Work Finishes at Five!
This blog post will look at the importance of making sure when our work day is over that we switch off and wind down. Believe it or not, it's only recently that I have started logging off at 5pm and leaving the work stuff at work. Is it wanting to be a 'people pleaser' and always be 'on the ball' with work, or quick to respond to peoples emails? Is it the drive to be "the perfect employee"? Who knows but the facts are that it can be damaging to our mental and physical health, to let work bleed into other areas of our life and our time.
In this post I will talk from experience about a few over-working red flags, and then some tips on reducing them and making sure work stays at work.
Why Are You The Only Green Icon On Teams? - Work finished hours ago...
I did 7/8 months as a Trainee psychological well-being practitioner (TPWP), which for me atleast anyway felt like such a demanding role and I ended up bringing it home with me. I would come off my laptop feeling so physically and mentally drained that I would snap at my partner or even on occasion spontaneously burst into tears. I felt so strongly that I was buckling under the pressure and so desperate to prove myself that I would log on at all hours to do assignment work, session plans... Despite the damage I could clearly see this doing to my mental health, this drive to prove myself and the unhealthy way I was trying to action that, followed me into my assistant psychologist (AP) role. I spent each day logging off at 5pm, only to go back to it later "just to finish something off", "just to sort a session plan" or "just to check my emails"- the emails is a big one for me, which I talk about more below. It felt like I didn't have my own time. It was like the entire day was work and I just took a few hours off after 5pm for tea (or dinner if you prefer - I'll leave that up for debate in the comments) but then I was back at it.
Emails Can Wait Until The Morning - Trust me!
So, yeah emails! No one is emailing in a 9-5pm service out of hours but there I am logging in at 7pm, because I had to check - you know, just incase. It's a habit I still fall into now sometimes but I'm trying to be firm with myself.
When I was doing bank shifts on the weekends, I would even get permissive thoughts that 'egged me on' such as; "you may as well send that email while it's on your mind, you might forget by Monday" or "it's a quiet night shift. You may as well check your emails for something to do". Even now when I reflect about thinking that way it feels so strange. I tried to use checking my emails for my 9-5pm AP role which I'd probably looked at a few days earlier, to pass the time on quiet night shifts in my bank HCA role. I could have used that time for literally anything else; whether that be talking more with staff, reading, listening to some music... yet my brain was so consumed with work that that's all I thought about.
Annual Leave? What's That?
They say "there's no rest for the wicked", apparently there's no rest for a psych graduate with an unhealthy drive for perfection and no work-life balance. We all get told that self care and taking breaks at work, as well as annual leave away from work is so important. When we are trying however so hard to prove ourselves and maybe thinking so much about work that we 'can't see the wood for the trees', annual leave doesn't cross our minds. We may even start to feel guilty for booking annual leave, if we need to move clients or if we feel like it could inconvenience someone in some way.
I learnt my lesson about the value of taking annual leave in a very big way. Like I said, in my TPWP role I took work home with me and it consumed my life. I didn't realise exactly how much of my life it had taken over though until I left, and I realised that in the 7-8months I had been there, I had taken no annual leave at all. I reflect back now and think 'no wonder I was stressed all the time. I needed to take a break for myself'. At the time however taking annual leave didn't cross my mind. I felt like I had so much to do that even thinking about when I'd book annual leave felt difficult, and if I did think about booking time off I'd tell myself; 'it'll just mean more work when I come back anyway'.
So, Moral Of The Story
Don't log in out of hours:
Firstly, you aren't being paid to do extra hours.
If you happen to have a late night brain wave about what could really help a client that's amazing but we don't need to log on, we can write it down and come back to it. Once we log on it can lead to us falling down a never ending Therapy session, Microsoft and Outlook rabbit hole that no one needs to be falling down at 9pm.
Logging in after hours because we feel like we don't have the time in the day? It's so important to seek supervision on this, review time management and review what is manageable in a day. If you can't complete the work in the time you have, you can't be supported if no one knows you are struggling.
No one other than 'Steve', who sends out the generic communications emails is emailing you after 5pm - sorry to all Steve's working in communications:
Our colleagues and clients know our working hours and know they may be waiting for a reply. If we email clients or staff outside of our working hours it can blur those boundaries.
Someone give them a break:
Working in mental health can be very rewarding but also emotionally and socially draining. We need to make sure we take short breaks where we can at work, even if it's just 5 minutes with a brew and a biscuit. We need to take time to unwind a little or refresh our social battery through talking to our colleagues.
Make sure you use your annual leave, we have it for a reason. It can really help us take a break when we need it, but also help us to separate ourselves from work and go back feeling refreshed.
Work- Life BALANCE:
It's also so important to remember the word balance. Yes we may love our job and we may be lucky enough to work our passion, but there is more to our identity than work. It can be so damaging to us and our identity if we let work bleed into other areas or assign a lot of value to work. Imagine a brick wall where each brick is a 1% of our identity. If we place a lot of value in work and as a result there's less 'hobbies bricks' or 'family time bricks' for example, when we become stressed at work or worry we aren't 'good enough'.., the wall begins to shake and the work bricks begin to fall out. We may start to feel lost or panic that our identity is compromised in some way. We need to ensure a healthy balance of things such as work, social life, family time , hobbies.. so that if work becomes stressful we can manage it and that brick wall isn't falling.
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