We’re continuing to explore reasons for our increased mental labor this week. Last week, I ended my column talking about how our pets, though wonderful, can add to our mental load.
As if the mental labor isn’t big enough with just running a home and family, some of us carry our jobs into the mix. As I mentioned in my book, Joy to You and Me (At Work!), the average work week has risen from 40 to 46 or 47 hours per week.
Thanks to advances in technology, a lot of people don’t stop working once they leave the office. Or, if they’re like me, their office is in their home. It’s easy for those work/home boundaries to get blurry or eliminated altogether.
Even during those “true” work hours, many people carry a mental load. But wait, that’s what we’re getting paid to do, right? In this case it’s defined as work that goes on every day that you don’t get paid for. I call it “other duties as assigned” that are not in most job descriptions.
These may include tasks such as purchasing cards and making sure they’re signed by everyone, buying snacks, planning events, getting the coffee, buying birthday cakes, cleaning up after meetings, and taking notes. I used to love doing many of those things when I worked in the typical office setting. But not everyone is like me. If you don’t have a good system in place, these tasks can be quite draining.
Speaking of cards and events, celebrations require mental labor. Of course, we want to plan and execute these events for the people we love. For example, when my oldest son Jonathon graduated high school in May of 2019, I had picked out the location for his party and a date confirmed during the previous January.
Even with keeping things simple by serving hors d’oeuvres, beverages, and of course, a fabulous cake, I knew my mental load would be heavier in the months leading up to the open house. I literally thought about what mementos and photos would be on display that afternoon most every week!
It all turned out well and was fun. I was excited for Jonathon. But I realized once it was over, and the exhaustion hit, that I needed to implement ideas from this series for future events.
Then we have holidays, another category of celebrations. This is where I think the mental load goes into overdrive! We’ll discuss holidays in-depth next week.