Mental Health in Remote-First Cultures
In this newly distributed world of work, how do we ensure that our mental health doesn't fall by the wayside?
Remote work has completely shifted what was traditionally thought of as ‘the workplace’. In 2019, many companies were just getting to grips with how to cater for employee wellbeing and I think it will be some years before we see effective hybrid and/or remote-first employee wellbeing programs deployed at scale.
But it’s not just corporations that are struggling to keep pace. A lot of people are in need of better tools to help themselves navigate this new working world and ensure their mental health isn’t taking a backseat.
Remote work and it’s benefits
Being an advocate for remote work, I genuinely think when implemented correctly there can be huge benefit to individuals, teams and companies as a whole. According to a 2022 study from Owl Labs and Global Workplace Analytics, 62% of employees feel more productive when working remotely.
On top of productivity, working remotely can allow greater flexibility to work when and where you want, access to more diverse opportunities, allow you to reclaim time to spend on non-work activities and can make many people feel more comfortable about the working environment where, previously, offices and meeting rooms may have created pressure and overwhelm.
We should be candid about the downsides of remote work
The problem is that 5 years ago remote work was still a fairly ellusive concept. We pictured hammock’d folks with wheatgrass juice in hand, surveying golden sands and lapping waves. Now, the reality is that Forbes estimates 16% of all companies are operating fully remotely and the vast majority will not be beachside, but balancing life’s demands while flitting between home, cafe, co-work, school etc. Previously, the office might have been a useful mirror to hold up against your internal landscape to check you’re taking regular breaks, eating properly, getting sunlight and socialisation. Now this is often completely self-regulated, especially for those who live alone or who’s housemates and/or partners work outside the home.
Paradoxically, then, this new-found ‘freedom’ can be quite … unfreeing. Suddenly there is no geographic divide between work and home, no one enforcing start and end times can mean work and life become inextricably intertwined. By working more and socialising less, remote workers can easily experience loneliness.
Octavia Goredema puts it brilliantly in this article for HBR:
(w.r.t remote work) as time progressed, I started to feel lonely. I was able to laser-focus on my work, but my interactions with others were driven solely by virtual meeting agendas or email. I noticed I was becoming less enthused and more withdrawn. I spent too much time scrolling social media because I was silently craving connection with others. I was slowly but steadily becoming isolated.
Some may not identify with loneliness, for me I tend to feel this creeping malaise settle over brain and body. I feel less engaged, I feel less creative, I feel less energised … I feel burnt out. Whilst we may associate burnout with intense periods of overwork, burnout can be generalised to a state of mental, physical or emotional exhaustion arising from work or personal life. I would argue that the blurring between work and personal life caused by remote work is the perfect catalyst for burnout. [as a side note, my friends @ One Percent Wisdom wrote a brilliant article on combatting the symptoms of burnout here].
I show the above not to indulge a strange voyueristic view into my life, but to illustrate this work/life blur.
Staying happy & healthy in a remote world
So, what can we do to avoid all this doom and gloom and really get the most from remote working?
Develop rigid boundaries - decide when you want to be working and when you want it to be over. For me this is 5pm every day except 2 days per week where I extend to 8pm to allow for any meetings in the US (however I make sure I start later or take a longer break in the middle of the day). If people ask you to diverge from this, don’t be afraid to (considerately) push-back and/or ask whether the meeting or work they’re requesting needs to be done that day.
Block out your calendar - I had rarely done this before starting my current role. Now I have a 2 hour block every morning for emails/slack/admin, I regularly schedule ‘focus’ blocks where I don’t allow people to put in meetings and of course, I put blocks in for personal time! Whether this be the gym, lunch, a walk, time to lie in the park … make sure people know about it and don’t feel ashamed for taking it! As we say at Remote, over-communication is key!
Communicate your needs - I think many of us move to remote work from classical in-office corporate structures, where it’s either not ok to question the status quo, or, it just won’t get you very far. Remote work is a new frontier!
No one (or few) knows what they’re doing, so take this as a chance to compile a list of items that will help you feel comfortable whilst working remotely and share these with your team / manager / HR rep to start the conversation!
Some good examples could be:Minimum of one team social per quarter (virtual or otherwise)
1 team meeting per week (min. 1hr) with at least 10mins dedicated to non-work items
Support for the costs of co-working
Time per quarter to work on projects un-related to your core role and a forum to share this in the company
L&D budget and accountability on spending it (you want to know your employer genuinely cares about you using these perks)
Listen to your body - If you’ve ever read anything by Gabor Maté, you’ll be familiar with the concept of brain and body connection. It’s likely that when something is up, your body will be giving you warning signs long before you can articulate the issue via thoughts arising in the brain. This might be restlessness, random pains, chest or jaw tightness, general feelings of tiredness … But how do we tune into this?
A body scan - this a very common meditation technique where you place your focus on different areas of the above and really feel them. Allowing the sensations to come to you without judgement. Often we never really tune into our body until it’s too late!
Get out into nature - as a species, we weren’t designed to sit at desks! Our desk posture can create so much tension that we fail to let go of. Whether it’s a park, the seaside, a small patch of grass near your appartment - tune into the sounds of birds, touch some grass, breath the air and feel how your body responds.
Create a social plan - I only became someone who uses their phone calendar in the last couple of years but now I save every social event into it so that at the beginning of my week I can take stock and ensure I’m getting some time in with friends.
I’d even go as far as to say it’s better if you can see it; a small post-it, a journal or diary is a great place to write down your social engagements for the week … if you have none it might be a good time to call a friend or check out a new club or class!
This shouldn’t just be for your personal life - work should always have a social element too!
As a Brit, I can find it a little awkward to set-up meetings with people I’ve never met for a chat. But in a environment where you may never meet a colleague, it’s essential and you can meet some brilliant people! (take my colleague, Stephany, who I met a couple of weeks back and gave me the DL on what it’s like to RV around the States whilst doing a remote job).
Introduce variety - I’ll be the first one to admit, I often plan to work from a co-work space once per week then on the day I’m meant to go, I go to the gym, make breakfast, sit down to look at emails and suddenly I’ve got caught up in the working day. Whether it’s a co-working space, different locations in the house for different types of work, working from a cafe or even the park.
During a recent bout of nice weather in London, I spent 3 hours in the afternoon taking meetings from a park (audio only) and jotting notes into a notepad!
The above option is likely just as productive as you being at your desk but 10x better for your mental health and it’s ok to tell your employer this!
Move & breathe - As a teacher of mindfulness and someone who moves their body regularly, I can’t stress how even a little of either goes a really long way. A few ways you can introduce this:
Morning walks - not only will you get exercise, but morning (sun)light will help release cortisol early in the day which positively influence your immune system, metabolism and ability to focus during the day.
Practice taking 3-5 minutes to slow down your breathing and practice deep, slow inhalations and exhalations through the nose. This depth and pace of breath can help engage our parasympathetic nervous system (i.e. the calming one).
Pick one ‘active’ hobby to practice during the day or after work - it can even be walking the dogs, but if there’s some social element you’re really killing two birds with one stone. This could be a yoga class, a run/walk club, tennis, tai chi, swimming … try looking on meetup for inspiration!
Hopefully any employer with a remote-first or hybrid working culture is already sharing some of these things with you and, if not, I hope you find something useful in the above.
Thanks for reading!
Some very valuable advice here 👏🏾 Twelve years into my freelance career, mostly working from home, and I am still trying to find a good balance and the right rhythm to a week.
It amazes me how many people do not use their phone calendar. Appointments, tips to follow up on, random reminders and notes to self… They all go in the calendar.