KEEPING IN TOUCH WITH WELLBEING AT WORK IN THE COVID ERA

7 May 2020

Being PR practitioners, it’s safe to say that the Brazen bunch are social creatures. We could easily be all out of sorts due to not being in face to face contact with each other for the past seven years (wait, what? Seven weeks, that’s it?) but we’re surviving!

We’ve got a new approach to wellbeing at work and have fallen into our groove with our own ‘new normal’ ways of socialising and checking in on each other. I won’t dwell on these crazy circumstances we’re all in, but communication and a sense of community can go a long way in making us feel a little more together and positive.

We wanted to share our virtual ventures in case they spark any ideas or inspire you to go and reconnect with colleagues who might be needing a bit of a natter too.

 

Wellbeing at work Wednesday

 

Back in pre-COVID Brazen PR days, Nina and I ran bi-weekly Wellbeing Wednesday sessions with the whole team where we’d check in with one another and maybe learn a new skill like meditation or do something nice and chilled like colouring etc.

 

Lockdown and WFH was no reason to stop Wellbeing Wednesdays, in fact we doubled up and now have short weekly wellbeing at work sessions that create a moment for us to all be on the same peaceful page. Here’s a few of our favourite bits:

  • We created an all-agency gratitude journal.

  • I made a lovely Google sheet with everyone’s names and space for them to write three things they were grateful for that day. We all filled the grid in over our lunch and because it was live we could see it being added to before our eyes. Seeing everyone’s gratitude populate the page made me feel all warm and fuzzy and we all agreed afterwards that taking that moment in our day to reflect made us feel positive and more connected.

    Take a look at our template here if you’d like to download and have a go.

  • We practiced mindfulness together.

  • We all dialled in to Zoom and talked through what it means to be mindful and how to check in with yourself and put a little mindfulness into practice. A tip I took from a webinar by our Managing Partner of Brazen MENA, Louise, is to ask yourself ‘what percent of me is present right now?’. And see if you can up that figure! After the call we went our separate ways and had a go privately.

 

  • We tuned in to personal development talks together.

  • On a couple of Wellbeing Wednesdays we all gave friend of Brazen and personal development coach, Jane Kenyon, a virtual visit. She has a series of personal development tips on her YouTube channel which you can have a gander of here. The Vision Board video inspired a few Brazenites to create their own beautiful vision boards and share them with the team.

 

Staying Social

 

Nothing can stop Brazen’s Social Chair, Matt Cooper, from being social. He’s created an online ‘guess the baby picture’ game, hosted Thirsty Thursday Zoom calls, and compèred a couple of raucous Quaran-team Quiz nights.

I know, we didn’t invent the team Zoom quiz. But we wanted to share some of Matt’s hilarious rounds that are guaranteed to go down well at any quarantine quiz:

  • Name the pasta. Not as easy as it sounds! Photos of those quirky pasta shapes we all enjoy but can’t pronounce.
  • “If I could turn back time”. Completely ridiculous game of higher or lower. Using pictures of Cher throughout the years, you have to guess if she is older or younger than the previous photo. Thanks to her surgeon, this. Was. Hard.
  • Bonus birthday rounds. Two quizzes have fallen in the weeks of a Brazenite’s birthday, so Matt prepared special rounds all about them. Lovely idea that turned out equal parts sweet and hilarious.
  • Guess the chocolate bar. Close up shots of the filling of classic choccies. The team cleaned up on this round.
  • Guess the Collins. We wouldn’t be a PR agency if there wasn’t a shared obsession with the GC. Matt lined up snaps of a selection of other famous Collins of sorts and we had to name them. Including but not limited to; Phil Collins, Collin Firth, Tom Collins and Joan Collins.

 

We’re obviously still missing the absolutely crackers camaraderie that makes Brazen the PR agency that it is, but these little things are helping us all stay close during these tricky times. I hope that they can inspire you to do the same too.

 

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