Stressed about a return to the office after working from home? Experts and returnees offer tips on minimising ‘re-entry fatigue’
- Many workers who were asked to work from home during the coronavirus pandemic are feeling anxious as they return to the office
- Experts and returnees share ways to relieve the stress – from setting a regular bedtime to morning breathing exercises
When Jenny Chan’s maternity leave ended in September, the compliance officer for a Hong Kong bank realised it had been a while since she’d had to contend with a rigid office schedule.
Her company had initiated a 100 per cent work-from-home policy in February 2020, in the early days of the pandemic. In April 2021, when the staff were asked to return to the office for half of the work week – so it was at maximum 50 per cent capacity for social distancing – she went on maternity leave.
“It was certainly challenging to return to a schedule I’d dropped for over a year, while managing a newborn and a four-year-old,” she says.
“Returning to normal life after a prolonged isolation involves learning how to socialise with a large group of people again, fitting into a regular work schedule and learning how to handle a stressful workload,” says Dr Keith Hariman, a psychiatrist in Hong Kong. “It’s just like after going on holiday. The first few days to a week (when you’re back) usually feels a bit weird.”
Returning to work even as the pandemic rages on in parts of the world makes us aware that we must learn to live with the virus – and this is a mental and physical challenge, Hariman says.