Having overcome the harshest months of confinement and beginning the stages of economic recovery, the employees of a large number of companies are returning (or preparing to return) to their offices little by little and under extraordinary conditions. For many, the return to work can be experienced as something positive, revitalizing, as a way to reactivate their lives and reconnect with something they had lost due to the health crisis caused by the coronavirus: colleagues, mid-morning coffees or afteroffices, breaking with the domestic routine, etc.
But for another group of people, thinking about going back to work can produce anxiety and worry about recovering from stressful schedules, uncertainty and fear about how to face the new normal in the workplace, complying with biosecurity protocols and keeping your distance from colleagues. This, taken together, provokes a mix of emotions that must be learned to manage.
In this context, the psychologists of the online platform TherapyChat propose five simple tips that can help counteract negative feelings before returning to the office or workplace.
1. Try not to anticipate
"Try to put in parentheses any negative feelings and thoughts you may be having," they say. This can be complicated, but it is important to remind oneself that often it is worse than anything we anticipate to the reality we encounter afterwards.
2. Plan
By planning, psychologists say, "we mean that, for example, your schedules will surely be disrupted and you will have to change them to assume that return to the office; if so, we encourage you to make a progressive program that allows you to adapt little by little to those new hours, something simple, but that can free you from some negative thoughts".
3. Inform yourself without overinforming
Keeping us updated and informed of what's going on around us is important, as they state on TherapyChat "But it's about staying informed, not over-informed, so that we can adjust our thoughts to the reality of the situation and not get out of the way."
The ideal, they say, is to try to know the safety and hygiene measures adopted by the company and that we will have to carry out in the workplace. And also, in case of having to take transport, inform us of what measures we will have to follow when we travel.
4. Think about your peers
The reunion with colleagues is, according to the experts of the consultancy Evercom, one of the main motivations to return to our job. They are the people with whom we spend most of our day's time, and many times, they become more than just companions.
"Surely there are some with whom you get along better than with others; because think about those who make you laugh, with whom you have a good time, or with whom you work more comfortably", advise psychologists.
5. Do rewarding activities
Another of the advice of psychologists for those people distressed by the return to the work routine is that, in the moments of greatest negativity or discouragement, practice relaxation exercises and rewarding activities to recover emotional stability or, at the very least, cut the vicious circle of negative thoughts.
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