This past week Bumble, the dating app where women are in charge of making the first move, made headline news when it temporarily closed all of its offices to combat workplace stress. Its 700 staff worldwide were told to switch off and focus on themselves. Why now?
After over a year of lockdown in most regions of the world, many countries (and thus offices) are re-opening. In addition, many companies are experiencing a post-pandemic jump in business, which, although welcome and long awaited, is also presenting its own set of challenges for many employees (in the form of stress!) after a prolonged period of isolation and a significantly slower pace of work.
This month I took my first business trip after nearly a year of lockdown in the backwoods of Oregon. Prior to the pandemic I traveled, on average, a few weeks a month…..but this first post-pandemic trip, which was a mere 12 days, felt like a month. Navigating airports, taxis, hotels and meeting spaces felt both unfamiliar and risky (although I’ve been fully vaccinated for months). To say I felt stressed and anxious is an understatement.
To this point, although offices are reopening and CEO’s are eager to welcome employees back, many are reluctant to return after a year or more of working from home.
There has been much commentary and research on the impact of COVID lockdowns on both personal and professional wellbeing, but not much highlighting mental wellness and change management as businesses reopen and life returns to “normal”.
A few months ago, I was invited on the Breath of Air podcast to talk about anxiety. I come by my anxiety honestly- my parents and siblings all suffer from it, and we’ve all figured out our distinctive coping mechanisms. In this podcast discussion I talk with Zontziry Johnson and Adam Jolley about how I’ve managed anxiety throughout my career, my advice to leaders on handling workplace anxiety as employees return to in-office work, and how my relationship with my own mental health (and my focus on radical self-care) has changed throughout my career.
My advice as you come out of seclusion and back into face-to-face environments?