Changes at work

I work three days a week as a manager in the public sector and have worked where I work for 20 plus years. There are lots of changes happening in what feels like a very short period of time and I am finding it difficult to navigate this and not let it consume me. In turn this is impacting my full time role as a parent and my mental health more generally.

The changes include-
My employer is separating from a partnership which has been integral to our team’s work.
This means our team is splitting into two to be able to provide the service for two different organisations.
We are relocating offices.
There is a restructure which is resulting in me losing my manager and will make me the lead for our area of work. When I raise concerns about this I am told my job isn’t changing.
We are also going through a transformation project at the same time which may result in further restructure and changes.

On top of this our team has a phenomenal backlog of work due to be under resourced which means the morale of the team is down and we are all overworked and unable to provide customers with the level of service they deserve.

I find myself wishing I could leave my job but at this time it isn’t possible due to our family’s financial security.

When I write unintentional models I find my nervous system is getting super activated and I flit between disconnecting from it all/being very anxious and just shutting down.

Please can you make some suggestions as to where I could start to unpick this.

 

Answer:

Start by owning your decision to stay in the job for now. There are a lot of things happening that your brain feels it has no control over. These things are big and scary because the brain hates unknowns.  What you can control is choosing to stay and how you show up in your job and in your other roles. The rest is just a story your brain is telling you. This is the best news because it means you can change the story any time you want to.

All the anxiety is coming from fear of the future. Stay present. Breathe. This is all happening for you. What if it’s not a problem that this is consuming a lot of time and energy right now? Explore your thoughts about this time of transition. What other transitions have you been through and come out the other side ok? See what comes up and bring back any questions or models. You may also like watching the Doing Less Webinar that will give you tools to priritize your energy.