans or social animals, we thrive on this and there is a real loss and a certain particular type of grief that we’ve been dealing with over time because of that lack of connection.

Speaker 2

So definitely introducing more ways of connecting and definitely introducing ways where you can take the work hat off and you can relax a little bit and you don’t have to go into a situation braced because you’re already bracing yourself for the strangeness or the strange experience of connecting through a screen while having to deliver whatever kind of work-related tasks you have.

Speaker 2

So I think little and often is the key. We talk about having particular types of video fatigue and stuff like that. So obviously, this is anecdotal, but from experiences, long periods of time on the screen, obviously not good for the old eyes, but it’s not good for that connection either because it tends to take a different kind of energy out of you.

Speaker 2

So I think little and often and providing those spaces where it’s not work-related and you know what as well, I think that there is something around the experience of people retreating a little bit when they do find that they have that fatigue from the screens and going into their own little bubble a little bit more and more and more over time.

Speaker 2

So there will need to be allowances made for getting back into the routine of connecting with others and getting back into the routine of being sociable. I don’t know about you, but I feel like I’ve forgotten how to talk to people sometimes, which is bad because I’m a psychotherapist, but top therapy is literally what I do for a living.

Speaker 2

But I think that there’s something around not having that ease of the chat, you know, and it’s because we’re out of practice as well. So perhaps specific trainings around connection, around different kinds of communication and also around self-compassion as well and kindness and showing that level of kindness towards yourself around dealing with changes, including the changes around being able to connect with people and then coming back or starting to come back into the old way of doing things.

Speaker 2

But really, again, transparency is a major thing in all of this as well, finding out what people want, finding out what they’re lacking in, finding out what they’re finding difficult within the situation and taking all of that information and using that.

Speaker 2

But baby steps all the way, you know, no russian.

Speaker 1

Okay, so last question I have for you, and I guess it is a difficult one, because I know every organization is different to every company and every team is different. But is there any kind of big picture mindset changes or things you’d like to get across to to organizations or teams that they can take forward into 2021 and say, okay, look, I know this is a challenge.

Speaker 1

And this is something I need to be aware of for my team. Is there anything like big takeaways that you can give to two companies or organizations or teams?

Speaker 2

I think a major one would be acknowledgement of something that has had such a sustained effect on people, bearing that in mind with regard to how their perhaps working day is structured or the kind of pressure that is on them, bearing in mind that we’re human, you know, and that we’re carrying all of this stuff and it needs to be taken into account as well.

Speaker 2

I think as well what this year has shown us from a working point of view is that there’s goodness to be found in flexibility. Do you know what I mean? And while that I think is something that is going to be important going forward because we can stick our head in the sand and pretend we don’t know what’s happening and try and keep things as they were, this old saying of we’ve always done things like this,

Speaker 2

but really keeping a sense of open mindedness with regard to how things are put together. Do you know that kind of way? And communication as well, whether that is creating kind of pockets of communication with staff or whether that is leaving a clear channel of what life is really like.

Speaker 2

Like I say, how are you feeling? How are you really feeling? Using all that information going forward and just to know that nothing is without context as well. So everybody is dealing with so much in their lives that full context, that bigger picture needs to be taken into account going forward.

Speaker 2

And I guess with regard to productivity and with regard to how we shape our day and how we structure our day, this year has shown us that there are certain things that work for people and there are certain things that don’t work for people.

Speaker 2

So it’s figuring out on perhaps on an individual level, what situation can be created for somebody so that they feel like they’re getting the best out of their day and they feel like they’re getting satisfaction from their day and knowing that it’s not a one size fits all.

Speaker 2

And we know that for sure now. So bearing that in mind and having those kind of tailored conversations and using that open mindedness and bringing in that flexibility around that process and around that structure as well.

Speaker 1

That’s brilliant. And I think a lot of a lot of people are going to take a lot from that and be able to just have a little bit of mindset shift. You know, for me, the two things that stand out from what you’ve been saying, it’s just I think that transparency angles really important.

Speaker 1

And then just a little bit of compassion and kindness, you know, towards towards individuals, different needs and different strategies in their life, you know, so yeah, thanks so much. And yeah, I’m gonna leave you guys with that.

Speaker 1

We’re leaving 2020 behind us now, and hopefully moving into a nice positive 2021 and kind of coming out of that, that low of our well being and pushing on being a little bit more positive. So yeah, thanks everyone for listening.

Speaker 1

Thank you, Anne again. And keep yourself well. Talk to you on the next one. Bye bye.