This response is inline with the @NaturalMedicine Mental Health Awareness initiative

In the last few months I am personally witnessing that people are losing out very fast. Over small matters there are big sparks.
In the last few months most of the management team members at my work place are working from home and then all the work happens over phone calls. I have also been given this option, but I prefer to go to office for my work. Anyways I am on consulting basis so I go 2 days a week for couple of hours, and I prefer going to office as I feel that a personal connection makes a whole lot of difference rather then all the time interacting on zoom calls.

There is a whole lot of difference that I have seen in the last few months. Specially during the weekly review calls, people are losing out on their tolerance level. I can feel the irritation getting into professional lives of people. Though I do not wear a mask at office since I have a separate cabin to sit, but all the other staff has been on wearing the mask for whole day as per management directives and I can see how annoying they feel with it for through out the day.

I am facing a lot of irrational behavior from my staff members and it can be all attributed to the building up stress levels due to the Covid situation. Expat staff has been not able to visit their homes in a long time now, this is also one major reason to disturb their mental health. Away from family in a foreign land which is full of rules and regulations one may find it very difficult. And not everyone is at similar capacity to handle this stress, so the mental health is getting impacted.

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Not only the ones in the office, but I can also see a change of behavior with the Management team who is working from home. So it's just not about the office atmosphere but the overall Covid atmosphere which is bringing down people mentally.

From my side as a HR I am trying my best to make one on one interactions with every employee on regular basis to hear them out for whatever they have to say. With my healing space knowledge I do understand that talking is one of the best therapy to relieve the stress. I do encourage them to speak on their personal lives, any difficulties if they are facing at personal level and help them out wherever I can. Also I keep an eye on everyone's behavior, when I see a person going quiet, withdrawing, I feel something is wrong and I reach out to that employee in the best possible manner I can, by counselling, boosting their morale, giving them a pep talk and do whatever I can from my side.

Other thing I do is I conduct some activity to boost their mental health on a fortnightly basis. The last one we did was building puzzle for adults. There are team building activities that I keep doing with them. This helps them collaborate with each other.

We also arrange a Birthday Party once a month for all the birthdays in the month by doing a cake cutting and with some snacks.

We do have our Rewards and Recognition program but lately we have enhanced it with some quick on the moment rewards, these are really very helpful. I normally observe the behavior of the staff and catch on their weak moments and then try to boost them up on the same weak moments. This helps boost their confidence back.

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I would also like to do some outdoor activity for them, but at present we are not allowed with that so I do miss that. Nature is a very good energizer. I remember in my old work place back in Mumbai, on and off we did some outdoor activity, like gathering in a park, arranging for some Canvas and paint colors to paint on, give themes to people on what they could paint on and then leave them with their imaginations. This was a lot of fun and also after the activity I would see employees in an absolute different mood.

In these times I would like people to spend more time in nature and I encourage all my staff members to do that daily, if not much, even as little as 15 to 20 minutes. During lunch hours I encourage them to take a short stroll after lunch in our Company premises garden without their mask. This helps them get refreshed. Now that the weather is getting better in Muscat, it is convenient to spend time outdoors.

Everyone is in the hope that things will get better soon, they will be able to go back to their homes soon, meet their family members, spend time without the masks, live a free life. But no one can say at this point of time, when all of that will happen. Till then we need to keep our self up with this environment and not allow this environment to take us down. And till such time, the stronger ones do need to take care of the weaker ones, it becomes our moral responsibility, just not at work place but coming across any such person in our life.

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The stronger ones need to be mindful about the weaker ones at this point of time. Not judge them, but understand them. This is what I also keep telling my Management team, that do not judge them, but be empathetic, hear them out for whatever they have to say, sometimes it may be just meaningless but that is possibly the best way that person can express and release, so give that ear to the person. Hold their hand invisibly, do not make too much noise about their mistakes, give them little more space then normal. This is what I do from my end for my staff whether a senior or a junior, and I encourage everyone to do that.

Right now majority of the people are fighting their battles externally as well as internally. We just need to support each other with open heart and mind.

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