2023 Wrap up
Every year, I tell myself that I need to
get back to writing posts more regularly. Seeing that my last post was from
2020, I don’t think I’ve done a terribly good job. My excuse is usually that I
don’t have the time, and that is true, kinda. I have the same amount of time as
when I used to write regularly. It’s just prioritising. Although in the back of
my mind, there is a nagging thought, what if it’s not just time. What if I just
don’t have as much to say anymore? What if I have less rage? What if I’m accepting
more of the unacceptable? That is a thought that’s much more scary than the
lack of time.
We are now on the other side of the
Covid-pandemic. It’s still around, but it seems people have decided to ignore
it now. The rates of infection are still high, although the effects are mostly
mild for the general population. Everyone is being urged to get back to work,
ignoring the trauma that many felt during the last few years from lockdowns,
friends and family passings, and the isolation felt by so many during this
period. Not only is it back to business as usual, but there’s a huge push to
increase productivity as if everyone was just resting the past 2 years. This
new push is not going to end well for someone.
This has been quite a year on the
professional side. I’ve decided to quit my job to focus on my work in burnout
and creating more sustainable workplaces. I really think this is going to be
the big struggle in the workplace for the next little while as we make the
transition into the next industrial revolution. After the experience of Covid,
people had a taste of a more balanced work life and they’re not going to give
that up without a fight. At the same time, the dinosaurs in senior management
and their out-dated mindsets about work will try all they can to bring everyone
back into the office.
Talking to everyone around me and the
global research on burnout that I conduct, I know that everyone is exhausted.
Everyone knows that work doesn’t work anymore. The problem is that no one has a
good solution, or at least, there are few leaders that are brave enough to
challenge the status quo. Most people enjoy eating food and having a place to
sleep so not working is not really an option. Most companies think people are
just resources to exploit and that there will always be someone who wants a
job. I think in 2024, something is going to have to give.
To me, it seems that people have been beaten
down so much that we have developed a collective learned helplessness. We have
normalised stress. We have accepted that surviving is our only mode of living.
At the same time, we’ve become more insular from each other and ourselves.
This might just be an age thing, but it
seems people have really forgotten how to have fun. This includes talking about
anything else other than kids and work. It’s so rare to have conversations
about random things anymore. Remember those silly conversations that had everyone
cracking up? There’s none of that
anymore. Everyone is so ‘busy’ that we don’t have the headspace to expand on the
impossible or the absurd. Instead, the conversations are mundane because
everyone’s brains are too full of how busy they are.
One very fun thing that happened this year
was that I did my first BBQ pop-up. Cooking the American style BBQ with a menu
of Brisket, Pull Pork and some sides. Everything ran smoothly and I learned a
lot about running a pop-up. I’m hoping to be able to do it a few more times
next year. The idea would be to create a regular event that people look forward
to coming to. Something chill with good food, drinks, and some fun. I think
that’s really something that’s missing nowadays. People either don’t do anything,
or it’s these huge events. What we lose is this community vibe. This space to
meet your neighbors, talk to new people, create new experiences. Hopefully this
little venture can bring some of that back.
Generally, when I write these posts, they
flow out pretty easily. The difficult is generally with what not to include.
With so many things to discuss that’s happened throughout the year, it’s hard
to pick just a few. This year, I can tell you that I’m struggling a bit here.
It’s not that a lot hasn’t happened this year, it’s just not post worthy. It
might be because I’m out of practice writing these posts, or my idea about what
to share has changed. Not sure what it is, but it feels different this time.
Looking back at some of my old posts, I
rant about politics quite a bit. I still do in real life, but something has
changed in the last couple of years. The level of rantings has definitely gone
down and I’ve been thinking about why that is. My best answer right now is that
I think I have lost the passion because I have fundamentally lost faith in
humanity. I don’t see a way back for us. We are losing the war against far-right
extremism. We are losing the fight for our planet. We are losing the fight for
our humanity.
What I think is the worst part is that most
people don’t care to fight for what’s right. Most people are too wrapped in
their own world of ‘busyness’ to care about anything else other than their
immediate surroundings. They are so distracted by fighting fires in their own
lives that they can’t see the real root causes. Even if they do, they don’t
care. That’s someone else’s problem.
Most people are struggling financially, and
it makes them single minded. It’s hard to care about wars in far away places or
what’s happening to the planet when you can’t afford rent or food. This is the
dystopia that neo-liberalism has created. This is exactly what they wanted. When
people are in this state, they don’t have the time to critically think about
problems or solutions. They lean towards easily understandable three-word slogans.
They become easily fearful. They become easily controllable.
To be fair, I think there are a lot of
people that would care, but can’t. For many of them, they are just hoping to
make enough money so they can ignore the problem. World heating up? I’ll make
enough to live in a house with AC. Wealth gap increasing? I’ll just be on the
right side of that gap. People losing rights? Money can always buy you those
rights. I could go on, but you get the message. There is so much stuff going on
(there’s actually a word for it called Polycrisis), that seems to have made
people switch off completely to these massive issues we all face.
I think that’s why I want to really focus
on this work on burnout and reducing the number of hours people spend working.
I think if people weren’t so ‘busy’ with work, they would have time to do other
things, to think about something other than themselves. The other obsession I
have is to get people to have more fun. I really feel like people have
forgotten how to enjoy the world and really have fun (myself included). Having
fun is a muscle like any other. We need to work at it. It’s hard to just turn
it on after it being off for so long.
I know it sounds a bit silly, but that’s
the impact I want to make. I want to see people enjoy life again. I want to see
people thrive. I want to change the course for humanity. I want to prove to
myself that humanity have not gone too far down and that it’s still worth
saving. If not, I hope I can make my escape plan a reality and have a nice
quiet place in the country somewhere. Maybe then, I’ll start blogging more
regularly again.
Have a wonderful year everyone.