The book A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens tells the story of Ebenezer Scrooge. A miserly old miser who is visited on the night before Christmas by three spirits (past, present and future) to warn him of his own future.
If you look at the developments over the past year, you could draw a parallel with Dickens' messages of ghosts. Our first ghost, the first lockdown, showed us that we could make our world a lot more sustainable. Thanks to the lockdown, we regained peace in our lives. There was less production and less travel. In China, they even saw for the first time in years blue sky and also in the Netherlands was the air pollution hasn't been this low in ages.
The fear of corona freed us from the office gardens. Businesses and citizens are putting selflessly in for others and we became aware again of the importance of our health. But even before the threat of the virus was over, almost everything was back to normal.
The second spirit occurs in the form of the current lockdown. We, Scrooge, are completely in the victim mode. Working from home would make us massively exhaust. Burnout symptoms would increase and stress would be unprecedented.
Last week, among other things, I presented at the Wellbeing Community. An initiative of leading companies in the Netherlands when it comes to the well being of its employees. Together they map the latest insights and research to realize the best working conditions for their employees.
Again, it was emphasized: yes, something must be done about work stress and how we deal with it. Yes, the number of burnout symptoms has been rising in recent years. But so there was that challenge before corona as well. During the first corona wave, there was not even a specific significant increase seen in the number of burnouts and burnout symptoms.
Chances are you have also recently heard the term Zoombies passed by. Many recognize themselves in this and rightly so. But, the fact that there are risks attached to the new way of working doesn't mean it doesn't also bring opportunities. Shortening your meetings, rearranging your time, alternating your screen with phone and outside calls, all things that can increase our well-being. It's just a matter of how you get there together dealing with it.
The third ghost shows Scrooge's future if he continues so miserly. He witnesses his own funeral and sees how few people care about him. In our case, a future with the negative effects of climate change, more frequent and intense viruses and associated lockdowns, crises and an operating company that is completely burned out.
At A Christmas Carol Scrooge jolted awake the next morning and decided to change course decisively. Not a bad choice for us, either. 'I want my old life back' is not an option in any case. So don't cling to the past, but recognize and embrace the opportunities in front of you to improve yourself and your work. When we invented the wheel, we also had to learn to use it first. Those who figured that out the fastest got ahead the fastest.
If through this we manage to positively transform our old society, like Scrooge's life, in the end it has not all been in vain.
Something to think about over the next few days.
Happy Holidays.
