This article offers examples of changes individual correctional employees can choose to make in their personal and family life to bring about positive outcomes for themselves and their loved ones, and by extension for their workplace. (Personal life “comes” to work just as much as work life “comes” home. Usually, not much is left at the gate, either way.)
Corrections Fatigue is a real thing, and it had a big hold on me. So what did I do about it? I disconnected somewhat emotionally from work and plugged in to enjoying my family more. I sought out guidance and purpose and began meeting regularly with a very wise mentor from my church family. I found purpose and joy in choosing to live for others and not so much for myself. For my self-care, I began engaging in new hobbies which allow me to see tangible results that I can’t always see at work. I began cooking and smoking food, and learning about woodworking that I found I enjoyed after working on some awesome pinewood derby cars with my son. I began working to restore old cars and bringing them back to life and using these and other examples in teaching good life lessons to the kids (and myself).
I had to work on making sure that home life was very different from work life. I had to ensure there were goals to attain at home, and not just maintaining the status quo like work life can often be. That way I couldn’t be my work personality at home. This made that switch from work to home easier to flip and allowed less carryover when leaving Job #2 to engage in Job #1.
Work no longer gets all the fruit leaving only the peel for my family. It’s a daily task to keep that balance and I’m not perfect at it, but the fruit that my family gets from me now, is so much more than what I gave them before. Part of our jobs as humans investing in other humans is to plant seeds and help produce good fruit. When we focus less on how many seeds are in an apple, and more on how many apples are in a seed, our movement towards staff wellness will go a very long way. Be well and keep stepping forward!
