A job that threatens your health

I was sitting all alone in a coffee shop when I noticed an old friend standing a few hundred meters away from me looking completely lost.

 I noticed that he was still standing in the same position five minutes later. I thought he was waiting for someone but when he was still standing there for another couple of minutes, I decided to make a move.

I left my seat and walked to him. He smiled when he saw me and shook my hand so warmly that it left me completely surprised but very curious. I asked him to join me for coffee. He gladly accepted.

Then another surprise followed. While we were waiting for our drink, he never spoke a word. I looked at him and his mind was obviously not where he was sitting. It was travelling in the clouds of deep thoughts.

When the coffee arrived, I decided to snap him out of his thoughtful mood. I asked him what was really bothering him? He told me new his job was driving him crazy.

He is now a personal assistant of a government minister. He worked twelve hours a day and literally reduced to a servant to that important man.

He worked even on weekends. He went to tell me all about his daily working routine. When he is finally at home, he was both mentally and physically tired that he did not have time for his family.

As if to prove right what he was telling me, his phone rang. He looked at his mobile phone and I could see the pain on his face. He got up into his feet quickly, paced around while he was talking on the phone. Then he came back and sighed.

Yes, it was his boss and wanted him back. It was just after five in the evening and he had to go back to the office about eight thirty the same evening. He left immediately looking very frustrated. I felt sorry for him. Obviously, he did not deserve it. He was caught in a job that he needed to make a living.

I guess many people are exactly in the same position. They toil away for hours in a ‘bad’ job and cannot get out of it just because they need the money. Some employers do not care but want to get the job done just because they were paying their employees. It is not a slave labour but very much close to it knowing that, as an employer, they have a noose around the neck of the worker.

I do not need to check with therapists but I guess a bad job contributes to the majority of unhappiness of many employed people. I am not an expert but it leads to mental health problems and the stress can break the physical health, too, like heart diseases and other ailments.

But there was good news for my friend. I saw him last week again and I noticed that there was a spring on his footsteps as he was walking inside a shopping mall. I shouted his name and he turned around with a bright smile on his face.

Before I could say anything, he offered me coffee and we went to sit down in a café. The moment he completed the order, he rubbed his hands together and told me he quitted his job two weeks ago. He could not take it anymore. It was either his job or his sanity and he chose the latter.

When I asked how is he going to earn his living after quitting? He said he was working on it but his peace of mind was better than money.