Unhooking from harmful work practices
We can now clearly see that many of our current work systems and structures are harmful both individually and collectively. I’m not just talking about work environments that blatantly break employer law or where there is extensive bullying and exploitation. I am also talking about your average regular workplaces that we walk in and out of every day as well as our own businesses.
Capitalism relies on linear growth at all costs, extraction, exploitation, profit over everything else and a complete disconnection from nature. By nature I mean earth and I also mean you too as a human body, a mammal. (We don't like to think of that though do we, we’re completely different from them!)
But disconnecting ourselves from our humanness, our nature and working in a system that relies and thrives on just that causes so much harm to ourselves and our bodies. It creates the perfect conditions for anxiety, burnout, disconnection, denial of climate change, judgement of others (they should just work harder, that's what I had to do!) and a complete overriding of all our bodily systems and messages.
Things that we have normalised as ‘just the way it is’:
over working beyond our capacity,
working through breaks,
working beyond our contracted time,
answering calls and emails outside of work time,
taking on the responsibilities of another colleague when they leave,
switching off and overriding our gut feeling and intuition,
pushing through when our bodies are sick, our kids are sick or we are floored with our period
conforming to ‘professionalism’ ie denying how we want to be expressed,
using the weekends to recover from our week and then back to square one on Monday
putting efforts into work endeavours that are totally out of alignment for us but it's your job so what do you do?
And so much more……
BTW I did ALL of these and still find them infiltrating my work days now even though I am my own boss, this stuff is pretty sneaky
So what can we do, this is just the way it is right? Well yes and no. How we currently work is a relatively new system, just a couple of hundred years old, we didn’t always work like this. It's also becoming obvious that this level of growth, extraction and linear action is literally killing ourselves and the planet. It is not sustainable for any of us. While we wait for a new system to grow, evolve and emerge we can start unhooking from unhealthy work practices now ourselves. (and spoiler alert this is how new ways of being and living emerge)
Here is a menu of options. Some of these are basic and simple, but it is often the simple things that we just won't do!
Don't try to do all of this at once and pick what you can within the sphere of influence that you have at this stage of our life. We all have differing levels of privilege and power here:
Stick to your contracted hours even if the work culture is something different. Do what you are contracted to do. If this feels too stretchy at first, try cutting back by 5 minutes and let that embed first before you expand the time. If you are a leader and have a team it is really important that you model this. Working longer = better employee is absolute BS. While there are times when deadlines may warrant some extra push, it should be the exception rather than the norm.
Be impeccable with your boundaries. The work phone gets switched off. Stop checking emails so you’ll be ahead on Monday. I used to have a colleague who constantly complained about clients phoning him after work hours. My answer? Why is your work phone on and why are you answering it? Soz!
If someone goes on maternity/sick leave, annual leave and their work is just landed on your desk without any discussion, set up a meeting asap to discuss tasks and a possible pay increase. Or at the very least the acknowledgement that this is going on and has an end date.
Connect to your cycles. Women thrive by acknowledging and working with (not against) their innate monthly cycles. There are times when you are full of beans and have loads of energy to speak and create and there are other times when you are better at thinking, planning and integrating. This isn’t woo, this is the science of your hormones and your body. You can read more about this here
Use other sources of data to support you including trusting your gut and your intuition. Rather than switching this off when you walk through the front door of work and having a different personality and way of being at home, ask how can you use more of your own self trust to support you with work decisions and projects.
Eat and move your body. Jeeez I know this is BASIC and you may eyeroll but so many of us just don't do it! Your body HAS to come before anything else, without it there is no job. Again breaking the work culture of eating at your desk by going to a class or for a walk and doing things to get you out of the location and same posture will be so helpful. I try to break up my work day with my 5 a day, just 5/10 minute breaks that could be anything from meditation, stretching, tea outside, a walk, a dance….whatever to change the state and position of your body.
Ask yourself “do I like what this company does, what it stands for, what they are contributing to the world”. Do you really want your own energy and efforts to be contributing to that? Do the company values line up with your own personal value system? This one is tricky because sometimes we just don't want to look under the hood, afraid of what we might find. But on some level if the work that you do every day is going against your own personal values this will chip away at you on your insides and will cause a lot of unease. You can get help working through your values here.
Obviously this is a wide and nuanced topic and not everyone has the ability and resources to step away from the system. But even just acknowledging the ways that it dehumanises us can be a start. And then start weaving in small little push backs for yourself. This is how change happens, people like you and me not accepting the status quo any more. Take some of your power back!
I'd love to know if you relate to any of this and if there is one little thing you can start to do differently this coming week. These small changes can make big ripples, this is how culture changes.
