The recent events of people taking their lives owing to stress from work should have made us more sensitized about mental health. Unfortunately, this matter is now being more sensationalized than sensitizing people.
A Societal Issue
Though it may appear so on the surface, the problem is not limited to just one particular employer or employers in general. It is more of a societal issue. Suppose a person is under mental stress owing to work. What mechanism do they have to cope with it? Ideally, they should voice it out. They should speak to their manager. If not sure of whether to speak to the manager, for many times the manager is the reason for stress, they can speak to their skip-level manager or HOD. Or they can speak to their HR. But unfortunately, people do not do that. They keep suffering and working under the same mental state and do not escalate their concerns, fearing what my manager/skip-level manager/HOD/HR will think of me. Worse off, by chance, if other people in the organization get to know of this, this news will spread like wildfire. They feel their image in the company will be ruined, and so will their career. And thus, people keep suffering out of their suffering.
At the risk of being judged, people avoid talking about these issues. Most organizations have an Employee Assistance Program where one can speak to a counsellor about their concerns. But people do not avail of even that facility. People are scared to be vulnerable even before a stranger, and that too even, anonymously. This is enough to understand the state of sensitization about mental health in our society.
Social media could have provided this space for people to be vulnerable. But it has been limited to being a space for people to share what they are eating, where they are travelling, their achievements, and everything else on the positive side of the spectrum. The other side isn’t ever even mentioned, as if it doesn’t exist at all. Ironically, people try to hide their insecurities by showing themselves to be happier on social media than they are in real life.
Then what coping mechanism is a person left with, in this case? Some people resort to their religion. Some people start consuming tranquillizers and antidepressants. Some people start smoking. Some start drinking. Some go even farther that road. Nobody tackles the real issue. Because there is no space for being vulnerable in our society.
When we hear news of someone committing suicide, we suddenly start asking why they did it.
In normal times, we all want to distance ourselves from helpless and troubled people and prefer the company of good, positive people. The society also behaves based on the scale of success and failure. We don’t want to allow anyone to disturb our pleasant state of mind, but later we mourn. No one will suddenly come and share something with you; a space for sharing needs to be created. This is a habit that develops gradually. We should listen a little and also speak a little. Without this, expecting someone to come one day and say, “Save me from dying,” is absurd.
Establishing A Coping Mechanism
This was about the role of society. But we cannot leave our mental health solely at the hands of society. We need to do things at an individual level for our mental health. The first thing we can do is build confidence within ourselves that I can find another job if I am not happy with my current one. This confidence will not come by affirmation alone. You will need to continuously upskill yourself, network with your peers, and be aware of what is happening in the market.
The next thing is to create some boundaries in your current job. A simple example is to have two separate phones, one for personal use and one for professional use. If you cannot afford to have two phones, have two phone numbers. When you leave the office, do not check office WhatsApp groups and Outlook emails unless it’s urgent. Leave it for the next day. It is very exciting to read those messages and emails the next day when you open them after a gap of 14-16 hours.
The last, and most important thing, is to create your 5-9 plan. Plan your hours after office. Make it a mix of rest, consumption, and activity. For rest, you can simply take a nap of 30 minutes. For consumption, you can read something, watch something, or listen to music. You can also dedicate half an hour solely to watching Instagram reels, but stop there. For activity, you can write something, you can sing, you can dance, or you can play some sports. Three things that help the most in maintaining good mental health are journalling, meditation, and exercise. So, create your 5-9 plan, giving half an hour or an hour to a set of such activities and distributing it over the evening and morning. You will not be able to do all activities on all days. But that’s fine. Doing something every day matters more than doing everything for just one day. Also, ensure to sleep for 8 hours every day and fix your cut-off times for sleeping and waking up. It can be 10-6/11-7/12-8; whatever suits you, the earlier the better.
On a last note, be kind to people around you. You don’t know what they are going through. Listen to them. Also, be kind to yourself, for people also don’t know what you are going through. Speak to them. A little bit of listening and a little bit of speaking can go a long way in making our offices a Great Place to Work and our society a Great Place to Live.
