PhD/PsyD Ideas for keeping up staff morale while working from home indefinitely

[singasongofjoy]

In my clinic of 8 staff, we are starting each day off with a zoom meeting for announcements followed by mindfulness or meditation activity. Our SOM has a hotline and resources which I’ve shared. I’m looking for other ideas of things I can do regularly/daily or just periodically to help keep up their spirits during this time.

We have several people who live alone and several who are high anxiety- also several who are dealing with occupying kids and being primary caregiver to elderly relatives during this time too. I’m already concerned about a few folks who I think are going to have a really hard time when they realize this is going to go on for longer than they are currently expecting/accepting mentally and especially worried about those living alone or who just had deaths in the family recently but aren’t holding funerals yet

Please hit me up with all your ideas however serious or silly!

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[deleted480308]

It’s going to sound like I’m joking but “hey, y’all....we’re still getting paid while being safe at home. Our lives are great right now”

 

[Ollie123]

Headspace is now offering free premium services for healthcare providers. Just FYI.

 

[member978]

I've had supervisors share resources they found for free online yoga classes, mindfulness resources, and general self-care tips. Some listservs I am on have also shared handouts for managing anxiety about coronavirus, although I think many are written for patients, I think the same tips could apply for any stressed staff - recommendations mostly along the lines of finding enjoyable activities to stay engaged in (reading, writing, arts), limit the amount of time you spend reading about the news, engaging in good self-care and getting into a healthy routine if trapped at home.

 

[singasongofjoy]

Headspace is now offering free premium services for healthcare providers. Just FYI.

We've been ending our meetings with Headspace I dig it. Thanks for the reminder. It's the first time I've used it and I love it.

 

[PsyDr]

Providing psych care to fellow employees is a big no no, from a legal perspective.

The BEST thing any supervisor, boss, or employer has ever done for me:

Dude asked each person in the meeting where they wanted to be in 5 years. Not business related. One said they wanted to get married. One said they wanted to own a house. One said they wanted to go back to school. All subsequent meetings had a scheduled to time to report what you did that week to meet your goal. Did you go on a date? Did you save $50? Did you get your transcripts? It sounds invasive, but it really wasn't. The employees were treated like business partners. The usual, what are the business issues this week? What are we not doing that we should? What is our cash flow? Work flow? Okay, now if that needs Jane to work until 8pm, how are we going to ensure that she has time set aside to go on a date or go to a review course? Employees really bought into it.

 

[MAClinician]

Maybe schedule time for a staff trivia game online (Kahoot is one platform) to get mind off of the uncertainty and have some fun.

 

[Spydra]

I think its important you ask the staff what they think might help boost morale. Every time I had a boss come up with something it ended up being a disaster nearly everyone hated. Maybe there is some kind of online game or challenge activity that everyone might enjoy?

 

[Ollie123]

Continuing to ponder this. Really I think genuine empathy and concern goes further than anything else. Somewhat along the lines of what PsyDr said, though it doesn't need to reach that extreme. We are starting every day with a "team huddle" (electronic huddle....we're not idiots) to discuss the plan. Before we go, we are always asked if we feel we have what we need for the day. Anyone who feels they need additional support with their activities for that day or the next day is encouraged to speak up and ask for what the team can do to help them out.

If asking, also consider individual differences. Personally, I get super-irritated when people attempt to mandate self-care game-time or other such things, since its just not how I function..especially when I have a mound of work to do. It feels like being forced to sit through the most utterly-and-extremely-unnecessary-meeting of my life. That said, not everyone is like me so I would just encourage a buffet of options.