Work and wellbeing in the midst of a pandemic - a blog series
Over the last couple of decades, sustainability in HE and FE has seen a shift, from a primarily environment focus, to a wider understanding of the need for progression in all areas of sustainability. A particularly big change of focus in the last decade has been mental health and well-being, its importance, and how to have a good work (or study)/life balance.
Most of us had this pretty well sussed (with obvious room for continuous improvement) until the pandemic hit. COVID-19 is a devastating virus – with a scale of fatalities not seen for a century outside of war. It has long lasting implications for humanity, but it also has immediate implications under lockdown. How do we maintain our work/life balance during this time while continuing to ensure our own and our families well-being?
We are delving into the lives of members to find out how they manage just this! What challenges have they experienced? What positives have they found? We will share these weekly.
To kick start this – we offer up our own experiences at EAUC. We hope this is useful, and perhaps you find some things you relate to in amongst our experiences. We all have different home lives and slightly different jobs, so it has certainly been interesting to read these from our side!
I knew there was a big adjustment to be made to several aspects of life – and work was going to be one of those key big adjustments.
After a month and a half of our rearranged lives, I do still worry about vulnerable communities battling the pandemic and my family, however, I seem to have found my feet.
I was quite down at first – but I decided that I needed to make some changes to ensure I could sustain my wellbeing, for myself, and my family.
Initially at the beginning of the lockdown my immediate thoughts were about our staff and ensuring they all had the means and abilities to work from home and supporting them through the transition.
When the lockdown was announced I wasn't necessarily surprised, especially after seeing numerous reports on how the outbreak had already impacted so many lives across the world, but yet again, this hasn't stopped the anxiety feelings to kick in and for a short period (fortunately) to impact heavily on my wellbeing.
In what is undoubtedly a stressful time as I adjust to working from home and social distancing, I have also experienced an unexpected release and expansion of my immediate world.