Don't give the power of your personal wellbeing away
Your employer isn’t responsible for your personal wellbeing – YOU are.
Is this triggering you? Good.
It means that there is potential.
Potential for a shift, if you are open to it.
Potential to take your power back and take life into your own hands.
Your employer isn’t your parent. And yet, so many have a (in most cases subconscious) parent-child relationship with their employer.
You don’t view your employer level-headed for what it is: An exchange of skills and money.
You expect to be taken care of by your employer. And in return, you work hard. Too hard.
You also work hard to try to prove yourself in order to gain recognition and love. A recognition and love (as in a feeling that makes you feel good about yourself) that outside the work environment doesn’t seem attainable.
Many people source their sense of self and worth from their profession and their work environment. Over-giving, over-stretching, over-working in the hope of receiving love and respect.
To fill that emptiness inside of your chest.
And if it doesn’t, the employer is to blame. Just like you would blame a parent for not acknowledging and returning your efforts adequately.
Am I saying there aren’t shitty companies out there that are taking advantage of their people? Of course not.
I’m saying yes, your employer has the duty to provide you with whatever you need to thrive on the job. A supportive work environment and a fair and balanced exchange of your time, energy and skills. No discussion about that and no discussion that this is still massively lacking in many places.
But I’m witnessing a trend growing from one extreme to the other.
Giving all self-responsibility away and placing a lot of unrealistic expectations for personal well-being that should be in your hands and not in the hands of institutions like employers, governments, health departments etc.
It’s YOUR job to take care of yourself.
But instead, you prefer to give your power away to something outside of you that you can’t control. And because you cannot (or don’t want to) take care of it, the only thing that is left is to place an expectation on these “bigger” bodies to solve a problem that started within you.
Just like a child would expect from their parent.
The only exception is, that you are not a child anymore.
It’s time to take your personal wellbeing into your own hands.
*** This post was born out of witnessing a discussion on LinkedIn about how burn-out prevention – in the eyes of the discussers – was entierly the employer’s responsibility (and not of the employee), including providing adequate coaching (incl. covering the costs for it).
This post aims to bring awareness as to why such expectations may arise and serves as a gentle reminder that the responsibility for personal well-being cannot (or should not) be given to forces outside of you (supported by others, yes, but initiated by you).
