Acknowledging R U OK? Day in 2021...and I’m not sure if I am
Date published: 08 Nov 2021
Author: Alyssa Faith
Leia Giacon, Associate Director Work Health and Safety gets candid.
This year’s R U OK?Day is an interesting one. A lot of us are feeling the strain of weeks at home, we're a bit burnt out from long days and constant changes with no holidays in sight and it all feels a bit like Groundhog Day.
This year particularly I think we can all appreciate the struggles with wellbeing and mental health that R U OK? Day represents and maybe we are battling some of these things ourselves.
Listening to people over the past month, wellbeing keeps coming up. Some people hate the question “how are you?” at the moment because they feel like any response is disingenuous. Some people are struggling to stay positive or are working longer hours because it's a better distraction than being bored. Some leaders feel like they can’t speak up about their own wellbeing because it’s their job to look after their team. Some team members are running on empty and feel like more and more is being asked of them. We're hurting and a bit worse for wear. So what do we do about it?
I was trying to think of how to bring a positive spin or a great idea to the table to try and lift everyone's spirits...I came up with “I have no idea. I’m not okay. Today sucked”. Not the best start. So I did some research to ‘fix’ my thinking (this is the psychologist in me) and I came across Google’s Wellbeing Manifesto. It really hit home.
Here’s my version:
- It’s okay to log on at 6am or at 8am or at 9am
- It's okay to hate Skype with a vengeance because it crashes on you and you miss half the meeting
- It’s okay to not check emails after hours
- It's okay to have a really great day
- It’s okay if you can’t get your virtual background to work
- It's okay for pets or family or housemates to gatecrash your video call
- It’s okay to question and challenge when communication breaks down
- It’s okay to work on a meeting staying muted as long as possible because you have terrible background noise
- It’s okay to have a really terrible day
- It’s okay to log off for an hour
- It’s okay to hear yourself say “sorry I was on mute” for the 100th time that week
- It’s okay to be proud of the work you’re doing but also wish that some of it would go away
- It’s okay to work late because you're on a roll
- It's okay to have a lie in because you have a meeting free morning
- It's okay to say “actually, I’m not okay”.
I hope this helps you over the coming weeks and months, especially as we quickly move toward the silly season. We are all working through strange and different circumstances so please know that it’s okay to do things a little bit differently. It’s okay to make it work for you.
HealthShare NSW News September/October 2021
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