Tackling isolation in a COVID-19 environment

We are keeping our social distance here at Amphigean and have not worked from the office for nearly seven weeks. The home office is becoming the new norm, at least for the time being, and brings with it the challenge of continuing to operate as a coherent team despite the lack of physical collaboration.

We’ve put many things in place to address this and have tea and chat sessions at the start of each day on Teams, and a Quiz of the Day session in the afternoon where we regularly achieve 9 or 10 😊. And and our first social online quiz-night proved very popular, lasting about 3 hours!

Another useful activity is the ‘Better Health at Work’ Award, which we are continuing to work towards. We have now temporarily, yet aptly, named it ‘Better Health at Home’. We have two sessions a week to compare the number of steps achieved each day and other tips for exercise, along with focusing on specific topics to support ourselves or our family and friends while we are in these different times.

Recently, Caitlin attended a training webinar on how to help tackle isolation and maintain positive mental health, which she shared with the team last week. It asked us to consider that our friends and family may not have access to social media tools or online platforms, yet we need to stay connected in some way. Even where we are physically connected, we can still feel isolated with uncertainty about the current situation and how it may impact us as individuals.

A useful concept, sent to us and produced by The Counseling Teacher, is shown here. Some great tips to let go of the things you cannot control and focus just on the things you can.

Much of the webinar focussed on the importance of maintaining routine; getting dressed for work, even though you’re at home; making time to cook dinner rather than the quick and easy option of a takeaway; tidying up around you regularly; and so on. This action calendar, produced by the Action for Happiness team, is a great way to focus the mind and can easily be tailored to your own organisation or for individual use.

So, to all our customers, colleagues, family and friends, our message is simple – keep talking and supporting.