The Anxiety of Going Back to Work & How to Deal With It

When the Covid-19 pandemic started, it changed how we did everything, so people had to adapt to the new biosecurity guidelines and government conditions to keep working. After a long time of hybrid working from home, workers are starting to go back to their offices, but some people feel unsure and anxious about going back to work after quarantine.

Do you dread going to work? Change is not a great friend of the human mind, and many statistics prove how anxiety and back to office depression can affect mental health. However, as the workplaces are now starting to resume to many normal organizations, they have different ways to deal with anxiety and depression. Some continue with the pre-Covid practices, while some are highly impressed by the hybrid work policy and its benefits.

Why wouldn’t it be? Hybrid remote work offers many benefits to both employers and employees and the biggest one being flexible work hours. Though there are many types of hybrid work arrangements, each organization aims to be more productive and understanding towards employees in the post-Covid world.

But one thing that remains common is back-to-office depression. With the change in routine, even if it's a hybrid workforce, employees are fretting over leaving their homes and starting to work back in the office. For the people who suffer from clinical anxiety, this stress seems even more.

Depression of back to work is no joke, and many scientific studies prove how depression in the workplace can cause restlessness and mental health issues. Therefore, this article will study the impact of depression on going back to work and entail successful ways to overcome this anxiety, especially for a hybrid remote work policy.

How Did the Quarantine Change Our Working Routines?

When the lockdown began, managers and business owners had to find a way to maintain their workflow without decreasing their productivity levels and work quality. Doing that was a complicated task since not many people were used to working from home, so the lockdown forced them to change their routine.

To understand how changing your routine could be affecting you, you need to know how your working conditions changed in the first place, so here are some of the things that companies had to do to keep working during the quarantine:

Working from Home Work Models

Before the lockdown, only freelancers and people with side hustles used to work from home since most people went to specific workplaces and worked under tight schedules. However, when the pandemic started, employees couldn’t go to their offices due to the biosecurity guidelines they had to follow, so every company had to transition to a remote work model or a hybrid work model to continue working.

A remote work model consists of working outside of your office, that place commonly being the employee's house. That allows remote workers to organize their home offices with the items they want and new office ideas. Remote working is highly beneficial to companies since it improves productivity by boosting the employees' well-being.

Adapting to a remote work model isn't the only alternative, though. Working from home model separates your employees into two teams, one that works from home, and another one that works from an onsite office.

Flexible Working Conditions

When managers allowed their employees to work from home, they also had to allow them to work under more flexible working schedules and working conditions. However, that didn’t represent a setback to maintaining their work performance, but it did the opposite by boosting creativity and support among workers.

That creativity boost didn't happen by chance but was a consequence of letting employees work more freely, allowing them to design their workstation and organize their work from home schedule themselves.

Giving your workers the freedom to work that way benefits both the employee and the employer, since it allows the employees to organize their schedule according to their necessities and the employer to take a lot off their plate and profit from the improvement of the employees' productivity.

Virtual Communication Channels

Covid-19 is a disease that quickly spreads through people, so when the lockdown started, we couldn't have direct contact with people to avoid catching the virus. However, communication is essential to have a successful work team, so people couldn't keep working without talking to each other.

The solution to that problem was using different communication programs, online meeting tools, websites, and software that worked as communication channels between employees and employers. Doing that helps business owners to give guidelines and address any doubt or situation employees may have.

Conference calls and business group-chats became more popular and common, making people get used to communicating that way, but lacking face-to-face conversations and discussions. Considering that, we understand that it could be difficult to adapt to talking and communicating with your peers the way you did before.

What Is Making Me Anxious About Going Back to Work?

As we mentioned before, knowing how the quarantine changed your working conditions helps you understand what is making you feel anxious about going back to your office after quarantine. We want you to understand that issue, so here is a list of the things that could make you feel going back to work with anxiety:

Working Under Stricter Working Conditions

After getting used to working from home and seeing all the benefits that remote and hybrid work models can give you, it can seem like a downgrade to go back to your office after quarantine and leave your workstation. However, going out of your comfort zone always produces anxiety, but we have to overcome it to profit from new job opportunities.

This issue gets worse if you already took a liking to your home office, especially if you invested in ergonomic products and decorations to feel more comfortable while working. Regardless of that, other things could make you think badly of going back to work after quarantine, and one of them is returning to work after Covid-19 under strict working conditions and tight working schedules.

Working from home is a comfortable way of making money since you don't have to worry about getting late to your office or having daily arguments with your boss and co-workers. That could be the reason for your anxiety of going back to work after Covid-19: the fear of experiencing uncomfortable situations.

Commuting Stress

Even before the pandemic, commuting represented a constant fear and stress for people who had to go to their offices every day. The lockdown helped those people to escape from commuting stress, making them work from their houses. However, now that you have to go back to your office, you have to address that problem since commuting stress can significantly worsen your work performance.

That issue happens when going back to work after quarantine because you know that you get uncomfortable in that kind of environment, so you try to avoid those situations. However, you can't stop working because of commuting stress, so you have to do what you can to overcome the anxiety it produces.

Lack of Ergonomic Products

Whether you work at an office or work from home, sitting for long periods is detrimental to your mental and physical health, producing back pain, neck pain, and mental exhaustion.

Ergonomic items are made to address those situations and improve comfort while working, so if you don’t have them at your new office, you could be scared of suffering from the consequences of it. Feeling physical pain makes your brain less active while working, causing mental exhaustion and making the anxiety and stress worse than before.

How to Stop Stress at Work?

To help to reduce work stress and avoid going back to work with anxiety, you can take advantage of various spots in your workday to take a few moments for yourself. For example, you can practice meditation at desk whenever you start to feel a little overwhelmed. Meditation is a practice that can help calm your mind and body, and while it might seem like a tough act to get into, there are plenty of apps and YouTube videos that can get you into a guided meditation.

The short, guided meditation videos are around 10-15 minutes, with soothing voices that help to guide you into a calm state, and they tell you exactly what to do when you start to meditate. It’s a perfect way for beginners to get started. Find a voice that you like, make sure the music in the background isn’t too loud, and get yourself into a calm state.

There are also meditations for different types of scenarios or problems that can occur during the workplace. These include resolving conflict in the workplace, dealing with stress, and handling energy fluctuations. If you find yourself needing meditation for a specific scenario, then this can help prepare you to deal with it. 

You can also take your lunch break to step away from your computer and destress during lunch break as well. Taking lunch in front of a screen is one of the most harmful things you can do for your health, so step away for lunch and ignore work for the time being. Go for a walk and get some sun, talk with your friends, stretch and get some exercise. Do various other activities to recenter yourself, and you’ll be ready to take on the second half of the day.

Get Organized

Start with little, and soon it will seem like a lot. Our routine amidst pandemic is seriously messed up, and there is no doubt about it. You must not expect yourself to get up at 8, get ready and take a shower all in 5 minutes to leave for work. The laziness and checking emails with one eye open have got to all of us. You must start preparing ahead and slowly, so the mind gets into the routine by time.

Take Time

We all know how we work from home. Taking frequent effective breaktime, getting up to have a nice cool drink, getting distracted by technology and whatnot. No one has worked 8 hours straight while working from home, and we all have adjusted our work hours around our flexible schedule. Your first day at the office is going to be hard, and there is no doubt about that.

Understand that you won't be feeling as productive as you used to in the pre-Covid world, but there is no meaning that you won't feel efficient again too. If your first day demands a few breaks, then take it or walk around to recharge your energy after each big task to avoid depression of back to work.

Give up Control

It's not about letting yourself lose but remaining sane and strong. Going back to work is going to bring a lot of health concerns. Especially with people concerned about older adults or small kids at home, washing hands and staying no closer than 6 feet from everyone will be the norm. Though social distancing should be a basic routine now, it is not possible to stay 6 feet away from everyone at all times. Accept that so you can get back to normal.

Use Ergonomics

It’s very difficult to overcome internal stress and deal with going back to work with anxiety when your external environment is so uncomfortable. This can certainly add to your going back to work depression, but ergonomics is designed to focus on your comfort and productivity. Having an ergonomic office chair can be a massive boon to both your posture and your productivity level.

An ergonomic standing desk is also one of the things that can help reduce your workplace stress, especially since you are focusing on standing up and completing your work rather than worrying about any external force that is threatening you. If you are dealing with some going back to work depression, then having a standing desk can get your mind going on something else.

Talk to Someone

Next, the easiest way to overcome the fear of going back to work with anxiety and depression related to Covid-19 and related threats is to talk to someone else. Whether that is the therapist inside of your office or someone else who you trust to be a little vulnerable with, talking about your anxieties and insecurities is often enough to remove their power over you.

Make sure to share everything and really open up with your partner, because that open communication is going to prevent your anxiety from rearing up whenever you are in situations that require it.

Have a Hybrid work plan

Having a hybrid work plan means having a clear structure and set of policies for employees who work a mixture of on-premises and at home, as well as those who travel or work from far away. In addition, it’s important to have a transition plan for employees.

Many who have worked remotely might feel overwhelmed or exhausted by coming back to the office, so it’s important to gradually transition back into this routine with a clear step-by-step process. This could mean gradually phasing in employees based on their importance, or gradually increasing the number of days per week that employees are expected to work in the office.

Know You Are Not Alone

Finally, the last thing that you should understand about the anxiety and going back to work depression shows that you are not alone. Everyone is dealing with the anxieties of a Covid-19 world, so everyone should understand if you need some help dealing with all of these problems. Don’t be afraid to reach out and talk to people, and you can overcome the anxiety together. Raise concerns with your managers and bosses to find solutions, and if you can, present your managers or HR department with new solutions or case studies that support your concerns and ideas.

Conclusion

As you could see, many things produce anxiety and make you feel unsure about going back to work after quarantine, but there are also many things you can do to feel better and boost your productivity.

It's normal to feel unsure about this matter, but you should take it as a new job opportunity that you can profit from, using it to learn new things and discover new benefits that can boost your overall work quality. Don't let yourself down and practice the advice given in this article to take as much advantage as you can from it.