Keeping the BaseKit team wellbeing in check when working from home
Remote work has become a cornerstone of modern professional life, and especially for the team here at BaseKit since the pandemic. While it offers numerous benefits, such as increased flexibility and reduced commuting stress, it can also bring its own set of challenges that can impact mental health.
This article explores these challenges, solutions to overcome them, and explains what we do here at BaseKit to create a healthier working from home environment for all the team.
Challenges of Remote Work
Working remotely has great benefits such as more flexibility with working hours, reduced commuting stress, cost saving, and being able to customise your work environment to suit your needs.
To some, this is what works. It gives people the opportunity to get that work-life balance right, and can really help alleviate mental health stressors caused by what used to be a normal office job.
But for others, it can be a challenge and cause negative feelings and thoughts such as…
- Isolation – without physical interactions with colleagues, people may experience loneliness and disconnection.
- Blurred boundaries – A lack of clear boundaries between work and home life can lead to overworking and some may find it challenging to switch off from work.
- Communication difficulties – with misunderstandings and delays in communication, can lead to frustration and decreased productivity.
What does BaseKit do?
Here at BaseKit, the wellbeing of our team is super important. We’ve recently created our Mental Health Promise where we stand by five commitments to ensure our team, wherever they work from, experience positive mental health, and if they are struggling, they are supported.
With nearly 30% of our team working fully remotely, we strive to make sure everyone feels included, regardless of their location, by ensuring we have the following:
- An open culture: where discussing mental health is encouraged
- Access to mental health resources: including free therapy with Spill, access to mental health services with Vitality, and a team of Mental Health First Aiders across various areas of the business.
- Promoting a healthy work-life balance: by encouraging the team to use our flexible working hours, create boundaries outside of work hours and making sure everyone takes regular breaks.
- Regular social interaction: with our monthly all hand meetings, weekly whole team stand ups and regular quizzes, we try and foster a sense of community to reduce feelings of isolation.
- Planned physical activity: especially team sports, such as football and Padel and also encouraging use of our on site gym.
We are always looking for more ways to ensure our team feels connected, as we know that working from home can have a really positive impact on people’s mental health, but equally, not everyone is the same and people also find more regular office visits work better for them.
However the team chooses to work is up to them, and at BaseKit we will carry on maintaining regular connections, creating open culture, and promoting a positive work-life balance for everyone.
We’re not experts here at BaseKit, but we always want to find the best help and support for everyone. So we’ve found some great articles which talk about ways to keep your mental health in check when working remotely…
Mind – Mental Health and Working Remotely
Every mind matters – 6 simple tips to tackle working from home
We Work Remotely – How To Keep Your Mental Health in Check When You Work From Home