As it’s Easter/ Pagan Spring festival time here’s a post on how to die at work…I may get around to how to be reborn later.
Overwork
An utter lack of work-life balance (notice the differentiation between “life” and “work”) , poor stress management and general recession overwork means that many people are literally working themselves to death. Heart attacks and other stress related conditions are easily the leading cause of death in the Western world.
Cut off your body and emotions
Paying no attention to, or actively denying and repressing the emotional and embodied side of human life has been the norm in the industrial Western workplace for many years. Because these aspects are so crucial to being human this is a kind of death in my opinion. Happily the business training I provide combats this trend and things seem to be changing 🙂
Inauthenticity
Likewise, simply being yourself at work is frowned upon by many employers and workplaces, and if someone spends 8-10 hours a day wearing a mask they risk becoming that mask. Many people are doing “jobs they hate to buy crap they don’t need” to steal a phrase from Fight Club – for me this was always a kind of death I couldn’t tolerate (an no I am not from a rich family or have ever been long-term unemployed).
Professional Suicide
In the old days this just meant snapping one day or getting drunk at the Christmas party and telling your boss EXACTLY what you think of him/her. These days social media makes undermining yourself professionally much easier
Physical death
Thankfully this continues to decline, however there are still some dangerous professions like fishing, farming (high suicide rates) and deep sea diving. Joking aside, I would also like to nod respectfully to those such as aid workers, journalists and armed forces personnel who choose face danger on a daily basis at work to do jobs that benefit all of us. Happy Easter everyone, stay safe.
