Keeping Confident on Furlough

Keeping confident whilst you are away from work can be a real struggle for many of us. With limited opportunities to communicate with the people outside of our own homes, we are not able to socialise as well as we use to. You may also feel at risk of losing some of those key skills that you have built up over the years. So, what you can do about it?

Regular Catch Ups 

As a bare minimum, you should be having regular contact with your line manager. Discussions about the business, what is going on and what you need to know is a priority to keep your mind at ease. If you are uncertain about anything or have any concerns, contact them directly yourself. This regular contact will help you feel confident in the business and also in your job security, which is essential whilst remaining confident during your time away from work.

Keep in Touch with Your Team

We would suggest having a team group chat on WhatsApp to keep up with your work friends. Going from communicating 40 hours a week to 0 can be difficult, so make that effort to keep in touch, they will most probably want to talk too. Making an extra effort to communicate with your colleagues can make all the difference, whether that be a 10-minute game or sharing your latest bakes you can have all sorts of fun, and feel fully involved at the same time.

Keep Your Skills Updated

You can do work-related training, so make the most of it! It might be you want to use this time to learn new skills or you are worried about getting rusty with your current skills after such a long period of time away from your usual day.

If you are feeling particularly worried about your skills, there are lots of different activities available free for everybody at the moment. Lots of companies have put together support packages and resources to help their employees, so check those out if you are provided with those. We have also put together our Support Hub which is available to download free here.

Relax

Keep your confidence, keep your skills, but most importantly keep your sanity. This is a great time to take a step back from hectic work life and watch that series on Netflix or just take a bit of guilt free you time to unwind. As long as you are staying in contact with your employer and keeping your skills refreshed, this is the perfect time to stop being so hard on yourself. Be kind to yourself above all else.

We have created a support hub eBook to help you with things to keep your mind ticking whilst you wait to get straight back into work, check it out here.