I Need to Take Better Care of Myself
Of Self Care and Poor Scheduling
Hi, you may recognize me from my modeling career. I'm the poster child for work-related stress. I was moved in a reorg last fall (the announcement of which coincided with me trying to leave the office early to make my cousin's visitation - she'd died earlier in the week) in a move that left me functioning as about 1.75 people on the org chart. My entire old role moved with me, and immediately after returning from the funeral, I was thrown in to a, "this comes from the executive level, and it needs implemented in two weeks, good fucking luck" scenario. That's been the pace since.
I've been progressively more beaten down, more angry, more pessimistic, just generally fucking irritated, since.
I'm finally taking some time off this week. At the time of writing, it's about 11:00 pm on Tuesday, and I've been off work since I left last Thursday. I return next Monday. This is the most time I've taken off in a row since I got a big boy job again after the recession ended. I made the mistake of throwing myself into my work too hard and letting it take over. I just want to slap the piss out of anyone who says millennials don't know what to do when they have to work 70+ hours a week. We do the same bloody thing that anyone else who was ever saddled with it did - work until we reach our breaking point. Thankfully, thanks to modern labor laws, we can actually stop for a minute when we hit said breaking point. Wasn't an option back in pre-depression America, but to be fair, literally anyone leveling that criticism at my generation wasn't part of the workforce in the Roaring 20s either.
First of all, no one has to work 70 hours a week. If you, your direct reports, or literally anyone in your org is working 70+ hours a week consistently, that's indicative of a staffing issue...not a high work ethic. Hire another person, redistribute the workload, and everyone will benefit.
Secondly, I'd so much rather work the 58-hour weeks I was doing in the factory (the max schedule they made anyone work, whether it was the summer help like myself or the regular crew) as the work stops when I go home, than 70+ hour weeks in a career field that also goes home with me. There's no separation. You wake up in the morning, log in to monitor for system issues, assess impacts, and engage the right parties. Spend the day in meetings. Come home, spend the evening and into the night developing and testing the code you didn't have time to write during the day because you were in meetings. Staffing. Issue. Not a work ethic thing.
Third, and maybe this is no longer a thing, I (and sooooo many others) are tired of being Schrodinger's Millennial - simultaneously too lazy to work while also "ruining the vacation" by being too committed to work.
Anyway, work burnout, yay! There are other factors beyond the ridiculous number of hours. I also had a ridiculous number of funerals through the fall and winter. A failed not quite relationship. The loss of a pretty sweet routine I'd made for myself, in terms of life in general. But I'm tired of whining, so...
I've been carving some time for self care. Initially, I was going to be out of town last weekend, but changing circumstances kind of overrode that. But I made time to play a video game for a minute. I took a drive just to take a drive, not to go to work or run an errand. I also did some retail therapy...a couple jackets, a hoodie, two pairs of shoes, and a pair of jeans; most of that was replacing things that needed it - shoes I'd walked the tread off of, a four year old jacket with enough rips that it warranted replacing, etc. I made time to meet a friend for dinner at a nicer restaurant and enjoy a decent meal.
I need to do stuff like this, minus the hemorrhaging money on things to make me feel pretty, more often. Physically I'm in good health, have a reasonably good diet, get sufficient exercise, don't rely on substance abuse, etc, but I don't always do a good job of taking care of the person inside. I need to be better about that, recognizing that my mental health and/or general lifestyle aren't always worth the paycheck. Sometimes the dollars to bullshit ratio just doesn't balance out.
/rant
Hi, you may recognize me from my modeling career. I'm the poster child for work-related stress. I was moved in a reorg last fall (the announcement of which coincided with me trying to leave the office early to make my cousin's visitation - she'd died earlier in the week) in a move that left me functioning as about 1.75 people on the org chart. My entire old role moved with me, and immediately after returning from the funeral, I was thrown in to a, "this comes from the executive level, and it needs implemented in two weeks, good fucking luck" scenario. That's been the pace since.
I've been progressively more beaten down, more angry, more pessimistic, just generally fucking irritated, since.
I'm finally taking some time off this week. At the time of writing, it's about 11:00 pm on Tuesday, and I've been off work since I left last Thursday. I return next Monday. This is the most time I've taken off in a row since I got a big boy job again after the recession ended. I made the mistake of throwing myself into my work too hard and letting it take over. I just want to slap the piss out of anyone who says millennials don't know what to do when they have to work 70+ hours a week. We do the same bloody thing that anyone else who was ever saddled with it did - work until we reach our breaking point. Thankfully, thanks to modern labor laws, we can actually stop for a minute when we hit said breaking point. Wasn't an option back in pre-depression America, but to be fair, literally anyone leveling that criticism at my generation wasn't part of the workforce in the Roaring 20s either.
First of all, no one has to work 70 hours a week. If you, your direct reports, or literally anyone in your org is working 70+ hours a week consistently, that's indicative of a staffing issue...not a high work ethic. Hire another person, redistribute the workload, and everyone will benefit.
Secondly, I'd so much rather work the 58-hour weeks I was doing in the factory (the max schedule they made anyone work, whether it was the summer help like myself or the regular crew) as the work stops when I go home, than 70+ hour weeks in a career field that also goes home with me. There's no separation. You wake up in the morning, log in to monitor for system issues, assess impacts, and engage the right parties. Spend the day in meetings. Come home, spend the evening and into the night developing and testing the code you didn't have time to write during the day because you were in meetings. Staffing. Issue. Not a work ethic thing.
Third, and maybe this is no longer a thing, I (and sooooo many others) are tired of being Schrodinger's Millennial - simultaneously too lazy to work while also "ruining the vacation" by being too committed to work.
Anyway, work burnout, yay! There are other factors beyond the ridiculous number of hours. I also had a ridiculous number of funerals through the fall and winter. A failed not quite relationship. The loss of a pretty sweet routine I'd made for myself, in terms of life in general. But I'm tired of whining, so...
I've been carving some time for self care. Initially, I was going to be out of town last weekend, but changing circumstances kind of overrode that. But I made time to play a video game for a minute. I took a drive just to take a drive, not to go to work or run an errand. I also did some retail therapy...a couple jackets, a hoodie, two pairs of shoes, and a pair of jeans; most of that was replacing things that needed it - shoes I'd walked the tread off of, a four year old jacket with enough rips that it warranted replacing, etc. I made time to meet a friend for dinner at a nicer restaurant and enjoy a decent meal.
I need to do stuff like this, minus the hemorrhaging money on things to make me feel pretty, more often. Physically I'm in good health, have a reasonably good diet, get sufficient exercise, don't rely on substance abuse, etc, but I don't always do a good job of taking care of the person inside. I need to be better about that, recognizing that my mental health and/or general lifestyle aren't always worth the paycheck. Sometimes the dollars to bullshit ratio just doesn't balance out.
/rant
