INTHEBLACK Mental Health 2021 - Magazine - Page 6
Mental Health and Resilience
W O R K S M A R T // T H E 24 - H O U R W O R K D AY
AVAILABILITY
ANXIETY
STORY HELEN HAWKES
NOW THAT WE’VE HAD MORE THAN A TASTE OF WORKING FROM
HOME, IT’S OFTEN NOT QUITE AS IDYLLIC AS WE IMAGINED.
HERE’S HOW TO GET THE WORK–LIFE BALANCE RIGHT.
B
efore the pandemic, many of us
considered working from home a luxury.
No rush-hour commute, no dress-forsuccess, maybe even time for a leisurely lunch.
A recent McCrindle Research survey showed
many Australians were eager to embrace the
perceived freedom of working from home or
remotely. More than three in four (78 per cent)
agreed this would become the new normal and
said they would stay longer with their employer
if they were offered more remote working or
flexible working conditions (76 per cent).
The problem for many of us, however, is that
now we’ve experienced prolonged periods of
working from home, it’s not quite as idyllic as
we imagined.
Stationed in front of the computer while
family life goes on around us or, alone and
isolated from colleagues, checking text
messages and emails into the night, having
to manage relationships with colleagues and
6 ITB October 2021
clients through Zoom meetings and apps like
Monday.com – all this has contributed to
many of us feeling exhausted and disengaged.
“It is a case of be careful what you wish for,”
says Dr Grant Blashki, lead clinical adviser for
Beyond Blue, who has been confined to home
during the lengthy Melbourne lockdowns. The
greatest risk, he says, is that work seeps into
our personal lives and the lines become
increasingly blurred, with a work–life
imbalance fuelled by poor boundaries and
a lack of self-care.
THE LOSS OF SELF
When we spent a day at the office prepandemic, most of us didn’t give much
thought to stepping away from our desk
for a coffee break, or a catch-up around
the watercooler.
Now, with technology enabling contact
24 hours a day, many of us feel the need to
be continually “switched on” and “tuned in”.
It is this “availability anxiety” that is causing
us to skip breaks essential to mental and
physical wellbeing and put ourselves last
in our work diary, according to Blashki.
“The intrusiveness of technology means
colleagues have more access to us than ever
before,” he says.
“By accident, many of us have made our home
our workplace, and the existing stress of workloads
for some employees has been amplified.”
According to Michelle Bihary, people
leadership and workplace resilience expert,
“What we have lost is those ‘transition’
moments. Now we’re either working or
managing at-home responsibilities and there
is no time when we are not a partner, a parent,
a carer or an employee.”
Bihary, author of Leading Above the Line,
says it is those moments that are crucial to
connecting with ourselves.