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Unhappy office worker
Today, fewer of us break our backs at work, but more of us are breaking our brains. Less than a century ago, most Americans earned their keep with muscles and sweat. Today, so-called blue-collar laborers represent a shrinking minority of the workforce.
As many skilled craftspeople can attest, there is something elemental and satisfying about engaging your body as well as your brain in getting things done. And as most information workers can confirm, there is something disembodying and mind-numbing about laboring almost entirely in your head. Unless you consider keyboarding manual labor, these folks function largely above the neck.
Granted, some physical jobs break down the body, but the same can be said about breaking the minds of employees whose manual labor involves walking from their IT cubicle to the copy machine. The coveted desk job of the 1950’s has mutated into a mind-searing gauntlet of too much to do, too little time to do it, and plenty of IT snafus to mess it up.
Many white-collar workers who once felt privileged to toil in a clean, air-conditioned office now find themselves staring longingly at the groundskeeper outside their window (which often doesn’t open, even if they have one). Granted, the shift to remote work and better intelligent design of the workspace have improved the desk job experience for many employees. But the work modus operandi remains largely IT saturated.
Brain Strain
Now, if you’re in a physically demanding job and your body is feeling the wear and tear, then sitting behind a desk may sound sweet. But the brain strain of manual labor (which can also be considerable) is usually offset by expending that bound up mental stress through physical work. For information workers, physical stress release rarely comes with the job.
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You blue-collar folks are more likely to nurse a battered knee or sore back than an office type, but the latter are more at risk for burnout, depression and debilitating stress. Choose your poison. I’ve lived in both worlds. In my blue-collar days I did stints in farm labor, landscaping, water works and road construction, while in the so-called professional world, I’ve been a psychotherapist, professor and business executive.
And what I’ve noticed from my tenure in both realms is that a primary distinction between blue and white-collar workers is their consciousness. For one, many manual laborers display a kind of heightened sensory awareness characterized by alertness, absorption and focus. While few of them would put it this way, they are more mindful and present, often because they need to be for purposes of safety and accuracy.
Tranced Out
In contrast, office types often exude a tranced-out demeanor, as if they are so chained to their devices that they feel disembodied. In the vernacular, they look “out of it.” And what they are out of is feeling like a sensing, physical being, one who is engaged below the neck as well as above it.
Staring at digital displays all day is a very recent experience for our species. Homo sapiens have been around about 300,000 years, but only about twenty-five of those have involved having one’s face glued to an electronic display for hours on end. Meaning our brains are not wired for this sort of activity.
Desk jockeys can improve their sedentary situation by setting a timer that cues them to get up, stretch, maybe walk a bit and, if possible, go outside. Not much time? Go splash cold water on your face. Enough time? Do a short burst of exercise. Talk a walk outside. Listen to some relaxing music.
Getting back into your body via your senses will counteract some of the stupor of screen staring. However, using free time to stare at one’s smartphone, as many do, isn’t helpful. Making white-collar jobs more mind/body balanced is a problem we’ve yet to solve, and a treadmill desk isn’t the answer.
I enjoy working with my mind, but if I don’t get enough physical work, my mental well-being suffers. After all, we’re not computers. We’re animals.
For more, visit philipchard.com.
