Here at Switched ON Living, we’ve spoken a lot lately about working from home, and with good reason.

For so many of us aged over 50, working from home is now a mainstay of our professional lives. It’s brought undoubted benefits, but also challenges of isolation and disconnection.

In this video from global health and security services provider International SOS, we look specifically at the mental health aspect of working from home and we learn a few tips on how to safeguard our mental health wellbeing.

Corporate mental health psychologist Dr Kennette Thigpen says her biggest tip is to create a designated home workspace and then ensure that all the other members of the household respect that space.

Kennette also says we should maintain a work-day routine as though we were still going into the office everyday – we wake up at the same time, we have a morning shower, we start work at the same time and on and on – and take meaningful breaks that allow us to re-energise and are more than just a quick distraction from our screens.

Occupational psychologist Dr Rachel Lewis reminds us of the link between our physical and psychological health and the effect of our environment on our wellbeing.

That means maintaining a correct posture at our desks, ensuring access to sufficient natural light, having indoor plants nearby and avoiding hazards.

Rachel also offers suggestions on how we can improve our end-of-work routine, including adding our working hours in our email signature and using a dedicated equipment (computer and phone) for work.

Team leaders are especially important in the wellbeing of their staff. Kennette and Rachel advise asking each team member their preferred communication channel, encouraging informal chat and meet-ups between colleagues and keeping our cameras on during video calls.

For many Switched ON Living members, we love working from home. After decades of the daily commute, many of us really relish the extra convenience and flexibility that working from home affords.

Overwhelmingly, our experience and self-discipline has allowed our organisations to transition seamlessly to working from home mode without loss of effectiveness or productivity.

The thing for everyone aged over 50 is to ensure working from home works for us and doesn’t imperil our mental health wellbeing.

If we manage it well, hybrid working is a real incentive for us to stay longer in the paid workforce and postpone the day when we decide it’s not worth the trouble, or we’re not coping and someone makes that decision for us.

At the start of the video, Sally Wang tells us that research shows working from home more than three-days a week heightens our susceptibility to mental health impacts.

The Switched ON thing for us to do is remain vigilant about our wellbeing and call out if we’re starting to experience the discomfort of disengagement, isolation or other problems.

As Kennette and Rachel have shown us, we have strategies to improve our work from experience. Passive resignation isn’t an option for anyone who is Switched ON, in the same way that passive traditional retirement is unthinkable for anyone who is Switched ON.