It doesn’t have to be this stressful
The Oxford dictionary defines empathy as the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. It’s basically putting yourself in the other person’s shoes, and it’s a game-changer: It reminds us that other people are humans, too, and not just a faceless student, employee, or statistic.
Working from home is weird. Home is no longer refuge, plus many higher ups seem to believe that working from home means more free time, so e-mails after work hours become normalized and more Zoom meetings are held on a daily basis. For students, the scenario is similar: extended hours, makeup classes, and more assessments. To add, there are no workmates or schoolmates to recharge with during breaks.
Then we open social media and see our friends showing off the sheer volume of paperwork, readings, or meetings they endure, and we tend to react with a mix of well-wishing for them and relief for ourselves since we don’t have to go through all that. But relating to these scenarios just shows one important thing: we all agree that stress isn’t fun. So why is it being romanticized?
There’s a joke saying you can determine that a law student is a freshman if
their social media frequently shows off the piles of readings they have to finish for just one class. I used to do that, too, as did many of my batchmates. Maybe it also applies to other fields and new employees. Maybe it’s an unspoken rite of passage in high-stress environments, who knows?
But it gets to the dangerous point where we talk about caffeine addictions and sleep deprivation as if these were trophies, and this influences others into thinking that this is how it should be. We hear, “man, I only got four hours of sleep last night,” in a tone of exhaustion and a strange hint of pride from people fuelled by iced coffee and no breakfast, as if all is perfectly normal. So, stressful and heavy workloads become something to attain because when we suffer and are eternally busy, we are on the same level as the productive and successful. But is it not a truer sign of success to have time to rest and enjoy the fruits of what we’ve worked for?
Busyness and productivity are not the same thing. A reasonable level of work may be beneficial to some: there’s a sense of accomplishment after fulfilling responsibilities, and procrastinators sometimes need some pressure to finally begin working. But too much can seriously damage our health physically and mentally, worsening work performance along the way. This is backed up by science and known to all. So, for the sake of our health and careers, maybe we should start glamorizing rest instead of stress and heavy workloads. Rest once in a while. According to Matthew Walker, a 20-minute nap is enough to boost one’s mood and energy, so sneak them in when needed. We are humans before we are our occupations.
Of course, not everyone has the privilege of extra time. Many of us work multiple jobs, are working students, or have family troubles and responsibilities. Some have physical or mental health issues or illnesses that can make rest difficult. We all know this, so why aren’t we more empathetic?
We’re still in a pandemic. Again, we are still in a pandemic. Sure, we’ve experienced the pandemic for a year, but prior to 2020, we never experienced it in the many decades we have lived. It may feel normal now, but pandemics are not normal in the grand scheme of things. This pandemic has killed and affected people we know, so what is normal is wanting to rest once in a while. People are dying, it’s still dangerous to leave the house, and the virus is mutating, with the vaccine still inaccessible to most. The situation is still getting worse especially in our country; the numbers prove this. So, shouldn’t we be trying to create a less stressful environment, all things considered?
Many employers and professors admit feeling more exhausted due to the pandemic. Many workers and students share the same sentiments. It’s interesting how, despite this, not much has changed. Ironically, more work is being given, since somehow we all are supposed to have adapted perfectly to this pandemic already.
Yes, the economy has to keep going, students have to keep studying to retain information, and at some point we have to resume our lives. But surely, we can achieve these with reasonable empathy. We can patiently simplify concepts and systems and allow more time for others to rest and recharge, then we give our best when it’s our time to work. We’re all tired of the pandemic and conversations about it, but ignoring the pandemic-induced changes and insisting on old ways for the current days is counterproductive. What’s the point of complete output when no one enjoys it anymore? Once in a while, rest and let others rest. At the end of the day, we are all better off happy and well rested anyway. We are all humans stuck in this pandemic, so a little empathy from each one of us will go a long way.
SAN Miguel Corp. (SMC) said it is now gearing up to clean and to widen the Pasig River, a heavily-silted and polluted water body but is still considered an economically and ecologically important river in Metro Manila.
The 25.2-kilometer river connects Manila bay and Laguna de bay. It once served as an important passenger and commercial route in and out of Manila, the country’s capital city.
Over the years, the degradation of the Pasig River, including its siltation, reduced its capacity to absorb and channel water during heavy and excessive rains, causing flooding in low-lying areas.
The government, through the Pasig River Rehabilitation Commission (PRRC) claims to have significantly improved the physical condition of the river since serious rehabilitation work started in the early 1990s.
In a statement, SMC said with the arrival of 2 dredging equipment which is capable of pulling 600,000 tons of silt and solid waste out of Pasig River per year, the company targets to begin rehabilitation work next month, and will go on for the next 5 years.
“Through the years, Pasig River has become narrower and shallower because of accumulated silt and waste. by cleaning and widening it, we will be able to increase its capacity to keep water flowing within its banks especially during heavy rains,” SMC President Ramon S. Ang said.
SMC, together with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and other concerned government units, is targeting to extract 50,000 tons of waste per month from the river.
Proponents of the project said they have identified sections where the depth of water has been reduced to as little as one meter which will be the priority of the dredging and widening operation.
“After a thorough assessment of Pasig River, we identified sections where the depth of water has been reduced to as little as one meter. These are the most critical portions of the river that cause widespread flooding,” Ang said.
For the Pasig River to effectively serve its purpose of channeling flood waters out to the Manila bay, its depth should at least be 10 meters. “but garbage and silt over the many decades have reduced this to just one meter in these areas, clogging the river and causing water to overflow everywhere.”
Currently, SMC is already undertaking a major river cleanup—its 5-year, P1 billion corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative to dredge and clean up the 27-kilometer Tullahan-tinajeros River System, which benefits other floodprone areas, such as Malabon and Navotas.
Launched in early 2020, with work only fully commencing following the lifting of the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ ), the project is seen to help solve flooding in Malabon, Navotas, Valenzuela, Caloocan, Quezon City, as well as bulacan province, for the longterm.
At the end of 2020, SMC reported it extracted a total of 83,600 metric tons of garbage and silt from the section of the river located in Malabon and Navotas. SMC has since committed to put in more resources and acquire more heavy machinery for the effort.
During the series of typhoons that hit Luzon and Metro Manila towards the end 2020, both flood-prone cities reported no major flooding incidents despite increased water volume. This is largely seen as the combined result of having effective pumping stations and the ongoing Tullahan cleanup by SMC.
“We have had considerable experience in cleaning up rivers, primarily because of Tullahan, and also our successful initiatives to clean up rivers below Skyway 3. [We] are even putting in more resources and buying more equipment for the Tullahan initiative. We are also looking to do this for rivers in bulacan. Naturally, cleaning up the Pasig River is a big goal that we do not take lightly,” Ang said.
“There have been many noteworthy efforts that have been initiated in the past, in order to rehabilitate the Pasig River. Unfortunately, it has always been a very costly undertaking. Now that San Miguel has a chance to help, we will give it our all.”