Coping with Life Transitions

Skip to resources

Life and work transitions can impact a person’s wellbeing tremendously. Major transitions can require significant adjustment. These can include dealing with loss of any kind, relocating, returning to work after an absence (such as maternity leave), moving through the life cycle (such as entering parenthood or menopause), role or management changes and many more. The workplace can provide a sense of support, encouragement and can even act as a solid anchor during a time of transition for an employee.

As with each wellbeing area, it is important to provide supports both at the individual level, to help build the personal skills of your employees to manage challenging life transitions, but also at an organisational level, to provide the encouragement and flexibility needed for an employee to navigate their life transition autonomously.

A supportive environment within the workplace can be just the stability needed for an employee to move through challenging times and return to a state of equilibrium. Furthermore, supporting your employees in this way can encourage a sense of contentment while also minimising the effects of disruptions to their personal and professional lives.

While these resources are helpful to get you started, it’s very important to carefully plan your workplace wellbeing activities. Research shows that all activities that target the individual employee, should be coupled with activities at the level of the organisation. In other words, you should always take measures to create a supportive organisational environment alongside lifestyle-focused supports for your employees. We’ve included detailed advice on how best to plan your activities at both these levels.