STOP! Don’t Work Yourselves to Death

  •   Mon, Sep 30 2024
  •   By Ankith S Kumar

September 30, 2024 

Imagine the very job that was supposed to give you a good life ends up killing you. After all those 14 years of studying and toiling for grades and competing with everyone to get the job of your dreams finally when you do get to the job, you are pushed into a rat race and years of corporate slavery, working your ass off to get the points and favors for appraisal, waiting for the next promotion and increment amidst the never-ending fear of getting fired or laid-off only to realize that you are slowly weathering away with the increasing amount of workload, deadlines and commitments, so much so, that you miss out the important moments of life and worse – end up dead and yet the bills and EMI remain unpaid.

The two recent incidents of employees dying because of work stress triggered me to write this piece of article. One of the reports of Business Standards states that 1 out of 3 Asians suffer from burnout and according to CNBC TV, more than 10 thousand have lost their lives to suicide because of unbearable work-related stress. There is a Japanese term for people dying because of work stress called Karoshi which can be translated into "overwork death", a term relating to occupation-related sudden death. Yes, all of us want to be successful in life, everyone wants more in life. We are driven by the need to be rewarded with material gains, money, and power, and are willing to take ourselves beyond the limits to achieve the rewards. For some it is more power, for some it is more money. Yet, everyone is in a race to win, but at what cost? We are living in a fast-paced world where everyone is filled with constant anxieties and uncertainties. People in the workplace are dealing with many dynamics such as office politics, long working hours, an insane amount of workload, reduced personal time, poor work-life balance, lower pay, increased cost of living, migration, personal life problems pouring into work, and vice versa. All these issues are putting immense pressure on people so much so that people are literally dropping dead.

The need to be better and prove one's worth in the office, the inhuman treatment of the people at work, and indifference from the higher-ups make the working environment a place of stress. A certain amount of eustress ( good stress) is good for the career, but the problem begins when there is distress in the workplace. A job takes a major part of a person's life as we keep working for the majority of our lifespan (40 years and more ), so discomfort in the workplace does impact us on a huge scale. Our job must give us a secure life and a sense of purpose. Of course, there will always be disagreements, conflicts, and competition in any workplace but one should understand how much is too much. Everyone needs to identify their limitations and respect each other's boundaries. What is the point of struggling to achieve so much if you are not alive to enjoy it?

You must understand your job roles clearly and also learn when to say “No” to the things that do not concern you at the office. You must follow the “Not my monkeys, not my Circus policy”. You must understand your priorities and most importantly you must have faith and belief in yourselves, and understand your self-worth. There will always be work if you have the willingness and the talent to do it. Always remember to take care of yourselves first. If you don’t take care of your health needs then eventually it will also affect your job that you are so much working on. Know your limits. Know when to stop. Know when to get out of a workplace. Listen to your body and mind when it's telling you that it's enough. Slow down. It's not the end of the world. You may have a stressful job. You may have a terrible boss. You may have some annoying colleagues. But the good news is that you have a choice. A choice to decide what matters most. A choice to put yourself first. I know there are bills to pay and commitments to handle and the economy is in pretty bad shape, it is indeed a hard time getting and staying employed. But at the end of the day what matters more is YOU. Everything is you and you are important. You may not be able to change things at your workplace but you can choose to take care of yourself more. Work smart. Whatever work you are doing, you should enjoy the process of doing it. Slow down once in a while. You are multitasking so much that your brain is like a computer with thousands of tabs open at a time and you have no idea from where that song is being played. Once in a while, you need to shut down all those tabs from your brain and take time to reboot yourself. Take time to celebrate the little things that you have achieved so far. Take time to appreciate that you have made it so far. Yes, life can be hard, but there will always be some beautiful moments and people that are worth living for. Let us not kill ourselves working to death. Let us work so that we can enjoy the life that we want.

Take care.

 

 

 
By Ankith S Kumar
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