So many workers are at risk for burnout because the degraded reality of our jobs since the 1970s coincides with a too-lofty ideal of work. The gap between our ideals and our experience at work is too great for us to bear. That means, if we want to halt the burnout epidemic, we need to close the gap, both by improving working conditions and lowering our ideals. Because our burnout culture results as much from our ideas as from the concrete facts of our jobs, we will need different ethical and spiritual expectations for work as much as we will need better pay, schedules, and support. In fact, we will need a new set of ideals to guide us as we construct those conditions.
Referring to the work of Henry David Thoreau, Malesic talks about the importance of genius.
We have all read the standard advice on business and wellness websites for how to prevent or heal your burnout. Get more sleep. Learn to say no. Organise your tasks by urgency and importance. Meditate. These are all basically superstitions: individual, symbolic actions that are disconnected from burnout’s real causes. Our workplaces and cultural ideals contribute more to our burnout than our personal organisation methods do. Still, individuals are not powerless in the face of burnout. We do have a role to play in aligning our ideals with our reality at work. And Thoreau, the individualist who preached self-reliance, can help us identify it.
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Too much work and too little autonomy contribute to burnout; Thoreau’s program limits work in order to foster self-determination. Thoreau’s individualistic streak means he undervalues community. But he wants to create conditions in which people who recognise their own dignity can follow their genius and thus perform a higher labour: to harmonise themselves with their supreme sense of value.
This reminds me of John Spencer’s discussion of personal genius hour. I am guessing this may have been the source of 20% time for companies like Google.
Malesic talks about the notion of work, what constitutes burnout and the challenge of our self-impossed penance with Waleed Aly and Scott Stephens on The Minefield podcast.
Life certainly has a way of teaching you lessons. Personally, I have been a literally quieter this month, as I lost my voice. This is a bit of a problem when working in support. In part I returned from illness earlier than I probably should have and subsequently copped something on the rebound. What was interesting is that I had a dry irritating cough which meant I was unable to sit down for long without having a coughing fit. Actually, I could not even look down. This meant that as much as I wanted, I was unable to do any work. One of the positives was that I was that I felt best when walking and not talking.
The winner of the walking was the dog that we are currently dog-sitting. I have not lived with a dog since I was a child. It has definitely given me a different perspective on things. Firstly, I cannot believe how many people seem to throw away their fast food fries. Secondly, I cannot remember being so conscious of poo and whether we have been overfeeding. The other interesting thing was how much more exercise we have done as there is someone else involved.
On the Work front, I have been spending time trying to get to the bottom of ongoing issues. This led to using Google Sheets to create a template for filtering errors by school making it easier to email out issues.
Personally, with all my walking I have really dived back into books, listening to Tim Winton’s Cloudstreet and Dirt Music, Christos Tsiolkas’ Barracuda, as well as Dave Eggers’ The Every. I also watched The Umbrella Academy, Squid Game and the latest Predator instalment, Prey. While in regards to music, I enjoyed Stella Donnelly’s Flood and Hot Chip’s Freakout/Release.
Here then are some of the posts that have had me thinking:
Education
Essential Tools for Teaching?
Miguel Guhlin reflects on the process of selecting the right tool for teaching.
Should we be wary of so-called coaches? (Life Matters)
Hilary Harper speaks with Dr Sean O’Connor and Carly Dober about the different iterations of coaching.
The education minister’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad idea*
Alison Bedford and Naomi Barnes respond to the proposal to produce centralised planning resources as a means alleviating pressure.
How to Make Notes and Write
Dan Allosso provides a guide to how to make notes and carve them into ideas.
What Can Students Do?
Cameron Paterson shares examples of where his students have co-constructed assessment criteria, self-assessed their work, written their own report comments and taught their own lessons.
Technology
What Adults Don’t Get About Teens and Digital Life
Emily Weinstein and Carrie James talk about teaching teens to build personal agency, anticipating and discussing different dilemmas before they arise, and encouraging collective agency where groups respond to challenges together.
Curious About 3D Printing? Here Are Some Tips Before You Dive In
Kenneth R. Rosen provides some tips to consider before starting your own foray into 3D printing.
The approaching tsunami of addictive AI-created content will overwhelm us
Charles Arthur maps the evolution of AI-created content until now and ponders where it might be heading.
These 3D models take you inside the shattered ruins of some of Ukraine’s cultural treasures
Emmanuel Durand is capturing the war in Ukraine in a new way, capturing 3D models of various heritage sites as a means of documenting the impact.
General
‘They said it was impossible’: how medieval carpenters are rebuilding Notre Dame
Kim Willsher discusses the importance of the Guédelon project in regards to the rebuilding of Notre Dame Cathedral.
Wherefore the Cover Song? (Pretty Much Pop)
Pretty Much Pop podcast team speak with Prof. P.D. Magnus about various aspects associated with cover songs.
Kayaking the sickest urban river in Australia
Beau Miles traverses the Cook River in Sydney, providing an insight into the health of our urban rivers.
To Support Salman Rushdie, Just Read Him
In response to Salman Rushdie’s stabbing, Randy Boyagoda argues that the best way we can respond is to read his work.
A vision of life beyond burnout
Jonathan Malesic suggests that the answer for burnout relates to moving dignity back to the individual rather than being dependent on work.
Read Write Respond #079
So that was August for me, how about you? As always, hope you are safe and well.
Image by Bryan Mathers