Return Anxiety: Equipping you for a new way of working

Book this workshop for your people

Covid-19 has been a global experience, touching every community on our planet. It has forced us to change our behaviours, alter our working practices and learn new ways of being. This shared challenge has provided a profound sense of commonality and helped us to rethink how we live. But it has also revealed inequalities and differences, creating the conditions for intolerance and tension.

As we look to the future and a life beyond the pandemic, we must prepare ourselves for another transition. As we move away from lockdown, many wonder what the world of work may look like and how it will feel to return. Each of us will have uniquely experienced the past year, and those individual differences will play a significant role in how each person deals with the next stage. Some are desperate for social contact and a return to their usual activities and routines. For others, there is a deep sense of fear about stepping out into a world they have come to view as fundamentally unsafe. Research shows that physical health fears, mental health problems and loneliness have increased. Remote working has eroded our trust in colleagues and many are scared about returning to the frantic pace of their old working lives.

With many organisations looking to adopt a more hybrid approach to working, now is the time to consider how we can rebuild our connections, galvanise around shared values and ensure everyone can re-enter the working world with confidence and hope.

Join our workshop to explore how we can move forward together and navigate a return to the office in a way that ensures inclusion, respect and dignity. We will explore why anxiety is likely to remain high for a while and offer ideas for navigating your own and other people’s discomfort. We will focus on the importance of individual differences and uniting around shared values even when perspectives differ.

Key learnings:

  1. Rebuild bridges, trust and connections through empathy
  2. Key communication skills for navigating tension and disquiet
  3. Tools for managing anxiety or discomfort when back at work