Posted on 04/21/2021 6:36:16 PM PDT by nickcarraway
When Jonny Frostick realised he was having a heart attack this month, the first thing that occurred to the HSBC Holdings Plc contractor was: “I needed to meet with my manager tomorrow, this isn’t convenient.”
Then he thought about funding for a project, his will, and finally, his wife.
Frostick, who manages more than 20 employees working on regulatory data projects, chronicled his near-death experience in a viral LinkedIn post that had been viewed almost eight million times. The 45-year-old Briton is the latest financial employee to weigh in on the work-till-you-drop culture during a pandemic that’s obliterated the lines between office and home life for droves of workers.
“Whereas before I would finish sensibly anywhere between five and half six, I’d be finding myself there on a Friday at 8 o’clock at night exhausted, thinking I need to prep up something for Monday and I haven’t got time, and I started then to actually work weekends,” Frostick said in a phone interview from his home in Dorset. "That’s my responsibility. I think that was probably for me where it was those blurring of boundaries.”
“We all wish Jonathan a full and speedy recovery,” said HSBC spokeswoman Heidi Ashley. “The response to this topic shows how much this is on people’s minds and we are encouraging everyone to make their health and wellbeing a top priority.”
Frostick said he and colleagues spend a disproportionate amount of time on Zoom calls, and work days can stretch to 12 hours. The isolation of remote work also takes a toll, he said.
“We’re not able to have those other conversations off the side of a desk or by the coffee machine, or take a walk and go and have that chat,” he said. “That has been quite profound,
(Excerpt) Read more at thestar.com.my ...
A man who has his priorities straight ;-)
As long as they are always available to take a call or get in another meeting or immediately respond to a message.
LOL, once the wife reads that, he’ll wish the heart attack was fatal.
“the latest financial employee to weigh in on the work-till-you-drop culture during a pandemic that’s obliterated the lines between office and home life for droves of workers. “
It has always been thus in tech.
The month before a major datacenter cutover will test anyone’s mettle. Or a major VoIP deployment etc.
Normal humans cannot do it, so they morph into...something else.
😂
If only this poor victim would’ve sought proper expertise/care, before it came to this.
Pffftt. The horror of a bankers life.
I don't get why more than a few people don't understand that.
Since the so-called pandemic, my work hours have definitely increased as the trade-off for being able to work at home most of the time is to be available most of the time. The hours I used to spend commuting is now spent at work.
I miss those hour drives to and from work listening to Outlaw Country on the Sirius radio!
"Must be a board meeting!"
How do we know he wasn’t beaten to death with a fire extinguisher?
That is called a Half Day.
Welcome to service work where 12 hours is the norm.
Or go to the oil fields where the base week is 80 hours before overtime.
Even riding a desk can be stressful if your bosses are from hell.
I've been in Tech for 35 years. That statement is largely true however the China Virus dramatically exacerbated the issue.
Layoff's to protect profits, offshoring, downsizing, getting riffed due to M&A activity and frankly because we in Tech with the most experience are getting older and many on the early "wave" side of retirement are leaving simply means fewer of us are pulling the load and putting in longer hours and doing more work.
That and the fact it's very difficult to find people willing to work in this economy where people are paid not to and people with the right skills just make this problem worse.
I'm living it, I know. I have two years left to work. Every day I simply mark another day off on the calendar.
“Frostick said he and colleagues spend a disproportionate amount of time on Zoom calls, and work days can stretch to 12 hours. The isolation of remote work also takes a toll, he said.”
Little known facts: if you are are talking past the scheduled end of a Zoom meeting, you are keeping people from doing their jobs, and they would use The Force to choke you over the internet if they could. Isolation isn’t any better in many offices.
Working from home does require that some boundaries be maintained. A start time and end time are good ones. Like borders, they aren’t any good if they aren’t enforced. Understand that people on Pacific or Hawaii time will not understand that anyone else in the world is in a different time zone. Treat them like the special children they are. Take breaks. Leave home for lunch sometimes. Say “no” if their meeting time doesn’t work for you.
I’ve been working from home for years. I love it, except for all the people that kept being here during the lockdowns. That did get annoying.
I retired from it a little over a year ago, just before the wuflu.
And thats the problem for men with being married.
Good for you! Hope you have a long, happy and healthy retirement.
“he thought about funding for a project, his will, and finally, his wife
A man who has his priorities straight ;-)”
When I had my heart attack all I thought was, “I hope the ambulamps gets here pretty freakin quick”.
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