A Healthy Approach

I feel at home while at work - for some time now this saying has been going around in circles and I am pretty sure I am neither the first one or the only one that wants to condemn it.

This is wrong on so many levels that I fear I may not be the adequate person to explain why. But still I am going to try.

1. If one wants to be healthy (physically and psychologically) one must learn to put barriers between one’s professional life and personal life.

Yes, you may tell me that it is easy for me to make such an utterance since I am not running my own company or I am not a manager and I have no great responsibilities. But if we choose to see beyond the job title, we will understand that any job can be stressful, that it is tiresome and that all people carry their own struggles in order to try and do what they know best and as best as they possibly can.

To put a barrier between personal and professional lives should not be blamed. Even though I remember from my experience, and I also know that colleagues and managers exist (and will continue to exist) that only see when you arrive at work and when you leave, and the rest does not matter. If one remains after hours, it sends the message that one is responsible and dedicated to the company they work for. Sure, emergencies should be honored, but there is responsibility in all parties involved and a clear distinction should be made regarding how an emergency can be recognized.

Aside from this, people should be encouraged to take their necessary time (also stipulated by the law) in order to disconnect (I strongly recommend disconnecting from screens – big and small ones) and to spend their free time in order to recharge. I remember someone who once said that only those that have kids were entitled to not remain after hours, and the rest had no excuse (even if they had finished all the tasks for the day or they had started the work program earlier than the team).

And another thing, the brain doesn’t automatically disconnect when one has ended one’s working day. It takes time and exercise to train your brain to disconnect. And even if one has managed doing that, the brain still works even though you are not doing your tasks anymore. This is why, if you’re like me, you find yourself running in the evening, or late at night or early in the morning trying to scribble down notes about tasks.

2. One cannot put the equal sign between family and work.

Mom never paid you. Well, ok, she might have done this when you helped her with some chores around the house and she wanted to teach you the lesson about the money value. Nevertheless, there is no equal sign between family and work. If such sign exists then it is clearly a dysfunctional relationship.

Sure, one can be lucky enough to have colleagues that remain friends after many years (I myself was this lucky to have colleagues that remained in my circle of friends after time and jobs). But this is far from being the rule. When one searches for a job, one does not search for someone with whom to go get pizza or play a game of squash. No, one searches for a job that puts one’s abilities to good use, and have chances of learning new things and having work relations that makes one feel like they are evolving.

Far be it from me that this should be interpreted as me having a mercantile point of view – meaning, I give only what you give me in return. But I do reckon that some manners of expressing ourselves should be reconsidered (and not only when it comes to work), together with how we relate to us, our professional and personal lives.

How can one check if one has a healthy barrier between personal and professional lives? To ask the question about how present one feels in the current moment.

 

I do consider that it is important that we understand how we position ourselves, what we search for in a job and what we want from ourselves and for ourselves in order to live healthy (and I use not the word health in order to instigate to eating vegetables and fruits, but I do believe it is just as important to have a healthy and realistic approach when it comes to how we think about ourselves as working people).