Speaker 1: 1:42

Shift work can be brutal, but it doesn't have to be. Welcome to a healthy shift. My name is Roger Sutherland, certified nutritionist, veteran law enforcement officer and 24-7 shift worker for almost four decades. Through this podcast, I aim to educate shift workers, using evidence-based methods, to not only survive the rigours of shift work, but thrive. My goal is to empower shift workers to improve their health and wellbeing so they have more energy to do the things they love. Enjoy today's show and welcome back to A Healthy Shift, which is the podcast where we talk about real-life strategies for you, the real-life shift worker.

Speaker 1: 2:29

Now, today, I'm going to share something with you that I personally have never talked about publicly before before. It is also something that no one ever knew, that I even did, but it was significant and it's something that was part of my shift working police life for almost 40 years. Not quite the entire journey, because I only learned about it after a few years, but I can tell you, for the best part of 35 years it was a tiny ritual that made a massive difference to me and my mental health and the ability to separate work from home. Now, one thing that I am a massive advocate for in the shift working world is that there's a lack of education around shift work full stop. Were you ever taught how to go about doing shift work? Were you taught how to manage it? And I'm tipping that your answer is absolutely going to be a big no, and this is the problem. But one of the biggest problems, without any doubt whatsoever, that I see particularly police officers struggling with is they go all in thinking that they are completely bulletproof in relation to working the job and what they do is they end up in this whole cycle of whether they're on duty or off duty. They're always on duty because they're posting pictures on social media, they're getting involved in chats, they're communicating with people which are their colleagues outside of work all the time, and they're living in the job. Now, what tends to happen to a lot of these people is they've not been educated that you are not bulletproof. You might think so, but you're actually not, because you're a human being and things will take a significant impact on you, and I'm a massive advocate and I am going to continue to advocate that there needs to be education for shift workers on induction, on induction, whether you're a nurse, whether you're a paramedic, whether you're a firefighter, a police officer, I don't care what you are as far as a shift worker goes. There definitely needs to be education around shift work, but there also needs to be education key education on setting boundaries between your work life and your home life, and you need to protect that at all costs, because there is a significant crossover a significant crossover between your work and home in your early days in the job, and what happens is you tend to find that it becomes your new normal and you start to lose yourself, but you don't realize that it's actually occurring. So today, what I'm going to talk about is a very simple thing that I did for my almost entire career, and it's to talk about the power of setting your boundaries.

Speaker 1: 5:33

Now, as shift workers, especially for those of you in frontline in healthcare or emergency services, for those of you in frontline in healthcare or emergency services we can literally feel like we have no off switch. We see an awful lot, we take on an awful lot, we get frustrated. We feel like we're managed by the public. We feel like we're managed by the government, we feel like we're managed by our managers, and now we feel like we're managed by the public as well media everywhere, and the stress that we carry and the demands of the job. They all have a way of following us and tagging on and following us to our home. It's like a ghost in our mind. It is always there. We replay calls, we drive past particular areas where we've had difficult moments or difficult jobs, and it can stop us from ever truly being present with our family.

Speaker 1: 6:28

Now, for years I battled with this. To start off with, I'd be home, but I wasn't really home. I'd be on the phone talking to colleagues, and it was something that I recognized and I thought my God, I am absolutely living in it. I loved it. But what I didn't realize was the negativity, particularly during my time in the canines, because it was an isolated. We were working by ourselves or with the dog, but the dog's not a very good conversationalist, I can tell you that. But the bottom line is we would be working with a dog, starting at home and finishing at home, and we tend to spend a lot of our time on the phone outside of work, inside work, communicating with our colleagues from work, and what this does is it leaves your mind always in this hypervigilant state of talking about work. Can I trust him? Can I not? Can I say this oh, this has annoyed me, I'm talking about this, whatever, and it really does keep you aware and in this particular situation.

Speaker 1: 7:26

Now, what we need to do is we need to separate that. And if I had my time with every single young person and I used to lecture at the police academy, even in my times at the canines, as well as my time at the communication section, I used to lecture the recruits and one thing that I threw into every single lecture, because it's so important, is the importance of setting a boundary between your work and your home. You need to remember that while you think that everybody at work are your friends, they are colleagues, all right, Because the second that you're gone, they won't give you another thought. I know you think they will, but I can tell you now from my own experience, they don't give you a second thought. Everyone watches, but they don't have anything to do with you. And it's very difficult, I can assure you. And what does happen as well is you can be really doing a very, very good job in your job, but particularly in policing, you can have one minor hiccup that can seriously send you into a spiraling problem, depending on who it is that's overlooking it at the time and you know who you are and you can actually end up in quite a difficult position and if you lose your job, you lose everything. You lose everything that you've actually worked for and then you start to realize I've got nothing else, all right, so we need to be settling this boundary else All right, so we need to be settling this boundary Now. This is where the ritual.

Speaker 1: 8:58

I learned this from a senior constable in my very, very early career and I thought, wow, that's really weird until I started doing it, and then I started to realize the impact, the significant impact that I had. Now it became obsessive for me, but I'm going to talk about it and it's up to you as to whether you take something like this on, but I can promise you it works, and it works really really well. It's simple, it seems like it's insignificant, but it absolutely works. I used to carry a coin in my pocket and every time I was on duty, that coin was with me and what it did was it symbolized my readiness, my commitment, and it was a reminder to me that I was on.

Speaker 1: 9:41

And I always put this coin in my pocket when the shift was over and I would go to my locker and take the uniform off, I would take that coin out of my pocket and, physically, I would put it on the shelf in my locker where I could see it. I would consciously and deliberately place it on the shelf in the locker. I wouldn't just take it off and throw it in there like you do with your keys and your wallet when you start your shift. It would be a conscious decision to take the coin out of my pocket and put it on the shelf. To me, that was a cue. It was a visual cue and it was a physical action to tell me in that moment work is done. It's a physical action that told my brain you are allowed to leave it here and it stays here until the next shift.

Speaker 1: 10:31

Now, when I came back to work and I put the uniform back on, I'd pick the coin back up and I'd put it in my pocket and that would flick the switch again. I was on. This is work. I'm here Now. I know you're thinking a coin, rog. Really, yes, I can tell you it was a coin. It was symbolic, it was something that I could just put in my pocket or it was something that I could take off and I could put on the shelf in my locker, because the point in itself and I want to be clear on this, the point isn't a coin. The point is it's a ritual and it was a moment of intentionality, a physical act of creating a psychological barrier between work and home. Now we live in a world of chaos and unpredictability, but this tiny, consistent action was an anchor that I worked with and I live with, and I firmly believe that everybody else should as well, because we get so many people traveling to work in uniform and back.

Speaker 1: 11:34

You tell me where the boundaries are If you're knocking off work and just putting your jacket on and driving home. Where's the boundary? What ritual, what separation is there between work and home? There is none, and what you need to do is you need to take that uniform off and you need to get changed and you need to take that coin and I use that as a paraphrase take that coin out of your pocket and put it on the shelf. Now I'm clear.

Speaker 1: 12:03

This is something that I've never spoken about before and it's very, very personal, but I'm sharing it now because I know that many of you today are actually in the same boat You're working, you think you're bulletproof. You're living on caffeine, you've no boundaries, you're on social media outside of work, looking at work stuff, doing whatever, and there is no boundary, and this is going to actually cause you an issue long term. I can promise you that it will. Now, by doing this, this actually sorry, but you, you are trying to be everything to everybody and what you're doing is you're spending all of yourself to everyone at work and around and it's creeping into your home life but and you lose that presence. This is one of the main reasons why we have so many issues with marriages and things like that which are at work. We have between work and home, and particularly in frontline health and emergency services. We have massive issues with that because there's no boundaries and we're living in work while we're still at home, and we need to change that and we need to make sure, because when you've got a fulfilling and rich life outside of work, trust me, you are a much better operator at work yourself.

Speaker 1: 13:19

I know a lot of people feel like they don't want to miss out, and we do. We have FOMO. We don't want to miss out on anything that anybody's doing, so we are in these chat groups and communicating with work all the time, but the bottom line is we need to get out of that and put that boundary in place. It is super important that we do this. It is not sustainable and it will not last because it is impacting on you all the time. So what I challenge you to do today, as you listen to this, is I want you to find your own coin. It doesn't have to be a coin. It could be taking off just a necklace. It could be a few deep breaths before you close your locker door or open your locker door. It needs to be something that is small and intentional. That you do that signals to your brain that this is the boundary between work and home. Find something small, but make it consistent. Make it a consistent ritual. That is your ritual. It's not anybody else's, it's your ritual that marks the transition of yourself from work to home, and it will give your brain that signal.

Speaker 1: 14:32

Now, this isn't about being selfish. It's about self-preservation and it's about protecting your relationships outside of your job, because they are more important than anything else, because they are supporting you and you need to be turning up as the best version of you, 100% present all the time while you're out of work and dealing with that Now. You cannot possibly be at your best for your family if you are still carrying the weight of your job on your shoulders. It's a simple tool, but it can be one of the most powerful strategies that you actually have, and it is. It's really important.

Speaker 1: 15:11

And I'll tell you this, and it's actually quite sad, but on my last shift ever, after 40 years, I took the coin out of my pocket for the last time as I took my uniform off and I put it on the shelf and I never saw and I never heard from it again and I left it there and that's it. And no one's ever contacted me to say you left this coin in your locker. It's gone and so is the job. So is the job. But that was how significant it was for me and I was able to use that as a milestone to take that coin out of my pocket, which was basically taking the job out and leaving it behind, and that's exactly what I did. What will be your physical action? That you do Give me an idea. All right, and it's something that you can really use as a physical boundary between your work and home, but you have to do that as well. Not only is it taking the coin out or having something that you actually do, but you need to reinforce that that is the boundary between work and home, and it can literally be taking the mental burden of work out of your pocket and putting it on the shelf in the locker. Really important. So there you go.

Speaker 1: 16:30

That's today's episode. It's only a short one, but I wanted to cover off on that. It's something that it came to me. It was a ritual that I always did, but it's something that you, if you're in the police and you collect one of these challenge coin collectors, find a challenge coin and make it a challenge coin that you put in your pocket and take it out of your pocket every shift and put it on the shelf. Do something like that, have something. I highly recommend you do something because, as this goes on, this is reinforcing in your brain that this is the boundary between work and home, because this, I can assure you, is one of the biggest issues that majority of us have when it comes to our shift working world and why we suffer from stress, because we are on 24-7 and we never shut down from it, and there needs to be something in place that actually helps you to do it.

Speaker 1: 17:23

Okay, guys, thank you so much. Please, if this gave you any value this podcast. I really do ask and you guys have been really slack on this Could you please do me a favor If you're on Spotify, go back to the main page and just hit the five stars and give it five stars. You get this for nothing. It's information that is truly evidence-based and valuable information for you. All I ask that you do is to help me, to support me by just giving it a rating, and if you're on Apple, you can give it a rating and if you'd be ever so kind, write a review for it as well. It'll only take you a few minutes. It takes me a lot longer than that to record it and prepare for it and get it out there. That's the only thing that I ask for you in return Five stars. It's a push the button, hit the five. Or, instead of sending a text to somebody outside of work, how about we just write a tiny little review that goes for about the same length? That really, really helps me enormously to get evidence-based information and to get this podcast out to people like you that are in that position. That can get value out of my actual podcast. So, once again, thanks very much for listening. I really do appreciate you.

Speaker 1: 18:39

The podcast is approaching 300 episodes now. There is plenty there for you, plenty to go back across and if there's any topics that you want me to cover, if you go into the show notes, you can send me a text and it will come through and I'll get it. Thanks for listening and I'll catch you on the next one. Thank you for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe so you get notified whenever a new episode is released. It would also be ever so helpful if you could leave a rating and review on the app you're currently listening on. If you want to know more about me or work with me, you can go to ahealthyshiftcom. I'll catch you on the next one.