Maintaining good mental health when working at home

The Coronavirus COVID-19 has brought great changes to our lives and in the event industry we are under immense pressure to keep our businesses going. Our first priority is to postpone or change our events into virtual meetings wherever possible, rather than cancel them. We can’t risk anyone’s health by proceeding with conferences, but at the same time a lot of hard work has gone into the planning of events and we’d all like them to take place in one form or another if possible.

Our industry is particularly sociable and we are used to travelling and meeting people, so working from home or being furloughed is quite a change of lifestyle. However, we are also used to working on the move, from hotels, venues, airports and lots of us are set up to work whenever we need to and wherever we are. We usually have contact and encouragement from colleagues and now that this has been removed, we need to maintain good social connections, through the increased use of technology.

The current situation is likely to increase stress in an industry where it is thought 70-80% of employees already feel that they are constantly worried. So, what should we look out for? Stress is not an illness, it is a mental, emotional and physical state where we feel overwhelmed and unable to cope as the result of unmanageable pressures. This can cause an increased risk of depression, substance abuse, alcohol consumption, lack of sleep and other effects.

Working from home

The first thing to do is change your mindset and plan a routine:

• Set a start and finish time and when the working day is over, put your devices and work away to make the most of your downtime
• Schedule tasks that are manageable and don’t get overwhelmed
• Take a lunch break and coffee breaks, not only will you work better afterwards but it will stop your mind thinking about work all day
• Look after yourself. Find an exercise to make yourself feel good, because keeping physically find will help your mental health. There are lots of different classes online, YouTube videos, zoom, Instagram and Facebook sessions that you can do on your own or join a virtual group. Or would a mindfulness session help?
• Remember you are not alone – keep in touch with your colleagues in virtual meetings or speak to friends and relatives
• Do what is in your control and keep the things outside your control in perspective
• Achieve some of the things that you normally don’t find the time to tackle
• Solve the little problems first, so that you get jobs ticked off the list
• Take time to review your social media platforms and websites, which need peace and quiet and are difficult to do in the normal working day. What works and what doesn’t, can you streamline your messaging and make it work better?
• Find ways of planning and developing for when the events industry does bounce back

If you do need help, talk to a professional immediately and get the guidance you need. But in the meantime, the way we can get through this is to accept the situation, talk about our problems to people who will support us and only worry about the things we can control.

The HBAA is running two mental health webinars in April 2020, for more information take a look at their website.

Keep up-to-date with all the latest industry insights and news by reading our EDGE news section.