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Our friends will often come to us for advice and solutions. They will share their worries and concerns and expect us to listen to them, show compassion, and help them solve their issues. And most of the time, we will do that. We might think there is nothing wrong with it – at the end of the day, isn’t this what good friends do?

While there is nothing wrong with being a good friend who is always there for other people, we should not forget that we don’t always have the emotional resources to do that. We will have days when our own struggles leave us with no energy to listen to someone else’s concerns. Besides, we might find ourselves in a place where we don’t actually know what to do or say to someone who expects our advice. Trainee Integrative Psychotherapist Teodora Ghiur from SupportRoom shared a few tips on how we can protect our mental wellbeing when someone close to us burdens us with their personal problems.

Recognise your own limits

Instead of assuming that you have all the answers to someone else’s problems, have a realistic look at what you can practically solve in their lives. Take into consideration the fact that you’re not a therapist or an expert on someone’s issue. Therefore, the solutions and advice you are able to offer might not be the best. Do not put pressure on yourself to have the right words to say when someone complains about a situation going wrong in their lives. Knowing your own limits about what you can and cannot do will prevent you from setting unrealistic expectations of yourself.

Psychotherapist Teodora Ghiur from SupportRoom describes Employee retention as company’s ability to retain its employees and prevent high turnover. It refers to policies and strategies that allow employees to stay at the company for a long time.

Employee retention is a complex subject and can be difficult to implement in daily corporate life. Nowadays, employee retention is a bigger challenge than ever. As a result, this topic gets more attention from the top management than before. Gladly, there are a lot of methods for retaining employees. However, the diversity of retention programs is not solely a good sign. It mostly shows how complex the issue is and how many different techniques we need to apply to ensure that good employees stay in the company.

When we are talking about employee retention, we are trying to understand why employees quit and how we can manage this process. Here are the major challenges that we face in terms of employee retention:

• Better job opportunities on the market
• Hiring unsuitable candidates
• Lack of motivation
• Workplace anxiety
• Different job expectations
• Salary dissatisfaction

“How do I talk to someone about their addiction?” – A Psychotherapist shares the do’s and don’ts to dealing with addiction

It can be hard to know what to do when faced with a loved one’s addiction problem, but a Psychotherapist has shared a simple guide to help you through it.

With International Overdose Awareness Day (August 31st) coming up, trainee Integrative Psychotherapist Teodora Ghiur from SupportRoom wanted to share how you can talk to someone in your life about their addiction, and how you can support them.

The 3 key things to know when dealing with a loved one’s addiction problem

1. Addictive disorders are serious mental health conditions, and they affect not just the health and well-being of an individual but impact the lives of those around them too.

2. Discovering the news about a loved one’s addiction problem can be highly distressing and upsetting, and it’s normal to feel an intense range of emotions, from shock and anger to sadness, guilt and even betrayal.

3. Although this may upset you, it’s important to keep in mind that your reaction could worsen your relationship with the addicted person, so be mindful in your approach to supporting their journey.

The do’s and don’ts when talking about addiction

DO

• Take some time to process the news and regulate your emotions
• Only approach the addicted person when you feel calm and able to control your emotions
• Be compassionate and empathetic with a friendly and non-judgmental tone
• Show kindness and reassure the person of your unconditional support
• Be ready to actively listen if they feel comfortable sharing details about their problem
• Keep things confidential, except for critical situations when their life might be in danger

DON’T

• Show anger and resentment towards them
• Blame them for their problem
• Threaten them
• Use verbally aggressive words or say things that can upset your loved one
• Yell, raise your voice or become defensive
• Ask the addicted individual to talk about their problem if they’re not prepared to do so
• Force them into seeking support if they are not ready for it
• Offend, victimise, or ridicule them

A mental health expert has revealed why we feel so bad about going on holiday and tips on how to beat those nagging feelings of guilt. If you’re feeling guilty about taking time off, you’re not the only one with a survey by Perkbox revealing that 66% of us feel the urge to cancel or delay our holidays due to feelings of guilt – even though we’re entitled to 28 days of annual leave! Trainee Integrative Psychotherapist Teodora Ghiur from SupportRoom reveals the reasons why we feel this way, and how to stop ourselves from feeling guilty on those well-deserved days off.

Why do we feel guilty about going on holiday?

We feel bad that we have the privilege

•  Sometimes we might feel guilty as we’re enjoying the privilege of a holiday while other people are struggling to pay for basic needs like food and bills.
• Even when we know we worked hard to earn our holiday, we still can’t help thinking about the contrast between us and less fortunate people, especially right now during the cost of living crisis.

We feel unproductive

• Sometimes these feelings of guilt stem from the deeply-ingrained thought that we should always work towards our goals.
• This goes back to our childhoods when we were rewarded for effort and accomplishment, so we tie our value as human beings to productivity, hard work, and outstanding results, seeing the money and time we spend on holiday as a bad investment.

It can be hard to give up responsibility

• It can be hard to relinquish responsibility and control over projects or assignments, and many feel irresponsible taking holiday, with this guilt increasing with the seniority of a role.
• Perkbox revealed that 92% of C-Suite Executives (think CEOs or COOs) feel holiday guilt, compared to just 57% of those in entry-level positions.

Transform your business with the engagement, performance and growth app that boosts productivity and morale by over 90%

Take your business to the next level with the workplace engagement, performance and growth app that can offer you valuable holistic insights into your workforce and has been shown to increase morale and productivity by over 90%.

Used to help find the pulse of an organisation, the Heartbeat Insights app from SupportRoom helps a company to understand its workforce holistically by engaging with their workforce and leadership team to uncover insight into various topics such as diversity and inclusion, performance reviews, wellbeing, physical health and more.

The insights garnered from these surveys can help an employer better understand their employees at all levels, highlighting issues in the workplace, and overall help them to adjust their employee engagement strategy through anonymous feedback.
Through Heartbeat, an employer can transform their workplace into a more rewarding and successful venture by identifying employee needs and helping to drive growth in a way that can get the most out of their staff.

A recent survey of 2000 employees that have used Heartbeat Insights in their workplace revealed the following benefits after their insights were taken on board by their employers:

• 90% felt that their morale had improved.
• 95% felt they had become more productive.
• 90% of staff were coping better with their work-life balance.
• 92% saw improvements in their peer relationships.

Psychologist reveals how the weather can make us more irritable, and how to cool off as the heat rises

After the colder months, we welcome the heat rising, but according to a psychologist and well-being expert, it can also lead to a rise in levels of anger, irritability and even violence.
Wellbeing Psychologist and Coach Kirsty Leah from SupportRoom reveals that while warm and sunny weather makes us happier and more agreeable, once outside temperatures become sweltering we become noticeably more irritable and likely to lash out in anger.

Why does the heat make us more irritable?

Unlike in the cooler months when we can easily warm up to a comfortable temperature, many people report the feeling of being unable to escape the heat, especially in the UK where air conditioning is less commonplace.

Hotter weather has a particularly bad impact on our sleep, making it difficult to nod off or get enough quality sleep as we struggle to cool down. This then sets a bad precedent for our day, with our brains not able to deal with emotional regulation and problem-solving as effectively due to a lack of restorative rest.

As a result, you’re more likely to respond with greater extremes of emotions, couple this with dehydration and feeling physically uncomfortable due to the heat and our tolerance levels and patience are worn thin, meaning what may
usually be seen as a minor issue can suddenly feel like a huge problem.

When patience is thin tempers can flare, with data collected by the London Metropolitan Police showing that violence increases as the mercury rises, with violent crimes 14% higher when temperatures are above 20°C.

Research has also suggested that by losing even just 2% of the body’s water we can end up struggling with tasks that demand mental and physical attention and coordination, which can add to our emotional turmoil as we become increasingly frustrated with our inability to focus or work effectively.

If we get too hot, we can also begin to suffer the effects of heatstroke, which can increase feelings of confusion and agitation as well as make us feel physically nauseous or fatigued, further contributing to our feelings of discomfort and
amping up our irritability.