I Don’t Need Encouragement. I Need You to Eliminate

Content warning: This article discusses suicide. If you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts, please reach out to a crisis hotline or mental health professional.

Let's get things out of the way right now. If you have never felt you want to die because of stress at work, you're not gonna get it.

Some of you think you get it. You want to get it. You try to listen and try to say all the nice words when we tell you our stories. But you actually do not know what it feels like to constantly feel like garbage.

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Stress at work is not always bad. Stress allows us to challenge ourselves and be resilient. It sometimes pushes us to creative and productive limits we don't even know we have.

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But when it's continuous and becomes chronic, the kind that many of us face day in and day out, science says it alters chemicals in our brain and how it functions and manifests in our body.

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Chronic stress can affect the quality of sleep or lack thereof. Feeling irritable or moody. Even forgetting the smallest of things and feeling overstimulated. Its effects on your judgment, decision-making, and social interaction are acute.

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So when does the breaking point happen? It's when one feels defeated by the pressure of work. When stress takes control of the brain and body. And eventually overstressed employees just found the easiest way out--- suicide.

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Most of the time, people with suicidal thoughts are also blind. It's hard to see the benefits of staying alive. The light at the end of the tunnel is so small, squinting doesn't even help.

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These people give up their lives because their employers gave up the employee's rights to adequate amounts of work, competitive salaries, good management, and even vanilla politeness and dignity.

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Creating a safe space for people to talk about their mental health state is passé. Employers need to step up and overhaul the system. This time, companies should be agile in action. Not just words. If they have the time and resources to make an output, I am sure they’ll find ways how to save more lives.

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As someone who has tried to unsubscribe to life, as a former employee of big companies, and as someone who does not want to see a colleague pass, I am telling you with all the wisdom in my mind, body, and soul. To companies, employers, and managers: I don't need your encouragement. I need you to eliminate threats to your employees' psychological safety.

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Free national suicide prevention and counseling hotlines click here.