Alcohol: The Opiate Of The Worker
My workplace recently installed the happiness lab; an app that allows you to track your mood and comment on what contributed to your score out of 100. Before the app was installed I often heard people bemoan their jobs whilst making their tenth cup of coffee out of boredom, and wondered how they can despise their day job and yet endure it for years; they arrive on Monday, sigh deeply and take their seat- keeping sane with memories of the previous weekend and hopes for the next.
Enter the Happiness lab; emboldened by anonymity and captured by the novelty, many have taken to plastering the happiness wall (public scores and status’s) with running commentary of their day to day struggles, often giving away coping mechanisms in the process. As I suspected, alcohol is a very large part of what cements people in positions they deeply disdain. Many live for the weekend to let out pent up frustration at the bar, and then go back to work to build it up again- It releases the stresses of a fundamentally unfulfilling role, without in any way touching on the cause. Inebriated, everything is clear; we make bold proclamations and rejoice in how far away Monday feels. And then, on Sunday, we walk back to the shackles of our desks, content with battling another week to do it all again.
Continuing, many of my colleagues don’t see their unfulfilling role as one long grey patch of employment; In their head, they do the mental gymnastics that gets you through it. Beat 5 days, reset, beat 5 days, reset, ad infinitum. A large part of that reset is drinking, and the logic is fundamentally flawed. It’s such an accepted structure: work 5 days, drink for two- purge yourself from the workweek stresses, and then do it again. The happiness lab attested to this: On Monday, everyone scores low and speaks of despair at being back to a claustrophobic office, but as the week progresses the scores climb higher and higher, often in tandem with growing anticipation of the weekend antics. Naturally, the weekend is a time for leisure and relieve, words synonymous with alcohol, but it can quickly become a small respite that locks us into roles we are not happy in. This is by no means an attack on drinking full stop- its aimed at that group of people who spend years in a role which is deeply unfulfilling and blink one day to realise how much time has elapsed. To say alcohol is the sole reason for this would be folly, but it certainly is a large factor in many cases.
Moreover, of course leaving is not always easy, and financial constraints and commitments can make it impossible for others. But many don’t change roles because they accept that work is work and 2 day resets make it bearable. This is a small call for a different approach: Instead of running to the bar every Friday to drown away dissatisfaction, sit with those feelings of frustration and examine your role with a clear head. Nothing fuels blindness to the passing of time like alcohol, and though change is tough, it is sometimes necessary.
