By: Amelia Elkins, LCSW, CAS
Numerous folks are currently changing jobs. There are many reasons to switch up career roles. These include wanting a change in general, wanting an increase in pay, or reassessing priorities post-Covid. The average person spends 1/3 of their lives at work, so with that time investment, the job should be enjoyable. While there are many benefits to changing positions, there are also many hurdles to face. Whether navigating a new schedule, new coworkers, new commute, or even switching from in person to remote, here are some tools to help the transition go smoother.
- Maintain Routines Outside of Work: One piece I highly encourage my clients to maintain is keeping their routines structured outside of work to avoid too much change all at once. This may include going to the same exercise classes, maintaining a healthy diet, or even going to the same park for your lunch break. This creates a sense of normalcy which can be comforting when changing jobs. Research has shown that maintaining routines leads to positive mental health and may even help reduce depression.
- Healthy Beginnings and Endings: What does it mean to have positive closure at your current position? This may mean having a celebration or gathering to share memories and wishes or setting up coffee dates to see favorite coworkers before the departure. Unfortunately, not all positions prioritize this, so this may need to be created independently. Maintaining positive relationships at past positions is important for a variety of reasons so time should be made for this. Secondly, creating new, positive relationships in a new position is also important. This is also an opportunity to do things differently if relationships didn’t start off on a good note at the last position. Easing into things, not latching on to one coworker, and giving time before making judgments about coworkers would be a good start. Being intentional and willing to make connection in a new role is key to success. More on this here.
- Give Yourself Time to Adjust: Research shows it takes up to six months to fully be comfortable in a new job. I would argue giving yourself up to a year to feel confident and comfortable in a new role. Knowing the transition will be a change and being ok with this is crucial. How do you deal with change? What has helped with life transitions in the past for you? Taking time to reflect and give yourself permission to adjust to a new role may be helpful in reducing stress.