Navigating Work Challenges During and After a War: Strategies for Resilience

Sand

Quick Sand

It has been a crazy 2 weeks. Did I have a plan for this? No! (Also yes, I'll explain why).

We didn't get the memo! - No one told us this war that is currently going on in Israel would become a double whammy! It just happened. Of course we couldn't be told ahead of time, that wouldn't make sense but as it is, we experienced a 'quick sand' type of experience. Thrown into chaos and expected to try survive.

When Israel went for Iran, we were woken in the middle of the night by an alert that Israel attacked Iran and we could expect retaliation - get ready.

Oh yes, that is fine, thanks for the update. I'll just go prepare my Mamad (safe room) for 8 of us to sleep in, in case!

We had to change from work and usual schedule to full time home schooling, babysitting, and sleepless nights. Stress, Not knowing what would be and responsibility to be the adult in the situation.

My kids were amazing, they went with the flow and B"H had few questions.

Now, 2 weeks later, they are back to school, again thrown in to change (for the good) and expected to cope.

Luckily we have had to cope with big things before, take family situations, corona, general missile attacks on Israel and life in general. I had therefore over the years, taken a few courses on trauma coping and healing and other parenting strategies to help us through. I knew what to do!

The Impact of War and what to do to get through

There is a large emotional toll that war can take on individuals and families. We have to remember that.

For everyone it will be different.

The small business owner or the work from home parent like me doesn't necessarily have the team to keep everything up and running.

Luckily I have a community of similar minded people and amazing clients who know this is a reality. My family will always come first.

I was literally in the middle of editing a new class for you. I managed to have got the filming in but had a week or so of editing that went to the end of the queue for the time being.

Partly, this is why I stopped selling so many actual cakes and turned to teaching and online classes. There were moments when I could not fulfill a request but more often, I would be left in the lurch. For example, I would be making a birthday cake, war breaks out, all the sugar work that took days to prepare were not needed anymore. The party was cancelled and by the time there was peace, the parents decided not to go ahead with a whole party and cancelled the cake. :(

Knowing there is a community around you that are going through similar scenarios can help. Turn to them for support or offer support if you can.

For me, I prefer to put work on the back burner and help the community out. It actually helps to cope when you feel useful and involving the children can help them through too. For example making sandwiches, meals and parcels for soldiers or needy families.

Mental Health and Self-Care

This in itself helps to prevent mental health issues.

Giving to others helps you too! Go out and give!

Others things that will help are:

-Being appreciative for the small things such as the smell of your coffee or the sunshine. Thank Hashem!

-Getting some exercise in, even a 10 minute walk around the dining room table or stretching with your kids.

-Some 'you' time, read a book by yourself for 20 minutes, put on some face cream, let someone take over for a bit.

Adapting Business Practices

There were some amazing people who offered free online classes for the families in Israel to occupy their children or themselves.

For some people, maybe this gave them some more advertising and they were able to benefit from their charity too.

Of course, know one knows how long these tense situations will last so after some time it may be financially necessary to actually start some work again.

I would take into consideration firstly putting aside some savings to manage when things get tough but also to adapt to new realities and perhaps change up what you offer to work for you.

This may involve changing the menu you offer to fit with what you can do such as:

-Preselling amounts of cookies and then baking them to fit with the orders.

-Making a convenient drop off / pickup point for clients.

-Going more online than before such as online classes

-Starting a blog or social media presence to connect with customers.

Lessons Learned and Moving Forward

War is still going on but that 2 weeks of intensity has passed. I am taking the time to reflect on key lessons learned during that time and hopefully helping some of you with it too!

The value of resilience and adaptation in both personal and professional life during times of war is so important for recovery.

I personally feel that committing yourself to staying positive and knowing that 'this too shall pass', keep moving forward and embracing challenges as opportunities for growth are all ingredients for a healthy, productive life.

So...

I am going to continue to edit that video I was in the middle of and soon, you will have another awesome class to learn from.

I would love to hear from you, fellow bakers, mums, clients and home business owners. Share with me your stories and experiences. You can share them with your friends or start a blog of your own too.

Love Dalia