Friday 27 August 2010

On the importance of Mental Health Days


Oh dearie me. there are times when I really don't want to get up and go to work. I'm really good with premonitions. It's sunday evening and I already know that I won't want to get up tomorrow morning!


It's not that I don't enjoy work hugely when I'm there. I genuinely love time spent with my clients in the assorted workplaces I've nestled in. I know I'm very fortunate to have satisfaction and variety in my worklife. But when it's cold, wet and windy, and I know the traffic is going to be heavy and aggressively unforgiving, I tend to become a bit sluggish and niggly, even the night before.

It's tough having the kind of cold feet that woolly socks can't cure. When you drag yourself off to your place of employment feeling resentful and grumpy. Sometimes it's possible to use your favourite defusion technique to overcome this, to accept the dreary feelings and make room for them, but when it doesn't work...bah. (And for stay at home mums, the challenge is even greater. How can you escape?)

One friend confessed recently that she became so grouchy at work one day that she feigned a headache: "oooooaaah I feel a migraine coming on" and scarpered. Much better than snapping unreasonably at ones colleagues don't you think?

We all know what it's like to have a snitchy or deeply unhappy colleague in the office. Unfortunately, the grouchiness can rub off. It can be caught, and passed on like the virulent virus it is.

In response, I'd like to promote the occasional "mental health day" as a buffer for when the doldrums strike. I think we all need a bit of space sometimes. When the pressure is off, and we can kick the expectations aside, shrug off the constraints and commune with our informal selves... of course when one 'ought' to be at work, it's all the sweeter ;-)

FYI: No work commitments were avoided to write this post. I picked the violets under leaden sky, between squalls and icy gusts of wind.

Their glorious fragrance has transformed my mood.



4 comments:

Cruella Collett said...

Haha, you're not alone in this! I am exactly like this too - the problem is that while still a student I'm in a position where I can stay at home if I feel like it, and that is not compatible with getting any work done at all!

Oh well, enjoy it while I can, I guess. And I agree that those violets could make a mental health day superfluous. They are gorgeous!

Anonymous said...

Work…..? I was never really cut out for it. I tried it once and I didn’t like it. But I had no choice.
For some long time now I’ve had no master other than my own and my family’s needs. This is much nicer, but the pay’s not so good.
Thanks for an interesting and amusing post.

All the best, Boonie

Sue said...

What can I say Cruella? Live, love and make the most of the opportunities that come your way, (including a recalcitrant thesis!)... bring flowers into your life whenever you can, and please keep writing and sharing - it'll keep us sane in a crazy world.

Sue said...

Well said Boonie (oh my, that sounds way too familiar). Less pay, more happiness - something the west could learn from. Hubby and I are working on it - no pun intended ;-)