CN: Mentions of Suicide, mental health issues, ableism, pushing medication
Doing chores
the simple and mundane tasks
because right as of now…
complex is too much to ask.
Mental health matters!
Scream the employers and politicians…
But only if productivity doesn’t dip low.
Only as long as you don’t arrive late,
never show your “Illness,”
and finish all projects on time.
Make sure that you, your work, and your attitude glisten.
Better not shudder or shake,
or ever call out because you are 🤷🏻♀️ “just too sad. 🤷🏻♀️
Otherwise, the managers joke,
you might have to turn to crime
to fill your days.
Joking about a roof over our heads,
tells us all we need to know about what’s at stake.
Depression and Anxiety are allowed…
just as long as you are back to “Normal,”
by the time you’re supposed to report for your next shift.
Autism and AD/HD
you ask?
Not so much.
It’s fine, as long as:
You don’t stim too much,
Can mask all day,
are able to hold everyone’s gaze,
and aren’t one of “those,” neurodivergents.
Every task completed on time,
from step one to the end.
None of this jumping from one to the other,
as if in a craze.
Just act “Normal”
they scream and plead…
(acting as if the reason for it weren’t
corporate greed
and inability
to separate the role
from the person).
Metrics, Metrics, Metrics.
That’s the goal.
That’s the need.
“We’re like a family,”
Is touted as if that means
that those of us with “Problems,”
will be treated with an air of hospitality…
instead of barely contained condescension.
Do as you are told,
be a machine,
and if you are well-behaved,
we might pay you enough to afford
to eat greens and beans.
For, after all, they quip,
if you can’t do the job
there are certainly pills you can take,
and as long as you have skimped and saved…
you might just be able to get the help you require…
that is,
Once a pencil-pusher with a clipboard
(and no medical background, of course)
while you are actively
in a suicidal ideation,
and have to be at work in 3 hours
approves the claim.
Just bottle it up,
ignore it,
take a walk,
just don’t be sad…
Are all suggestions from
well meaning but ignorant
“mentally-balanced” co-workers and friends…
Ideas, which are given to those of us who need support.
Instead of solutions,
we get more excuses as to why we should hyper-extend
in our mental health struggles.
As we receive nudges and stares
to just tiptoe on eggshells
and wait until we get home, to someone who cares,
before any symptoms are shown.
After all, aren’t you grown?