Waking up on a lazy Sunday morning, I couldn’t help but contemplate the kind of lifestyle that our generation is taking immense pride in. It hasn’t been a month yet, in the IT hub of the country, but the schedule seems mentally exhausting to me to say the least. As much as I agree with the fact that the IT culture is stressful, having a skewed work life balance is nothing to be proud of.
Time management and work-life balance is left to textbooks. Waking up sleep deprived, rushing off to work after having a mouthful that can barely pass off as a meal, dragging the day while being mentally exhausted, working past work hours to meet unrealistic deadlines and going back home to run errands in a limited time span and dozing off on the sofa only to get up early next morning to rush to work. Our generation equates working late hours and the pursuit of a six figure salary as an engulfing goal that surpasses both one’s personal well-being as well as the importance of personal relationships. Because ignoring one’s health to get in the manager’s good book, sacrificing sleep to increase the bare minimum chances of hike and compensating a hectic week by partying all night long during the weekends, and forcing oneself to enjoy every minute of the weekend, is synonymous to a succeful and happening lifestyle.
Nobody takes out time to take a walk in a park or smile at passers-by or sit at a bench pondering on the meaning of life. Gone is the concept of reading a book in the weekends and catching up on some writing, taking a nap in the afternoon and cooking different cuisines for friends and family.
In fact, my weekend has to be Instagram worthy, my weekend has to be my hard-earned reward for working my ass off in the weekdays. I should be able to showcase every minute of my weekend in a showreel, because how else does my lifestyle become worth mentioning.
If you were to judge my life based on my Instagram posts, I would probably laugh at you. Because my Instagram account will tell you how much I enjoy my life during the few outings in a weekend, it hides the number of times I have felt like quitting in a single day, the nights I spend tossing and turning in bed, questioning my own worth; the times I feel like running off to the unknown just to get out of this mundane nerve wrecking ritual where taking out time for oneself becomes a luxury one cannot afford often.
Work life balance has no place in the Indian dictionary, especially the kind that governs millennials because it is reserved for the officials in higher posts. Maybe, we are yet to realize that our life shouldn’t just be restricted to the office hours in order to achieve success and a higher pay. It is high time we acknowledge that ignoring one’s mental and physical health in the name of work culture is ridiculous to say the least.