something about the intense way workplaces focus on selfcare and mindfulness has always rubbed me wrong
It's great that we finally, as a society, realise that there is an intense impact on the physical, mental, emotional, social and financial wellbeing of anyone in a workplace.
From the fast food / retail workers who are doing ten dozen tasks in the space of an hour for almost nothing and penalised if they don't take abuse with a smile...
To the ambulance workers who have to dodge abuse and fists in order to support patients who may not recognise their assistance, and sometimes see things no human should...
To the crime scene cleaners who return a house to habitable after the horrifica has happened, and the janitors all over the world who do the same in every place we've ever been..
To the garbage and tradespeople who are always looked down on despite the significant physical effort of their jobs, and the importance of their jobs...
To the business workers who hate sitting in a cubicle all day with endless deadlines, to the support agencies that have to spend time they would like to use helping people writing up reports to justify funding for the next six months... every six months...
To the kindy teachers and carers and teachers who are havig to start from step zero with kids who come in without any idea how to learn how to learn, and children who have such trauma from things they haven't spoken about yet that they destroy classrooms because of the feelings building up inside bodies too small for the rage or fear or etc
To the people who deal with the worst of humanity and/or their victims on a daily basis in roles where their job is to put in supports and try to guide them to a happy and stable life through a minefield, and those who break under the pressure, etc.
Every job out there has unique pressures, and then they have general pressures that can apply across the sector. This sudden push towards 'selfcare' and 'mindfulness' is so very... corporate.
It just feels very much like "Well, we gave you a poster with affirmations on it, you didn't repeatthem daily, so of course the mental breakdown you have in a year's time is on you..." if you feel me.
Whenever it's talked about, it's all about 'preventing burnout' and 'being productive' etc. Not 'hey human being that's in a role that's physically, emotionally, mentally and/or socially demanding... what's happening in your world tonight?
There are some companies that go so far overboard (been in at least one) that they eithre feel like a cult... or they feel like a cult and put so much pressure on you to Tell Them what you are going to do for self-care that night after work (so they can check i nthe next morning), that you resent the whole goddamn process.
Because it's not about the health of the workers, it's a tick in a box on some Progressive Checklist clipboard.
Don't know, the more I see the posters harasssing you even in the dunny... the more you seethe, I guess.
You know what would be self-care? Not being punitive to people by taking away their right to [bonuses, holidays, flexible work hours, etc] if they cannot meet impossible targets or the workloads are too big for any one person to manage.
If you keep filling the pool while someone's chained to the bottom, all the affirmations in the world won't help them swim, mates... you just end up with like, chlorinated corpse soup.
Another thing is like... self-care is very much an individual thing.
A lot of the ones I see on posters are all after-work activities, high energy things (eg. go to the gym, take the pets for a walk, go to the park with your kids, have a lunch date, cook a lovely healthy dinner for friends!) all stuff outside of work hours... because you Can't Impact Work Hours.
Sometimes self-care is needing to plan your holidays so you get a break or you have a mental break. Sometimes its a mental health day because you were 'sick'. Sometimes self-care is shutting the computer at the end of the day and/or walking out dead as your shift ends because no one is allowed to claim overtime.
Sometimes it is having frozen meals or pre-chopped vegetables in the freezer because you're tired at the end of th day and it's a kindness to Future You.
Sometimes it's having some Longlife milk abnd similar items in the cupboard so you have a back-up for days when you're too tired or sick or just want to chill but you ran out of like, milk.
Sometimes self-care is having a shower at the end of the day when you get home, washing the day off, and doing whatever you want after that.
Sometimes self-care is singing terribly and enthusiastically in the car. Or dancing like a dork in the loungeroom. Or listening to amitheasshole youtube videos. Or playing video games.
Sometimes self-care can be forcing yourself to be inflexible around necessary appointments (from hair to dental or medical), no you CAN'T 'just move it'. Because you always will end up moving it.
Sometimes self-care is being tough with yourself. Go to bed at a normal hour. No we're drinking water from 5pm onwards (etc). Yes there is dopamine from playing video games but we're not going to be up at 3am pwning n00bs bc there's work tomorrow. Etc.
Sometimes self-care is doing your shopping during a lunchour, if you are lucky enough to be close to home, so that tired 5pm+ you doesn't have to. Sometimes it's cooking a shitload of something and freezing it so that you have 2-5 extra meals in the fridge, ready to go for lunches or dinner, etc.
Sometimes self-care is putting on a podcast and handling the mountain of plates in the sink, or washing the bathroom, or just vacuuming a small area of the place. It doesn't have to be a grand gesture every time... but it's about what matters to you, what will impact your life outside of work.
IT's the messy self-care stuff that workplaces don't care about, and they're the most important. And that's probably where the disconnect comes into play, for me... because self-care posters always talk about gardening and yoga and the gym and eating a salad and having time with friends...
And that's such a Stockphotos Cporporate Generic Idea of what self-care looks like, and why its important. Makes you feel like a Sim, being touted to the [Local Attraction] because your goopey cabonara caught fire and your emoticon is now Sad...
Don't know where this was going, I just... hate the damn posters, and the emphasis on a very specific kind of Self-Care, and how it very much puts the emphasis, the onus and the eventual blame, on the workers... if anything breaks down.
Yes, know the signs of burnout... but for 99% of people, yoga won't fix it. You need to stop pinning the idea on the individual worker, and look at the machine as a whole, at what point does the cog start shearing off the metal of another until it wears away? How do we fix that? One little pin at the base isn't going to fix it by meditating...
IT's about the wokplace culture, societal attitudes, about being financially stable and having support, about having connections outside of your workplace, etc.
So no, Don't "Hang in there baby!", someone get a ladder and help the cat before it falls. Don't wait until gravity takes its toll and then ask why it didn't try harder.
