How to Return to Work in Bristol
Returning to work is hard. Returning to work is not impossible in this city if you pull in the right support. Return to work Bristol is enabled by many useful organisations, businesses and renewal schemes. You do not need to return to work alone.
Resources To Support a Return to Work Bristol
Use all the resources you can get your hands on and google: BRAVE, Get Set, Business link west, your local Jobcentre, The Executive Address at UWE, Your industry-specific networking groups, breakfast networking clubs, Job clubs, Professional networking organisations, Maternity support, Your own HR dept; human resources are there to support as well as to ‘police’. your doctor to access Occupational Therapy if you have been unwell. Your university or previous work Alumni, Professional platforms like LinkedIn: get your profile sorted. If you reach out and make contact with one resource then that will lead to the next. You do just have to make a start.
Gather your friends and your family close. These people, however much they care for you, are not mind-readers. They will not necessarily notice if you are tired, or disheartened by your task. And, there will be days when you are indeed disheartened: Days when a return to work seemed like a bad idea. When you may not feel you can handle the changes. These are the days when you need to nourish and reward yourself.
“List exactly how you will take care of yourself.”
Before you even begin the process work out what you will need in order to get through the dark days. Prepare this bit because, whilst not all the days will be dark, in fact, most will have their joys. Prepare this because, in the moments that it does go dark, it is really hard to remember where to find the light again. List who you need and what you’ll do and exactly how you will take care of yourself. Some kind of Buddhist saying that goes something like this:
“It is not that we should be centred all the time, it is that we need to know how to return to centre as soon as possible”
And that is the important bit for if any of us get caught in a loop then we are of no benefit to ourselves or to others. And there is very little that builds confidence more swiftly than knowing we have been of use to others. We need to know how we will return to centre when we get knocked off balance.
So, in service of your return to work here in this city, & in service of all the brilliant work you will do, prepare. Prepare and PREPARE. Whilst you cannot possibly prepare for every eventuality during this return to work journey, you can know who and what you need if things do go awry. Keep that knowledge to hand.
Good luck! It really will be worth it!
You can find Rebecca here at the Daemon Career Coach