Advice for managing anxiety around returning to the workplace after a year of being at home

How to manage returning to the workplace after working from home

By Dr. Ashley Margeson, ND

Tips on handling the transition from working at home to heading back to the office

What people need to know

Remember that this is going to be a change and whether your brain is excited about this or not, it’s still a transition you’re going to have to adapt to. This means planning to give your body a chance to adapt, without burning out. You’re allowed to feel all of the feelings you’re feeling. All of them.

A full adaptation requires three months for complete cell turnover. This means that you could be a little tired, maybe jittery, brain foggy, or moody for that period of time before being back in the office feels “normal.” This cell turnover is specific to a hormone known as cortisol. Cortisol gets a bit of a bad rap; it’s known as the stress hormone, but in reality, it’s really your adaptation hormone. If your body is trying to adjust to something and it doesn’t have the energy available to do so, then you start to run on adrenaline to get through the day.

Don’t get me wrong, I love a good adrenaline rush just as much as the next girl, but running on adrenaline (aka our fight or flight response) for a long period of time is a recipe for burnout. This is why you need to prepare.

I always suggest starting with your Four Cornerstones of Health when it comes to preparing for a change. These are sleep, nutrition, movement, and boundaries. And the one that we need to focus on first is always sleep. If you’ve been working from home for the past year and a bit, there’s a good chance you haven’t had to plan a commute into your day. You can sleep in a bit more, relax into your day, and have a shower at 10a.m.
(ah - perfect). But you don’t want to start getting up early the first day you head back to the office. You’ll be tired, flustered, and anxious; and you know that you won’t be able to find parking or you’ll miss the bus.

So you work yourself backward; if you’re currently waking up at 8:30 am, wake up 30 minutes earlier every day until you reach your needed wake-up time. You should aim to be at your “needed” wake-up time two to three weeks before going back to the office.

In regards to your other Cornerstones; you want to take into account what you can control and what you can’t. We can usually control what we eat. We can usually control if we bring our lunch (and take our lunch) to work. We can control the boundaries that we set.

The focus on nutrition is always to make it easy. The goal with each meal should include some sort of protein, some sort of healthy fat, some sort of green, and some sort of fibre. To start with, this means bringing one of each with your lunch. Practice while you’re at home, go into the fridge or the cupboard, and practice putting some of these things together. The more you practice, the easier it gets. I’m a big fan of combining a chicken salad with some cucumbers and crackers. This hits everything on the list!

It’s important to remember that as you move through change your energy needs change. You’ll need to eat more, so plan for that so that you’re not snacking when you get home.

How to get support from your employers

I like to recommend that people reach out to their employer and request a meeting before they return to the office, to discuss any concerns, ask any questions, and agree upon some expectations. To prepare for this meeting, start by writing down a list of everything that you’re accomplishing in the day-to-day. Often, people’s work lives are blending between different requirements, so your boss might not realize just how many tasks you’re accomplishing on a day-to-day basis. This allows you to truly show everything you’re accomplishing (like the little tiny things you’ve taken on over the last year). Having these written down on a piece of paper reduces your anxiety because - let’s be honest - anxiety is high.

Remember that emotions that are high right now are those that are linked to the fight or flight response. This means that it’s tough for our brains to filter between what’s essential and what might not be as important. Ask your boss to set aside 15-20 minutes a week to converse with you about this. The consistent meeting means that you can tackle one little thing each week instead of a mountain of tasks all at once.

To help manage that fight or flight response before your meeting, stand in the superwoman or superman pose - this increases your testosterone slightly for 30-45 minutes afterward. This means you’re going to have a better conversation because testosterone is driving the interaction, leading to better outcomes!

How to make things easier

Focus on solutions. Send your boss an email before your planned meeting stating how excited you are about the meeting and reiterate its focus. Then arrive with two or three options that would work for both you and them. If your boss is unable to meet those, then ask them what options they would suggest. Doing this every week changes the culture and expectations between the two of you - which means your work environment gets a lot less stressful!

If changing your time in the office isn’t feasible, then talk to your boss about boundaries outside of those times. If you’re expected in the office 8-4, you shouldn’t be expected to answer emails or phone calls outside of those hours. Anxiety around maintaining boundaries can be high, especially if you’re someone who never says “no,” - but the long-term outcomes are huge. Having your work-life turned off in your home life keeps your cortisol lower. This improves your sleep, which enhances your productivity during working hours. Plus, your adrenaline is lower with less cortisol, meaning those emotions stay more stable throughout the day. Win-win for everyone involved.

Focus on small incremental tasks that are achievable to your employer. Working from home every day might not be feasible, but coming in early one day and taking a more extended lunch break to go for a walk might be. Look for the middle ground every time. It’s also important to take your time going back to the office full time. Aim for being in the office Tuesday and Thursday first, then a Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday a few weeks later. Eventually, you’ll hit a full week. The days chosen can change, but it’s important to ease back in to reduce the adrenaline rush.

What not to do

Don’t stay quiet about your concerns.

Contrary to the belief of my five-year-old, I can’t read minds, which means your boss and team can’t either. The goal is to have a conversation about your concerns and create a plan to support both your and the business’s concerns. However, we don’t want to put this all on your team to come up with a solution on their own. So make sure you’re coming in with a few options to discuss. Usually, the end solution is a mix of options all coming together.

Don’t stay up late.

One of the things that comes with going back to the office on a semi-full time basis is the loss of time that we have at home. Our procrastination brains desire alone time to recharge after a day of high output, but instead of lounging and Netflixing, you probably want to just go to bed. Listen to that need. Getting a good night’s sleep during the three-month adaptation period is very important. This will reduce your burnout potential dramatically.

Don’t skip meals.

I know it seems like working through lunch is the easiest way to get everything done, but it ends up impacting the rest of your day. Make sure you set an alarm or block your schedule to take a lunch break. Giving yourself a reminder is a good way to make sure that you take a break, eat some food and maybe get out of the office for 10 minutes.

Dr. Ashley Margeson, ND has a clinical practice focused on Burnout Recovery and Prevention, as well as hormone optimization, at her Halifax, Nova Scotia clinic, Cornerstone Naturopathic. She is the co-founder of Burnout Blueprint, an online course to help busy people recover and prevent burnout. She and her team have treated thousands of cases of burnout over the past decade. Dr. Ashley is also the host of The Superwoman Code; a weekly podcast educating young professional and busy women about how to make their health work for them, not against them. She is also a full-time stepmom to her five and seven-year-old children.

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