Churn out burnout: Why workin’ like a dog should stop

In a country like ours where poverty is systematically imposed, taxes levied on the unsuspecting (campaign promises of tax cuts, notwithstanding), corruption is rampant as beauty pageants and a national debt chortling in the trillions, stress itself has been overworked to its limits on a national scale.

Working long hours for the extra buck, in a world where the cost of buying a bottle of bourbon is more affordable now than driving your own car, there is little chance for anyone to feel relaxed. The mood is excessively fatigue driven, overcast, sloshed to the bone. Uncertainty has become a catchword, and switching off the lights after a hard day’s night is the only solution to an ever-excruciating darkness. How to deal with it? Of course, I don’t recommend burning down your office for that satisfying dose of endorphins. Different strokes for different folks, I always say. As a bibliophile, I run to my books for comfort and recreation, live the life of a monster-slayer or a jumper from another time. But that’s me. Others who can afford to travel to tourist destinations fly annually to places in their bucket list. Time for prayer or meditation, experts say, and learning how to manage one’s time, also work wonders.

What I do recommend as a collective is to raise our voices against capitalist abuse of work hours, maybe even lobby for legislation on the matter. The Senate once proposed Resolution 316, a legislative inquiry on the rise of the number of overworked Filipinos. I wonder how that went.

I do understand how some jobs – like medical frontliners and media coverage, to name a few – demand extra working hours. Regardless, we need to insist on flexibility and adjustments in the workplace, which are crucial to profit and production. With a pandemic that refuses to let up, maybe it’s high time to think of newer strategies in the workplace.

Lastly, burnout victims must lose no time to ask for help. If your boss is a prude, seek out your closest friends or members of family. Talk to someone other than your image in the mirror. Or better yet, help someone who is going through the same thing.

It is crucial to your healing to know you’re not alone.