Perhaps the most difficult part of self-isolating during covid-19 is the daily struggle of keeping a healthy life/work balance, especially for those who are working from home for the very first time in their careers.
Two sides of our life are now unavoidably connected at the hip, and this can be a serious challenge for anyone with a big family or children of their own.
Certified Family Therapist and Executive Director of the Employee Assistance Programme, Latisha Lister-Burgess, was our guest on this week’s Zoom Seminar Series, and she had a lot to teach us about how to balance life and work while ensuring happy and healthy familial relations throughout.
To keep a happy family, you must first ensure your own happiness, and part of that means setting expectations of yourself, work-wise, but making sure to go easy on yourself from a mental health standpoint. This means avoiding overworking and stressing if you aren’t moving as quickly as you did while working from the office.
This may be your home, but it is also a wildly unfamiliar place to work from, especially during covid-19. Nobody is expecting you to fly through your work as you usually do. Make sure to schedule rests, detox, yoga, or mindfulness into your daily routine.
Latisha told us how important family meetings are, even if you’ve never had them before. Gather around a table and make sure everyone is heard. Let these family meetings become an opportunity to unite the household.
If you have children, ask them what they’d like to do with you now that you are at home more. Give them time to think about it; then do it; repeat this regularly; make the most of this time to build your relationship. Know what matters right now, and use this time to over communicate in a positive manner.
It may even be an opportunity to really get to know your family. Learn things about your spouse/partner that you didn’t before, ask your children questions you haven’t before.
We hope this advice can help make your time working from home a lot easier, and keep your eyes peeled for our next guest on the Elevate Executive Selection Zoom Seminar Series
