Boss Thoughts

[Hopalong]

Hmm. Plucky, you got sense.

Bean, your competence is likely so outstanding that no matter how aggravated you get with this situation, you're going to come out with secure employment. Take it from me, that's not chopped liver! (Try to detach more, stop beating yourself up with the attachment and feuds. Feh. Let the dummy work too many hours...let the management not "get it"--they'll never get it...make your peace with it so it doesn't dominate your whole self. Enjoy what you can enjoy, then leave it behind!)

Question: Is there an interest outside of work that you find going across your brain but you tell yourself, well, I'd like to, sounds nice, but there's no time...gotta work...?

hugs,
Hops

[penelope]

thank you plucky and hops.

It's absolutely good advice and what I must do.  It's so hard though!!

I believe that corporate environments thrive on this sort of competition/fighting for jobs.  If everyone is worried about someone else taking theirs, they'll work harder.  There is no incentive for management to fix this problem, you're correct.  I wish my boss and coworkers could see how they're killing us with this extreme drive to "win."  No one benefits in this, it has health effects for everyone - except our shareholders. 

grrrrrrrr

bean

[Hopalong]

Hear, hear, Bean...YOU get it!

It's a sad truth that takes advantage of many people's inborn desire to be of service and make a difference and do a good job.

I worked for 8 months at a local division of a HUGE (global, multinational, unimaginable scale) corporation. The young man in the cubicle across from me was literally working himself to death. One day I saw him sprawled face down on his desk. He had to quit and is still under treatment for heart disease. (Early 40s).

He would not say No to 60-hour weeks, an ever-accelerating treadmill. He had an absolutely bonkers desire to prove himself in an environment where the employees' selfhood and well-being was never on the company radar. I have never seen a place where people were more literally cogs in wheels. And what was worse about it was people's cooperation in their own demise. They had "team spirit". And they had stress-induced illnesses galore.

I have another friend, closer to my age, who works there. When she started she'd tell me, well, I'm just going to give them the extra time for this deadline... I kept telling her, draw a calm boundary when you start. Don't announce it or make it a drama, just quietly leave at 5:00 every day. Don't succumb to the seduction of getting extra points or strokes or approval for knocking yourself out, because the line will just move faster for every person who overproduces and thus doesn't make the corporation accoutable for understaffing. Now, about a year later, she tells me, I leave every day at 5:00. She is healthier, happier, and more focused during the hours she is working, but she's no longer giving the place all of her mental and physical energy.

A 40-hour workweek is enough, and most people don't even take the two 15-20 minute breaks they're allowed by law. Healthwise: everyone should take a 15-min walk midmorning and midafternoon, and make a point of enjoying a nourishing, relaxed lunch away from their desk. Some people meditate, some exercise. But these 3 periods every day are important ways to reclaim your mind and body. In some corporations, your mind and body can get so acclimated to the pace, the demands, the insane level of striving, that you don't even know they're yours anymore.

Sermon over...thanks for sharing your work stories, Bean.

Hops