By Kimani Wiseman
Having a job is a blessing, it makes you an independent person to provide food, clothing, and shelter for you and your family. However, at some government departments and private firms, it is a nightmare for some workers who have to go to work every day.
Waking up early in the morning, everybody should feel elated going to work because it is a place where you spend most of the day from Monday to Friday and in some cases those who work from Monday to Sunday.
For workers to be productive, they must feel happy and comfortable. There are some bosses and supervisors at some private firms and government departments who would bring their family problems, financial problems, and other problems in their life and take out on other members of staff, causing these workplaces to be very toxic. In some cases, junior staff also bring all the problems in their life to work.
Some bosses and supervisors are “demons in human form”. They get happiness from making the lives of other members of staff a living hell. It is amazing in this day and age that some workers cannot get time off to collect their salary, pay their utility bills and can hardly get bathroom breaks.
Misery loves company. Has slavery been abolished? These people are work bullies and are abusing their power.
Some private firms are guilty of having their employees work overtime and not paying them for it. Recommendations are made to promote delinquent workers while hard-working staff who invested money in their education and “burned the midnight oil” to pass their studies are left in the dark.
Here are a few tips for dealing with a toxic job:
· Sometimes in life, we have to train our minds to block out toxic people and focus on the duties that we are getting paid for.
· Request a transfer to another unit, department or ministry.
· If you get another opportunity for a new job where it is less toxic, take that job even if the salary is the same or more. Your happiness and peace of mind should be paramount.
Although a few tips were given on how to deal with a toxic job, not everybody is strong mentally enough to deal with a toxic job. There are a lot of workers who are extremely close to having a nervous breakdown or ending up at the mental asylum if help is not given immediately.
We cannot be celebrating “World Mental Health Day” every year and not looking at these toxic workplaces that are contributing to mental problems. I would strongly recommend that the relevant authorities conduct a survey in the public and private sectors and reach out to those workers who need help and these supervisors and bosses would need counselling and some training in leadership.
There are some workers who are also suffering from anxiety and depression as a consequence of these toxic workplaces. If we want our nation to be productive, let us make the workers happy.
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