What Happens When Work Hurts More Than It Helps

Life has, in its own way, driven us in different directions, from family to work responsibilities. Sometimes, we carry so much load on our heads that we will forget to even take care of ourselves. For some people , once the physical self is being taken care of, that's the end of self-care.

The value attached to physical health should be the same as that attached to both mental and emotional health. As individuals, we are always majorly concerned about our physical health; we run to the pharmacy when we fall ill, but we forget our mental health.

So many responsibilities can be mentally draining, sometimes , not just jobs alone but for jobs, I simply refer to jobs like that as toxic jobs. I remember one company I worked for a few years back as their media practitioner. Oh my heavens!

The job was cool; my job description at first was to take photographs of the items in the stores and publish them on our media handles for publicity. I was excited at how easy my work was, but my imagination was only playing with me.

The first few months were easy, and I was feeling at home. I didn't know that this had been my boss' method with her staff; she will make you feel comfortable and relaxed before the draining begins.

The switch-up was one I never saw coming. She started by calling me to come to her house and video her shooting contents, following her up to cover up events, going on outreach to cover the events, editing those videos, engaging on her personal page, and doing the same on our business pages, and still doing my photography job.

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She didn't start all these at once; she was doing everything slowly for me not to notice the usage. The fact I was the only person doing all this made everything suffocating for me. After work, I have to stop by the market, buy food items, return home, and cook and pick up the office phone and begin endless video editing.

Sometimes I will sleep off with the iPhone in my hand. My mind was unease because I didn't finish the editing work. Gradually, the whole thing started having effects on my mental health. I was no longer the smiling person my colleagues knew; my eyeballs were always fixed to the phones, either I'm doing this or that. When I remember the pay and the workload, all the senses in my body remind me of how I'm being used.

One day, I asked myself a question I knew the answer but was very ashamed to answer: "Why stay in a toxic workplace that can barely feed you for a month or take care of your bills?" If you fall today due to this stress, would 25,000 Naira pay all the medical bills?"

The fact that our boss enjoys seeing the phone in my hand 24/7 is another problem. No matter how you edit or engage or snap items, he would always have complaints that would return me back to redoing everything. There was a day I spent 6 good hours editing a 2-minute video. That was the day I stopped the work.

I didn't have any job elsewhere, but I took that decision for my sanity's sake. How can I work for someone who doesn't see anything good in what someone does? Why will I go through such mental and physical stress for a job that can't solve my needs? After I tendered my resignation letter, the first question he asked was, "Mary Ann, be sincere with me: have I not been good to you?"

"We all have our own best definitions of that word. Yours might not be the same as mine. I'm not leaving because you are bad to me. This is my personal decision, and it doesn't have anything to do with you not being good to me." He got the resignation letter from me and told me he will get back to me on my salary.

My few months at home were the best thing that ever happened to me. I slept well and had a good time reflecting. The fact that I was mentally okay again was the happiest thing that happened to me.

We all deserve to be happy, and putting our body, soul, and spirit first is what I call peace of mind. Doing whatever brings us happiness is one way of taking care of one's mental health, and it's important not to compromise that for anything.

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