Lockdown fatigue and mental health

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For Mental Health Awareness 2021 week we shine a spotlight on lockdown fatigue caused by working remotely.

Lockdown fatigue is a term that is becoming a part of our every-day discussions.

Natalie speaks to by our mental health training specialist, Nick, for this coaching café. We discuss recognising the signs of lockdown fatigue. Furthermore, how it affects our mental health. Importantly how to have conversations or coach our team members through these times.

What is lockdown fatigue?

Lockdown fatigue refers to the tiredness and strains that we are feeling. Particularly because of the restrictions being placed on us. The need to work remotely.  Furthermore, the multiple demands that we are facing. With our largest states still experiencing lockdown, ‘lockdown fatigue’ is likely setting in for your teams. And if you aren’t in lockdown, chances are that you’re working with people or teams who are.

Humans are not designed to thrive in lockdown conditions.  Consequently, it’s no surprise that the strain of lockdowns and working remotely is influencing our mental health. This includes our approach to work interactions and how we deal with challenges on the home front.

lockdown fatigue

Other key tips for coping with lockdown and remote work

However, in addition, we can make sure that:

  • goals are realistic
  • the workload is equitably spread
  • we focus on strong communication
  • people are encouraged to speak up and ask for help
  • team members log off at the end of the business day, rather than extending the hours
  • keeping up basic things like eating well and exercising.
continuum of experiences

We all have different experiences

It is important to acknowledge that we all have different experiences of working remotely.

Across the Open Door Alumni, people have expressed a strong sense of tiredness and uncertainty.  Furthermore, people are feeling unmotivated and less productive at work. In addition, there’s guilt that comes wanting to high achieve or hit goals, but not feeling motivated.

You can use the Continuum above to check in with people and start a conversation. Perhaps show the Continuum to your team member and ask:

Simple questions like ‘where are you sitting today?’ or ‘how are you feeling today?’

You can also increase your skills and awareness of mental health by attending our nationally acclaimed Mental Health First Aid Training.

Reach out for help

Furthermore, check in on yourself.  Because as leaders, we carry an extra load of making sure our teams are ok and have everything they need. Whilst at the same time, dealing with our own work and home life challenges.

In addition, Victoria’s Chief Psychiatrist addressed the rising concern over the impact of lockdowns on child mental health.  He advises families to reach out to the school community and resources like Kids Helpline.

Therefore, if you or someone you know needs assistance there are numbers below to contact.

If you or anyone you know needs help:

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Using the ZOOM meeting worked really well including the breakout session.  A terrific and engaging course, I enjoyed it immensely.

I loved it! It gave me everything I was hoping for (confidence, a framework and many lenses to consider) and more!

It is an excellent program that can be adapted to any area of a workplace. It will assist me with all my communications with other people, delivered by a very passionate facilitator, easy to listen to, flexible and attentive to the class.  I am thoroughly energised by what I have learnt so far.

This is the best program I have ever participated in. The Friday webinars have been great to help me embed the information I have learned. I am really appreciative of everyone that works at Open Door Coaching and the care and effort they put into helping everyone that joins the program.

My workplace skills and capabilities have taken a very positive turn. Where I would get exhausted or overwhelmed by difficult work relationships, I now am equipped and confident to manage these relationships and use some of the models I have learned to get positive outcomes in our interactions.

I thought the online format via ZOOM worked well and for people outside of capital cities, it is a much more affordable and less disruptive way of undertaking the training.

The course has really enhanced and further developed my skillset. What a phenomenal four days for the Zoom face to face part of the course and amazing, quick turnaround on assessment of online modules.

I have confidence in my ability to coach others. My skills have grown significantly and I am so much more conscious of not responding to my team with solutions with a great toolkit to support me. This coaching course has changed my behaviour significantly and positively in my life. Where once I loved solving others problems I now love seeing others solve their own problems.

Great work, this course  is amazing and definitely supports me in my goals. I have always wanted to make a difference and found coaching to be more beneficial than mentoring to support an individual to take responsibility for their own development and to move forward in their goals.

Since starting the program, my work role has not changed, but I have developed as a leader in my ability to develop myself and others. I developed an ability to detect “below the line” thinking, and to develop narrative to move above the line. My listening and questioning skills have grown, and my ability to detect opportunities for growth in self and others.

I feel I have the skills to better lead, manage and coach people in the workplace. The communication skills I have learnt have assisted me in my communications and have improved my relationships at work and home. I thought the program was great. It was challenging and a lot of work. But in the end there were real and useful learning outcomes. I really enjoyed this course and got a lot out of it. It provided me the opportunity to grow personally (the most important output) and gave me some very useful coaching skills

I have grown in confidence and started the journey of becoming a coach. The course provided me with some excellent theory and practical components which have worked together well in helping me along the journey. I now have greater confidence and much better listening skills. I’ve learnt what active listening actually means.  The higher level of confidence has allowed me to develop my coaching skills at a faster than expected rate.

My approach to all personal and professional discussions and my confidence has grown with what I have learnt from the program. I truely believe this program has changed my approach to all I do. I believe I have enhanced my communication and how to read and interact with different personalities types, listening with purpose and communicating with intent to learn and grow others.

I can see the benefits and knowledge and skills in coaching and can see its benefits in self coaching, one on one coaching and team coaching as well as in everyday conversations and conflict resolution. The face to face program and online program is excellent. I have completed various vocational and post graduate study courses and this is the best so far. Natalie Ashdown is an inspirational coach and trainer. Her teaching methods are engaging and very effective. Brigitte Calvert always completes assessment reviews speedily and the feedback was excellent and assisted in the learning process.

I am now comfortable coaching. I see lots of opportunities and I have realised that I have many skills. I have a greater awareness of serving the higher needs of all within my interactions. I am much better at posing appropriate questions to foster internal reflection. I think it is an excellent program.

I’ve learned a lot about myself and how to conduct conversations and am now confident to be able to perform a coaching session and have enjoyed a new sense of learning since commencing the course.

The program enabled me to reflect upon and identify HOW I coach. Throughout the assignment work I revisited my other training guides and has reinforced what I already knew, and also refreshed my knowledge of my coach training. I have a greater awareness of the theory and techniques that I use in my coaching practice each day . My coaching is much more effective as I am spending more time on the issues below the surface which is providing greater value and benefit to my clients.

I am now confident in holding coaching conversations with people. Not only am I able to set up a coaching business, but also my listening skills have improved immensely. This helps me in my business and my sales calls.

I have new skills to use professionally and personally, particularly regarding active listening, powerful questioning and a range of excellent materials to draw upon and reflect upon.

My attitude towards leadership coaching has changed greatly. I used to “teach” leaders how to manage people but now I use coaching to develop leaders’ skills. Whenever staff or managers come to me with a question, problem or issue, instead of giving them the answers, I coach them by asking the “who”, “how” and “what” questions. I have coached staff and managers through performance reviews, career development and employee relations issues.

Totally loving using my new coaching skills in the workplace. Staff are delighted with how I am helping them to solve their own problems. Absolutely loved the course! Would recommend it.

I’ve definitely grown personally as I’ve learnt new communication skills. I’ve started employing those skills in everyday work situations. I’m leading the way for my unit in adopting a coaching culture.

The way I view things has changed from trying to provide answers to helping people find their own answers. I have improved my listening skills and allow space for other’s answers.

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