getablog

[getablog]

Still one of my favourite photos taken with the drone. Which I, at least, am impressed by because I think I had owned it only a handful of weeks at this point and were still learning my way around flying it.

[getablog]

Today is a planning day for the next month of work at the day job.

[getablog]

Today is R U OK Day. And, to be honest, I am not OK with this

R U OK Day, to me, embodies the absolute worst of corporate "look at me, I care" posturing about something that is incredibly fucking serious.

I absolutely fucking hate R U OK Day. It is, without a doubt, the worst day of the year. Perhaps April Fools’ Day would compete for top step on the podium. But it is those two, and then daylight and a handful of geological ages before you get to third place.

R U OK Day embodies the absolute worst of corporatised, tokenistic bullshit that puts a thin veneer of engagement above and well and truly beyond giving the underlying issues the briefest of consideration.

A couple of unorganised points in particular:

1. Demanding vulnerability at work

I like my job. I enjoy where I work. I would consider a number of the people I work with friends. But the idea that I am going to randomly, on one particular day in September, start openly discussing my mental health with them is absurd.

No one should be made to feel like they are being forced to disclose something about themselves they are unwilling, and not at all needing, to share.

I do not attend work to be bullied into discussing my health - mental or otherwise - because someone somewhere needs to be seen to care about it.

2. No, I am not OK. Now what?

From the R U OK website:

inspire and encourage everyone to meaningfully connect with the people around them and start a conversation about those in their world who may be struggling with life.

But what you going to actually do to help them? Do you even have the skills to help? To make their situation better?

Or is the important thing that you’re gossiping about Derek’s struggles with his divorce over lunch and going "oh it’s just so sad"?

Even if your participation isn’t that cynical, there is a real chance that you could make someone’s situation even worse than it already is.

3. Mental heath services

It can be incredibly difficult to access adequate mental health services.

Even once you do get your foot in the door, it can then be incredibly expensive. Or require you to wait a substantially long time.

For myriad reasons (mostly the same neoliberal culture war bullshit that has destroyed so much over the course of my nearly 40 years on this planet) the ability of people to access the care and support they need from actual professional health practitioners has been made more and more difficult.

Maybe, just maybe, spend 10 or 15 seconds thinking about that while you’re chowing down on your stale cupcake and bland over-milked coffee in the featureless pod that is your staff meal room.

4. Where’s your money going?

So you’re doing a fundraiser. Do you know where that money is going? What it gets put towards?

Once a charity reaches a certain size, and gains a certain reputation, more and more of the money it raises goes to keeping the enterprise running, rather than doing things that matter.

This may not be the case with R U OK, I am not going to check, I don’t care.

But if you want to make a tangible difference to how mental health is identified, supported and treated, I can guarantee you there are better things to do then throw a few bucks into a tin that is already pretty full.

I mean, when the website lists nearly a dozen household brand names as corporate partners, you know they are not short of a quid.