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Let’s face it: we’re on our own. Our managers are barely keeping it together, battling their own problems at work and at home. We permanently have that key colleague on longterm sick leave, who may or may not return, whose work is simply dished out sideways.

Those that remain, though burnt out and fed up, carry on doing the bare minimum required of them just to stay on top of the spiralling costs of simply surviving. Hate their job as they may, they have a mortgage to pay; only a fool would quit right now.

So this is the truth: we’re on our own. Now is not the time to speak of anything that troubles us. Our job: to self-repair, take care of ourselves, find other ways to move forward without burdening others.

This the takeaway of that all-important one-to-one in which we had planned to discuss our insane workload, but ended up counselling our manager, coming up with strategies to help them. By now, it’s clear that they find themselves completely out of their depth. Our job is to ensure they don’t throw in the towel.

So back to ourselves. We must reach within to overcome whatever it is that troubles us. To find our own solutions to the issues we encounter. As for matters of body and mind, we must identify our own remedies, and never speak of them to anyone.

No, our job is forever that of a mediator, striving to lighten the loads of others. This is where we find our value lies. Perhaps in serving others we will find the cure for our own maladies. Perhaps that is where we discover our self-worth. Maybe this is our true calling.