World Mental Health Day is on Thursday 8 October and this year, the World Federation for Mental Health has announced that the official theme is:
“It is time to prioritise mental health in the workplace.”
This is something close to our hearts at Action Hampshire so we asked the question; what does wellbeing at work and work-life balance look like?
In September we supported National Inclusion Week which covered an element of the discussion, and this week (7-13 October) is National Work Life Week – it’s clear workplace wellbeing is a topic very much on people’s minds right now. National Work Life Week is encouraging employers and employees to talk about wellbeing at work and the need for work-life balance.
Action Hampshire project officer Anna Miles, tells her story of what work-life balance means to her:
“Like many people I started my first part-time job at 16 years old, for the following 20 years I was continually either in education or employment, sometimes both but at the start of 2024 I found myself with neither. I had recently taken redundancy from a place I had worked for the majority of my adult life and was uncertain as to what I should do next. I knew I needed to take some time out for myself as, although my work had been flexible to a certain degree I didn’t have the right work life balance. I was working too many hours, had a high level of responsibility and over time it had negatively impacted my health.
It was scary to choose a period of unemployment, to not have my own income for the first time in my adult life, to feel like I had lost my purpose. I was in a privileged position that I could afford to take a career break, something that is not available to many. It ended up coinciding with unexpected short-term caring responsibilities which was very fortunate as working at that time would have been extremely difficult. It also gave me time to focus on myself, to think about what I wanted going forward and how I could create a better work life balance. I started swimming regularly, something I hadn’t done for years, and I signed up to volunteer as a cat foster.
I knew that ultimately I wanted to return to work and was fortunate to find a great role recommended by a friend before I’d even properly started looking for a job. The main reason I wanted to work for Action Hampshire was due to their flexibility and genuine focus on employee wellbeing. I decided to reduce how many days and hours I would work each week and predominantly work from home. I have very flexible hours and work with motivated, supportive and caring colleagues in a role I’m passionate about. My life is no longer dominated by work and I feel like I’ve got the balance right for me.”
#WorkLifeWeek #MyFlex #CareerBreaks
