Finding Balance Beyond Your Breaking Point
Middlesex University Dubai’s Public Eye reflects on mental health at work.
Eyes bloodshot, stinging from the glare of the mechanical device whirring before you, the sound of your keys clicking away, every key piercing your temple, head-heavy shoulders drooped, brain clouded, and notifications in a frenzy. It’s a Thursday night and the stream of emails just won’t stop.
Will it ever end?
In a society that thrives within the bubble of the consistent progressiveness driving the ideologies that are programmed to rule our lives, the importance of self-care is one of the most commercially viable concepts. Through carefully determined educational tactics, prioritising your mental health has trickled into most, if not all, aspects of our lives, including within our workplace. However, although conversations around mental health have spiked online and in our social circles, they remain cautious whispers in academia and the corporate world.
We are the four coordinators of the Public Eye club, each a unique interpretation of a generic university student. Behind the proud faces that are embellished in accomplishments credited to extraordinary levels of ambition and work ethic, deadly combinations of perfectionism and procrastination, moments of hopelessness, fear, and anxiety, lie hidden beneath the surface. This is nothing newsworthy though, as many, if not most, university students follow a similar behavioural pattern: post a self-care post on social media and proceed to overwork themselves to a point of exhaustion. However, Instagram-worthy this hustle looks, it’s extremely detrimental.
The PRCA MENA 2020 report showed that only about 16% of people felt fully supported by their organisation in regards to their mental health. Hence, we as the Public Eye club and the team behind RedBeat Magazine strive to hike that number to at least 100 and have implemented various guidelines to ensure the wellbeing of ourselves and those working with us.
With the commencement of the academic year, our ambitions and excitement were set to the side and instead, replaced by discipline. One strict rule implemented by our team is our working hours. Of course, working overtime can be expected within the dynamic of our lifestyles, but never at the expense of our wellbeing. All meetings, work, and extracurriculars must take place during working hours or will be postponed to the next day. We also provide our staff writers with a time constraint to complete articles, but also give flexibility in deadlines to ensure we’re getting their best selves when at work. The writers and section editors are additionally provided with support not only in writing articles but in the form of career advice and regular meetings as well, which are essentially just chilling sessions to unwind (where a more directly personal approach is initiated).
As students, we find that we have a lot of expectations put on us. At an age where we’re meant to ‘live life to our fullest’, we’re found living our life in pursuit of productivity and basing our worth on the output we produce. The abundance of visual and auditory stimulation etched into our routines follows us around, like baggage we take wherever we go. Sure, a pair of shoes and jeans in there may come in handy, but what about the outfits never worn still contributing to the weight? The point is, don’t fill up your time thinking you can do all of it at once. Yes, time is referred to as our worst enemy but – breathe in, breathe out, and live in the now.
To all those who feel like this or have felt overwhelmed by the tasks that plague your laptop screens and your minds: It’s necessary to ask for help. It’s often the hardest thing you will do, but it will be one of the most rewarding. Whether it’s a classmate, a trusted teacher or mentor, a friend or someone you bumped into on a random Tuesday, creating safe spaces for yourself will help you realise that even when the waves wash over you, through togetherness, as we have found, there will always be a hand to lift you up.
Public Eye is a Middlesex University Dubai club managed by Samira Banat, Mohaddesa Meherali, Lydia Vourlidi and Iqrah Islam. The club also runs the RedBeat Magazine.
