How to Look After your Mental Health as a Contractor

Being a contractor means driving yourself forwards.

However this need to be a self-driven person can put pressure on you as an individual, negatively impacting your day-to-day life in and out of work.

Our Contract Team Lead Lee Barham tells us how contractors can look after their mental health:

“Here at InfraView we firmly believe that a positive work-life balance is really important.

It helps to alleviate the possibility of burning out and makes you feel more satisfied at work.

For contractors in particular, who I speak to on a daily basis, it’s important to learn how to balance your life in and out of the office.

Firstly it’s crucial to learn to manage the irregularity of contract work. This means staying in control of the hours you’re working to manage stress on a long term basis.

Contractors should take time out between long-term contracts and give yourself a break to recharge your batteries before embarking on your next Cloud & IT Infrastructure job.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the lines between home life and work life were blurred more than is comfortable for many people. This is why it’s really important to take breaks during the day, get away from your screen and give yourself a chance to slow down.

On top of this, contractors should be setting boundaries around work with the client. If the workload becomes particularly heavy, for example, it’s imperative that you talk to them about which aspects of your existing responsibilities will have to be dropped in order to carry out the extra tasks.

All of these things, coupled with finding ways to switch off away from work, will help contractors to achieve a better work life balance. Doing this means the quality of your work will improve, you will feel more satisfied and ultimately your mental health will benefit as a result.”