The 4 Phases of Lockdown. Where are you? [Ep3]

Three more weeks. At least. No surprise but hearing it made me feel heavy inside.

To give us a bit of insight into what to expect next Karen Taylor, my friend who lives in Hong Kong where they are into month four of being restricted or in lockdown, posted about the emotional phases she has observed herself and her colleagues going through. If you are leading or supporting a team, it offers a framework for some of what you might be seeing.

Karen Taylor

• Working in Hong Kong

• Mum of 3

1. The Frenzy:

The wild, anxious bit when we’re all going to learn Spanish and train for a marathon. Productive in terms of work but mostly focused on dealing with unexpected changes.

2. The Slump:

When we can barely get out of bed and are least productive. On Tuesday someone told me they got up and stared at their screen for two hours without moving.

3. Adjustment & Embrace:

As we pull out of the slump and start to accept this is how things are. We return to trying to get the best out of what we have and get on with what we need to do. It includes getting back to proper work and perhaps even revisiting some of those early ambitions. The proper work bit does, of course, depend on the child/adult ratio in your house, their ages and whether you prioritise homeschooling or just getting to dinner time without troubling A&E.

4. The Emergence:

As we come out of our homes and start to reclaim public spaces. We’ll come back to this one later.


Karen adds that the phases aren’t necessarily sequential (you can skip back and forward between them) but that, whichever one you are in, anyone in another phase is bloody irritating!

I’m interested in which phase you are in: or if none reflect where you are.

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On other news, if you’re a Sunday Times person, you might find a feature I wrote for the magazine about the week that office life shut down (16-20 March). One of the most interesting pieces I’ve ever researched and, if you helped, thank you. I hope I’ve done your experience justice.  

Wishing you anything but the slump.

- Christine