This afternoon I was forced on to one of those courses that you just wonder why we even bother. Out of the 15 mandatory training courses I have to attend each year, this has got to be in the top 3 for worst course of the year. It basically covers pressure at work, stress, mental health and well being. The problem is that most of the examples of bad practice, overloading, unrealistic deadlines, pressure to complete etc are all common practice in the places I’ve worked and still are. I am completely overwhelmed every single day with the amount of work I have to complete. Overwhelmed to the point where I cannot complete all the work I have to do, regularly miss deadlines and often just ignore tasks.
The bit that keeps me sane though is that I have a skin as thick as a rhino and can take any amount of it. I don’t even think about work until I’m nearly there in a morning and switch off from it like a light switch as I go through the door in an evening. If I miss deadlines I know it’s not my fault because I have too much to do. If I just ignore stuff I know it’s for the same reason. I don’t work extra because I have no way of catching up anyway. I might not be the luckiest man alive but I am lucky that none of this bothers me in the slightest and for that I am very thankful.
Just to prove my theory that we simply aren’t thriving at work, the heating has broken in the building the course was delivered in. It’s been broken for weeks and not likely to be fixed for many more weeks. All the residual heat has long since leached out of the fabric. In a huge room that seated 20 people in comfy chairs with room for at least 30 more there was one 2 Kilowatt panel heater and one 2 Kilowatt fan heater. The building was constructed in the 1970s and it was 4 degrees outside. Everyone had coats on and some had hats on too. I could not feel my feet for the three hours the course lasted and spent the entire time on the verge of visibly shivering and was constantly fidgeting to try and stay warm. I paid little attention for at least half of it because I was just wishing it would end so I could get warm.