All this week we have supporting #MentalHealthAwarenessWeek.The official theme for this week was loneliness and several of our #mentalhealthfirstaiders have written #blog posts describing their experiences of #loneliness.
A huge thank you to our MHFAs for putting pen to paper and allowing us to share in your experiences.
Loneliness. Elaine Jevon Pareto FM
Through my own experience and talking to others that have felt the same - working in our line of business can be quite lonely. Although we are all part of a wider team, quite often we work alone.
I move between numerous client sites in offices full of people however I have been a team of one. I go to a site and meet with a client for a weekly meeting or check in with a team member, but we all have different roles that are not desk based. The engineer will go back to putting up lights, the receptionist will continue to greet guests, but I never really got to engage fully with people and missed feeling part of a team.
It can feel very daunting and lonely walking in and out of offices where there are teams of people together at lunchtime laughing and joking and sharing a break together whilst you’re an outsider.
Pareto employees are based across the UK and talking on the phone or emailing isn’t always personal enough to feel that connection at work and build relationships. However, since joining a new team, I have started to build some new connections and am starting to feel part of a team. We try to meet on a more regular basis to work together from one office.
Just sharing that cup of coffee and a few jokes has made me feel so much happier in my work.
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