And Now for Those Married To Thier Jobs.

Over the course of my working life, I’ve learned that there are different ways of coping with one’s job.

Working for a living is generally unpleasant for most of us, so we each have our methods of dealing with the concept that we might just be doing this until we reach the mandatory retirement age. Some of us deal with this by trying our best to get out of work as much as humanly possible.

Others go to the other extreme by plunging headlong into their work until it’s difficult to say exactly where the job ends and the person begins. This is a tiny group (thank goodness,) but it’s safe to say that there’s always one in every office; that person who has become completely and utterly institutionalized by their job.

Now don’t get me wrong; there’s nothing wrong with enjoying what you do for a living. Having a job that you enjoy and enriches your life is something to be treasured, since there are many out there who would probably prefer to drink a shot of bleach and chase it with broken glass instead of going to work. Nor is there anything wrong with a healthy sense of ambition, either.

After all, one of this country’s greatest promises is that anyone can rise above their beginnings. But there is a fine line between being driven and being obsessed, and while I can’t tell you exactly where that boundary is, I can say that you’ll know you’ve crossed when people start looking at you funny and dropping hints about you possibly needing a vacation or to take the damned leave days.

If you don’t have people to talk to outside of work (red flag, by the way,), If the first thing that pops into your head when I say ‘you’ is your official job title, you’re institutionalized.

When I say ‘institutionalized’, I mean you’ve officially gotten to the point where you cannot function without the context of your profession. If you didn’t have your job, you wouldn’t know what to do with yourself.

You’ve probably lost all your friends, because you’re too busy picking up some project/assignment or you have bored them to death with your constant prattling on about work and corporate policy. Likewise, you’re probably single, since you somehow managed to marry your work, with your job taking on the role of a jealous, demanding spouse.

in at your job during one of your many projects. Your work has become your life, and if you didn’t have that to define yourself by, you’d probably suffer a major nervous breakdown. That, as Morgan Freeman once put it in the movie “The Shawshank Redemption”, is being institutionalized.

Like I said earlier, I’ve worked with a few people of this particular stamp, one of them being my last boss. It was always a maddening experience for me, with a dash of pity mixed in as well. It’s frustrating, trying to get through your work load with someone who is operating as little more than a corporate-programmed robot.

It’s even worse when that same kind of person is your supervisor, because they want you to sacrifice as much as they have towards the corporate goal. (Interesting side note: If you ever want to have some fun, tell them that you can’t work more hours because you have a life. That concept makes their brains short-circuit.)

But as I said, there is pity mixed in with the frustration. Speaking only for myself, I feel sorry for people who have sold themselves lock, stock and barrel to corporations. Unless you’re working for yourself or have somehow managed to land a position with a company that really, truly does care about the well-being of their employees, most Kenyan employers only care about money, how to make it and how to keep from handing it out.

If there is any gratitude for actions taken on its behalf, it has a very short half-life, and chances are good that they’ll still drop you like a hot brick if the thought suits them. To put it another way, it’s akin to being in an abusive relationship, and we all know what you’re supposed to do if you find yourself involved with one-get out, quick. Institutionalized people can’t, and so the cycle of abuse continues.

So if you think that maybe-just maybe-you’re one of those institutionalized types, do yourself (and the rest of your coworkers) a favor. Take a break. Cut back on some of the hours. Read a book. Travel outside your village or town and see the rest of Kenya. Try to find out who you are beyond the confines of your job.

You’ll be better off because of it, and your coworkers will be less likely to fantasize about throwing you off a bridge.

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