As everyone is aware, across the planet the world we live has changed very drastically over the last few weeks. The hustle and bushel of daily life, enjoying normal social interaction; things like going to :

 

restaurants
going to the gym
going to the park
Socialising in general
have become very restrictive very quickly.

 

Most of us are now in the situation of general lockdown, forced to work from home and with schools shut meaning home life and the working environment has also changed drastically.

 

Its very easy to become isolated / feel alone and generally worried in the current situation as such its never been so important to support both our colleagues as well as our friends and family.

 

Some people are lucky to work for a company that has adopted digital transformation which allows us to work from home, others not and for a great deal of people job losses are present. If you are still working then we all facing new challenges some of which we have not faced before. We now need to adapt our working practices at home to reflex the current situation. Take regular breaks, make sure you eat and take breaks regular and more than ever put some structure around your day.

We all have to SUPPORT each other, pick the phone up, check in with a colleagues and have a chat.

Speak up if you are struggling whether this is to a friend / family member or a colleague or your manager.

Utilise any HR support services on offer for the region you are based.

Use the vCommunity !!! there are lots of people who would to have a chat.

Support yourself and support your family.

We are all somewhere on the continuum and where we are can change during the course of our lives

Whenever i present on Mental Health i always spend a good amount of time on this picture. I always explain that lets be honest not many people are Excelling, i am not here to say people aren’t. However with all the pressures of life ( yes its constant ) we are generally balancing between Thriving and Unsettled. Every now and again we may dip out big toe into Struggling however we will move back into unsettled.

A Prime example is myself, i have had a difficult 2019 and probably spent most of my time struggling and unsettled. This is not me in crisis, this is purely me having a bad year.

Few pertinent points on this picture :

• Mental Health is our emotional, psychological and social well being affecting how we think
• Mental Health is not a binary state
• The struggles of everyday life – divorce, illness, death of a loved one, problems at work – can have a big impact on your health
• Its natural to go through ups and downs in life. Sometimes you bounce right back and sometimes you don’t. Please remember this, its so important we have natural ups and downs
• Stress can be good for you, i get stressed before i am going on stage when i am public speaking. I prefer this as it means i am not over confident and always me to keep myself on my toes.

Tiny bit late i know, been meaning to put something on about this a few weeks ago. Well lucky enough to get a slot to present on mental health, every better it was a Community cross company presentation between :3 people from VMware

Myself Dave Marley (@bonkeydave) Simon Conyard (@virtual_simon) Michael Poore (@mpoore) from VMware and Craig Dalyrymple @cragdoo from BrightSolid

Joe Baguley (@JoeBaguley) made a guest appearance and then joining myself and Craig at the end for a Q@A session

Presenting on this topic is pretty hard especially when you have personal stories included. Myself, Simon, Michael and Craig as far as i am concerned did a grand job on the day. I even has a few customers in the audience so a first for me with that.

Feedback after the presentation has been great and heartwarming, it really does show the community understands the importance of Mental Health in IT and that we are all here to support each other.

We are back presenting at the London vMUG in April and then the Yorkshire vMUG in May so hopefully we will get good turn outs at the sessions on the day.