Health and Safety Break

"Health and Safety Break"

This concept was used in the cult I was in. Okay. Maybe it wasn't a real cult, but when I look back on the years I spent in it and realize what it kind of reminds me of and it makes me question why I stayed to be a part of it. Oh, I was a lonely freshman who thought she found a cool organization to be a part of it and it turned out to have more issues than Vogue? That makes so much more sense now... There were some epic people and friendships that came out of me being there. Many, whom, I still speak to or text today. It helped me shape who I thought I was and the experience/skills I acquired even helped me land my first after college job. (More on that in another post)

Anyway, we would use these "Health and Safety Breaks" when everyone had been working hard or was emotionally spent and needed to stop what they were doing to go chill outside for a few minutes. Everyone would talk, laugh, drop the serious attitudes, and relax. Recently at my current job, I was expressing to a co-worker about how I felt like I needed to take a day in the week and call out because I just felt mentally unattached and upset so it was best if I didn't show up. I shouldn't let my emotions get the better of me on some days. I should push through them but sometimes that's not possible and it shows. Thus, I think it's better to stay home and not be visibly dead when I should be faking happiness. It just makes me feel hostile when i have to fake being okay.

Now, this co-worker told me that a friend of hers takes "mental health" days sometimes when stressed out by work. She'll do yoga and anything else she thinks will improve her state of mind. She won't come to work and opt to keep her sanity instead. Not everyone who heard this conversation agreed with it, nor did they think anyone should call out for any "mental" reason either. If you can walk and talk, in their minds, you're fine. You do die a little inside when you spend too much time in situations/jobs/around others that don't make you happy. So I get the need to get away.

I loved the idea of her friend taking an extra day every other month, if she needed it, to reevaluate her life. She could afford to do it. I know you can't really call out and say you need a "Health and Safety Break" but why can't you call out for real mental health issues in most businesses? 

(We aren't going to talk about those that call out frequently just cause they can)

All of this got me thinking. The lack of wanting to go to work for me because I feel like a failure and I feel hostile may not be reasonable to call out of work for and I get it, but there are people who have mental actual mental health issues that do need to be able to call out sick without worry. If you suffer from some form of mental illness and say, you love your job but you have times when it can't make you happy, you should be able to openly say this on a day, or days, you won't show up. But sadly, in the world we live in, that's not possible. Some managers won't care and jobs will use it against you and maybe you really should find a new job but why is it that people would frown in confusion over you being mentally unwell instead of physically? It's just interesting I guess. 

You can obviously still just call out sick and say you don't feel well and they can't hound you about it but I do wish we could be more open and honest in the workplace about these things and not be looked down on because of them. Maybe more freeing jobs where you can honestly say why you won't show up for something and the people around you are trust you and know that it's for the best if you stay home. If you know you can't hide how you're feeling and acting, you should be able to stay home.

Still, that's not the case. You need money so you have to go to work. Or, you don't want people to question you and think you're faking it because you were literally fine a few days ago. We all know that how others perceive us is why we do or don't do certain things.

I just know that life isn't like a box of chocolates. That would mean that there's certain variables that will always repeat and that only so much variety exists. Plus, I don't like most of the chocolates in those variety boxes anyway. IDK who does. That would also mean that at least half of our lives would be spent half doing and regurgitating the things we didn't like. What is life more like then you ask? IDK my BFF Jill. I really do. Maybe life's like Amazon.com. Maybe it's more like a dozen doughnuts. Maybe a hot bathor riding a bike. IDK, but it's more complicated than the fun similes and metaphors we try to box it into. It's odd. Definitely odd, however, I just thought of this...

Life is like the Twilight Zone.

Why? Because nothing in life is exactly what it seems (And the universe really wants to f- with you).