We must rethink mental well being of crucial workers
Our leaders at the workplace should themselves be human enough, and create an environment of psychological safety in which junior employees and interns can freely share their challenges and deepest emotions.
The tragic death of Dr Desree Moraa, a medical intern who recently died by suicide at a Kiambu hospital, due to extreme pressure of work, depression, emotional, psychological, and physical exhaustion, after working 36 hours non-stop in a very toxic work environment is a wake-up call to all of us to rethink our fundamental human values and our psychology of work.
We cannot pass judgment on Dr Moraa because we don't have all the internal facts.
But it is common knowledge that medical interns in this country are working in intolerable inhuman conditions, as modern slaves, without pay, without proper meals, or medical care. They lack human dignity and the barest necessities of life.
As a society we have devalued the human being. We have put a very high premium on work and elevated it above human beings. Our jobs define us. We have no identity outside the job. Both parents and students have become neurotic about jobs and titles.
Mental health crisis
We cannot imagine our children without such titles as Doctor, Engineer, Advocate, or Architect. To say the truth, we don't know the actual names of some of our colleagues.
We simply call them Daktari, Engineer, Architect etc. Our education system is too focussed on technical qualifications, and not on human development.
We have put too much pressure on our children to excel in academics. We are driving our children crazy. No wonder we have a mental health crisis among our youth.
We should make our children know that we love them as our children, as human beings, even without those titles. They don't have to die chasing those titles in toxic inhuman work environments. They can simply walk out and live happier alternative lives.
We need a radical shift in our workplace psychology. We have a psychological dichotomy of the human being at our workplaces. We separate the internal personality from the external personality. At work we are only concerned about the external personality. We focus on the worker, the job, career success, and its financial and material gains. We wear professional masks which conceal the human being.
The internal personality of the doctor, her private life, painful feelings and emotions, financial struggles and personal drama is left at home.
Medical procedures
The doctor exclusively focuses on the pain of others. Nobody asks if the doctor has eaten, whether she has slept, or how she is feeling. She is merely a robot performing medical procedures.
Our leaders have focussed too much on machines, technology and financial systems in service delivery and forgotten the prime mover, the human being, without whom no services can be given. Dr Moraa’s case is calling upon us to pay attention and to make human use of human beings. To take care of caregivers.
Dr Moraa’s case exposes a terrible disconnect between the interns and hospital managers. There was total negligence and breakdown of communication. Her superiors did not care about her physical, emotional, mental or spiritual needs. She was alone.
Our leaders at the workplace should themselves be human enough, and create an environment of psychological safety in which junior employees and interns can freely share their challenges and deepest emotions.
The Happiness Society of Kenya is willing to discuss happiness at work programs with organizations both in Private and public sectors to enhance employee well-being, personal growth, creativity and productivity.
Mr Murungi is the Chief Happiness Officer, Happiness Society of Kenya
