Whatever faces you, you are entitled to work where capable – and it should not affect how managers and colleagues treat you. Here’s how to acknowledge a health condition with your employer, and work through it positively.

For too long, people with long-term physical health problems or those people with mental health issues have been discriminated against in the workplace. Mental health issues were stigmatised, with conditions little understood.

Thankfully, attitudes are changing with employers now looking to support and help their employees. With mental and overall health of employees high up the agenda, most employers are seeking to actively work and engage with employees on such issues. There are even mental health courses that you can take online to boost your awareness and understanding.

But when you have a health condition, mental or physical (or both) how can you manage your health alongside giving your employer the best you have to offer?

Starting the conversation

Although many employers are taking proactive steps to help employees manage their health better, as well as providing an improved atmosphere in which to work, they won’t know to provide extra support or make changes to accommodate your health issues if they don’t know you are unwell.

Effectively, you need to start a conversation about being unwell or the mental health issues you are facing. Clearly, for someone in the midst of some kind of health crises, this can seem like a gigantic step.

Here are some suggestions for taking this important first step;

Many people find that with the support of a trusted work colleague, they are able to start the conversation about what is happening to them.

We all know how busy work can be and with something so important, snatching a few moments with your boss in the corridor is not a great way to start discussing something as personal as your health. You need to ask to make a time for you to meet to discuss something important.

For many people, opening the conversation about your mental health or discussing an ongoing illness is the most daunting step. Some people send an email first, before meeting their boss. This takes away that initial opening line of ‘I have been diagnosed with…’ etc. It also gives your boss time to think about how best they can support you.

Ask what support is available

Employers are now taking the health and well-being of their works more seriously, and look to offer support that allows people to deal with health issues but carry on working in a way and at times that suit them.

But it is a balancing act and, as an employee, you must also realise that your boss needs to ensure that the business is also moving forward, with responsibilities and so on being met.

This doesn’t mean they can dismiss you for being ill: they can’t as there are employment laws that prevent this.

Employees also worry about ‘triggers’ when they take time off. Some companies and public-sector employers monitor when people are off. If a pattern emerges, it is the employer’s responsibility to work with the employee to see why this is, and what they can do to make things better for their workers.

Be prepared to work with your employer

Your boss won’t always get it right. Many people still struggle to work with and deal with health issues, especially mental health. The point is that they try to work with you, but they are not always going to say the right thing and the right time.

And, if you stay home from work, your boss is entitled to maintain contact with you. You may perceive this as pressure to return but remember, your boss or supervisor is more than likely trying to help you. There are guidelines, however, on how contact is made and what this should achieve.

Consider raising awareness with your colleagues

Employers are now offering training to supervisors and managers on how to work with employees with health and mental health issues. There are many avenues to explore with your employer about raising awareness of various health issues with your colleagues and management.

How is your wellbeing?

From feeling a little low in spirit to depression and anxiety, there are many organisations who can help with your mental health issues. They can provide you with help about how to deal with your health issues at work too, what you can expect from your employer and so on. But there is no doubt, sharing your worries and concerns helps.

 

We’ve all been there. The five minutes before the exam room door opens, our palms are sweaty and our mind suddenly goes blank.

And then there are the tough assignments. The questions that tie us in knots, the equations that we don’t know how to solve because we just don’t know where to start.

When we are faced with difficult learning situations, there are many options we can choose from. We can say ‘it’s too hard’ and shy away, or we can look at the challenge, accept it and do our best.

As you stand at the precipice of a new course, you probably have mixed feelings. On one hand, you are excited to be learning something new and wondering where it will take you. You may also have feelings of deep trepidation – what if you fail? What if you just can’t do it? What if you cannot learn anything new at all?

Mastering Tough Topics – 4 Ideas

Whether it is learning a new language or delving into science, you will face many in your course.

When it comes to mastering tough topics, we have to understand how we learn and how our negative thoughts and experiences impact on our ability to grasp new.

Thinking Skills

You may have come across the term ‘thinking skills’ within education settings.

How we think impacts on the level of information we absorb.

Focused thinking is when we have an ingrained mental path for solving a problem. You may use this form of thinking as your default setting – it is often how we are taught to learn in school. It means focusing on the problem in hand.head with a puzzle piece cut out of it

Your brain quickly attempts to find the solution to the problem.

Diffused thinking is when you are faced with a problem that you have not come across before. Your brain may jump from one idea to the next.

This is a form of thinking that happens subconsciously. For example, when you need to work out how to solve a complex problem that your have not come across before, you can benefit from diffused thinking. You know you have the skills to solve it, but you cannot work out how to apply these skills to get to the point where you know you need to be.

Consider the problem and then go and do something else. Go for a walk, have a nap, do something else where the brain is not ‘focused’ on the problem, but is instead ruminating on it in the background. Chances are, you will hit on an idea and you’ll find that with renewed energy and a different way of thinking, you solve the problem.

You need both modes of thinking to be able to learn effectively.

1.   Spaced Repetition

Your memory is complex. There is a common learning misconception that the more times you do something, the more likely you are to remember it.

This is true to a point, but it isn’t all that helpful when it comes to mastering tough topics. Spaced repetition can be much more helpful.I Believe in Me

Instead of spending a long-time memorising something, spaced repetition uses a short amount of time. This has been proven to help lock things into the memory.

2.   Fight Procrastination

Procrastination prevents learning. It is the act of avoidance, and it is something that many of us do, especially when faced with a problem or topic that we find difficult.

Getting through the wall (as some people refer to it) takes willpower, but this is insufficient on its own.

The Pomodoro technique can be helpful in combating procrastination:

3.   Tackling Niggling Self-Doubt

How many times have you heard someone say, ‘I’m not good at maths,’ ‘I never could do physic,s’ ‘I’ve never been able to knit.’ These are all examples of negative self-talk.Man With Head on Laptop

For many of us, it seems that these things are proven – you ‘failed’ Maths GCSE, or you didn’t understand physics with poor feedback from your teacher, or the scarf you knitted is riddled with are holes.

Dealing with self-doubt means understanding why we say or act in this way, acknowledging that our doubts are there, but understanding that these experiences do not define us.

This means changing thought patterns, and this is where neuro linguistic courses and even mental health courses can come into play. By changing how and why you think and act, you can equip yourself with new tools to master the topics you find tough.

How do you tackle learning challenges?