A Letter to a Workaholic

To my beloved workaholic self,

Please be reminded that you have to change your lifestyle or at least take a breather once in a while. Work is not the most important thing in your life and you know it. You have got to remember how it feels like to go to a party and just let those ounces of responsibility off your shoulders. One of these days, I’m going to lead a rally with a campaign against overtime.

Just because you can easily clear a night shift unlike other call center agents in the office, doesn’t mean that you should blow this nocturnal crusade out of proportions. Remember, there are a lot of other agents working on night shifts in any Philippine call center. Clearing five consecutive nights doesn’t make you any tougher because insomniacs can do ten without them even trying. I do believe we still sleep.

There is nothing wrong with being proud of what you achieve; in fact it is a healthy sign as you are energetic. You should be proud of your salary considering that other people are already satisfied just getting through the day. However, your work is about talking to the voices of random people while facing the front of a monitor for eight hours, with you usually not taking a break. You may not break a sweat but you’re also not blinking enough, or so the optometrists says, and that is why you have to wear those wonder specs that would make even the blind see. The world is not created by three blue squares, a wooden desk and a headphone. It’s not made up of an agency or any Philippine call center for that matter. There are your parents, your sisters, your friends, your co-workers, your cats. You wouldn’t want to say on your deathbed that you wish you could have joined that family dinner at Gumbo or that weekend party with friends at Dolce’s. Besides, who would take care of the cats if you’re in the hospital?

You are not a soldier at war. Therefore, you deserve a lot of peace of mind and hours and hours of relax time. Don’t you think? Don’t we think? We don’t want our friends to forget us nor do we want to be left out of the group. We don’t want a divorce in the future and we don’t our cats to die unattended and alone on their deathbeds. You wouldn’t want to be forgotten. You wouldn’t want the only attendees in your funeral to be your co-workers, who couldn’t attend because there’s work to do. There’s still a lot in store for us. Let us live life to the full.


Yours,
Yourself