Drawing on recent experiences of COVID-19, its impact on mental health and the changing workforce landscape, the ASPA Early Career Network hosted a webinar in April focusing on mental health and wellbeing for Early Career Professionals. Speakers Dr Catherine Draper (University of Witwatersrand) and Mr Ben Higgs(www.therisefoundation.net) shared their experiences and provided participants with useful strategies for Early Career Professionals in navigating stressors of the workplace, maintaining boundaries and looking after your mental health.

The top three takeaways for navigating the workforce as an Early Career Professional were: 

1.        ‘Personal and professional lives are interlinked’ – how we show up at work reflects how we are personally. The line between personal and professional lives is an artificial creation and we will always have an interplay between the two.  

2.       ‘Stop and rest’ – it is important to have boundaries in place to help navigate the crossover between personal and professional life. These include having a ‘end-point’ to your day and ‘switching off’ from work when on leave 

3.       ‘Work on self-management’ – manage your energy (for work) as well as your time, protect your time to do your most important work and take breaks when you need to  

Tuesday, April 26^th , 10am UK time/11am South Africa time/7pm AEST

Watch the recording here