Reduce the impact of stress

So beyond anything in the literature, the relationship you have with your line manager, top trumps any other relationship you can have with your team. So if that’s not a particularly good relationship, work on it because it really does matter. And even if you have a really good relationship with other members of your team, it won’t mitigate a poor relationship with a line manager. Social support, getting that around you, whatever that looks like, whether that’s remote conversations, joining in clubs, that type of thing, to make sure that you’ve got that support of both friends and colleagues around you, that boundary, that way of working. And I’m not talking about working to rule. I’m just thinking about I know where I begin and end. I know what my work expects to me. I know what you expect of me. And really important at the moment, especially in these circumstances. And a lot of this comes from the research done with the 9/11 colleagues. You know, this is really tough work. There’s no happy ending here. But the perception at the end of the day that I’ve gone in, I’ve done what I needed to do and come away, having done a good job, was hugely protective in helping people process what they’d experienced. So even where people are in different, difficult circumstances, being able to have a sense that I did as much as I could do and it was a good enough job is hugely important. And then identifying what’s outside of your control, I’m sure you’re familiar with those circles of control. But fortunately, the pathway out of lockdown is not within our control. Even though Boris has made it difficult for us to plan anything moving forward for the future. We need to let some of that go and deal with what’s in front of us, because that would just increase our sense of anxiety and stress.