Excellent topic especially as we transition to the post-COVID (I hope it's post!) workplace.
It is cultural. Our (USA) culture values work as its own reward and joblessness == sadness.
I am lucky to love my work and almost always wake up feeling energized to get to the problems at hand. I get to collaborate with others, mentor and be mentored, share successes and setbacks. This past year has been very successful for my organization. Yet, during the most recent online sharing sessions, established to let people all over the org just talk about how things are going during the pandemic, I was surprised to see the amount of burnout. For many, over the last year, the workplace and "restplace" merged. Still, there's also a lot of trepidation about returning to a "normal" workplace. So, I think management needs to be proactive during this transition and figure out that we need to do things differently. Approaching rest as a wholesome attribute of our culture without assigning it as "support staff" to the workplace would be a good start.
Your post made me think of an old song by Crosby, Stills...
Excellent topic especially as we transition to the post-COVID (I hope it's post!) workplace.
It is cultural. Our (USA) culture values work as its own reward and joblessness == sadness.
I am lucky to love my work and almost always wake up feeling energized to get to the problems at hand. I get to collaborate with others, mentor and be mentored, share successes and setbacks. This past year has been very successful for my organization. Yet, during the most recent online sharing sessions, established to let people all over the org just talk about how things are going during the pandemic, I was surprised to see the amount of burnout. For many, over the last year, the workplace and "restplace" merged. Still, there's also a lot of trepidation about returning to a "normal" workplace. So, I think management needs to be proactive during this transition and figure out that we need to do things differently. Approaching rest as a wholesome attribute of our culture without assigning it as "support staff" to the workplace would be a good start.
Your post made me think of an old song by Crosby, Stills...
"You Don't Have To Cry":
In the morning when you rise
Do you think of me and how you left me cryin'?
Are you thinkin' of telephones
And managers and where you got to be at noon?
You are living a reality
I left years ago it quite nearly killed me
In the long run it will make you cry
Make you crazy and old before your time