You’ve probably heard the name before. Blue Monday. The holidays are over, credit card bills are coming in, it’s cold and dreary; all supposed factors that go into making the ‘saddest day of the year.’
Now, why are we talking about the third Monday of January if the day has already passed? We’re all supposed to be happy again, right?
Well, we should all know by now that hard days happen all the time, and we owe it to ourselves to talk about it more than just one day a year.
Hearing From Our Team
Quantus is a very social brokerage and this past year has been tough not being able to get together—as it has been for everyone! We tend to be social because our jobs are lonely at the best of times. Most of our team works from home in an office basement and talk to their clients mostly on the phone.
We’re working with our clients who are stressed about making their mortgage payment, finding a new home or just finding extra money to get through tough times. We do our best to help but we can take on a lot of that stress as well.
“There's lots of stress that's not normal right now—that's COVID related—a lot of people are looking for stability and trying to find that rainy day money so that they have a little bit of a cushion. So, there's stress all the way around. And, I know our people are absorbing a lot of that.”
Paul Bojakli, Co-owner Quantus
We had some feedback sessions with our team before Christmas and the one message that rang loud and clear was that we needed to be doing more to support each other and our mental health.
Walking Our Talk
But, we want to do more than just talk about it. We’re learning ways to address and talk about what we’re going through with each other and to better help our clients who may be experiencing similar emotions.
In true Quantus style, we kicked things off by saying F*&k Blue Monday with an online yoga session with Kelsey Norman of KraeKrae Fitness. While we may not have been able to touch our toes (we’re mortgage brokers after all), we did have a good laugh with each other.
We followed things up with another session later from Karen Turner with Turner Efficiency Coaching Inc talking about how we could use our phones better, saving upwards of 30 minutes a day...that’s three weeks a year!
To round out January, Ashley Shaw, Psychologist, MC, RPsych with Still Waters Psychology joined us to lead the team through a bit of how the pandemic is affecting us, shifting our mindset, and how to identify stress vs. anxiety and depression.
Download the suggestions Value Worksheet from Dr. Russ Harris.
Helping Our Clients As Well
However, we’re not keeping these events closed to just our team. We’re looking to plan similar events for our clients in the next few months because we know that we’re not the only people who are working through something in our personal lives.
“We really encourage everyone else out there, whether they're our industry partners, other people that are brokers, or a client of ours, that they need to find their support network as well, and be open and honest about how they're feeling.”
Todd Fralic, Quantus Co-Owner
As we’re always open to feedback from our team, we want to hear from you. Let us know in the comments or send an email to info@qmortgage.ca if you have an idea about how we can be more progressive with mental health in our brokerage.
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