Tag: #work life balance #business # mental health # education

Lessons we learn from watching Squid Game

Image by <a href="Image by Chetraruc from Pixabay“>Pixabay

Around 400 people sign-up to participate in games that they might have played during their childhood. Winners are promised cash prizes worth billions! Sounds too good to be true right? However, here’s the catch. Failing to succeed in these games may cause you to lose not only the money, but also your life! If that wasn’t shocking enough, with each eliminated player, more money gets added on to the intended cash prize. The events that follow post this realization forms the rest of the story in this series. 

This Netflix series went on to earn critical acclaim upon its release. Millions of viewers across 94 countries tuned in to watch this thriller series. Its gripping plotline will surely keep you at the edge of your seats! But with the statistics and its popularity aside, let us look at some of the lessons this South Korean survival-drama taught us viewers. 

If you haven’t watched the series yet. Be warned, there are serious spoilers ahead!

  1. Kindness can come from the strangest of places.

Image by <a href="Image by 🌞 Myriam 🌞 Dreamer from Pixabay“>Pixabay

The very first game in the series stands as a witness to this claim. Amidst all the chaos and panic that erupted due to the massacre in the game ‘Red light, Green light’. A character named Ali had the heart to lend a helping hand to Gi-hun, one of the pivotal characters in the series. He risked his life to save a complete stranger during a life or death situation. 

This certainly gives the viewers a hope that help will surely come during the different walks of life. It also encourages us to lend a helping hand like Ali, irrespective of familiarity with the person or the kind of situation. 

  1. As you sow, so you reap.

 

In the Squid Game series, Gi-hun’s generosity towards Il-nam was truly heartwarming. When nobody expected Il-nam to stand a chance in the games. Gi-hun stood by his side, encouraged him and supported him when necessary. However, little did he know that the person he was helping was much more than a frail old man with brain tumor. His kindness earned him the favor of a multi-billionaire well wisher who turned his life around for the better. Well….financially at least. 

  1. Being strong is good, but thinking smart can take you a long way. 

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Take the game of ‘Tug of war’ from the Squid Game series for example. The opponent team appeared strong indeed. But we were rooting for the team that consisted of a relatively less muscular batch of players. With the addition of a frail old man in the team, their chances of winning were very less. But Il-nam the old man was full of surprises! 

The techniques of winning the game that he shared with the team gave them a temporary upper hand over their opponents.  When they seemed to be losing in front of their opponents’ sheer strength. Sang Woo’s idea of the element of surprise brought them a life-saving victory over their adversaries. Moral of the story: Be strong, think smart. 

  1. Money is important, try not to run out of it.

The billionaires who created the squid games, played with the desperation of almost 400 money deprived people. Many of the participants were in huge debts and needed the cash prize to survive in the real world. Although one can do more than just survive with the cash prize on the line, greed and need forced the common and subtle people to go up to extreme lengths. 

Hence, it is better to be educated, find a stable job, have insurance for your future, and make investments and expenditures wisely. Sang Woo from the Squid Game series is often criticised for the deceit he carried on against his friends and trustees. But it isn’t hard to understand why he did what he did. After drowning upto his neck with financial difficulties and his lonely mother waiting for him. Anyone would have done the same thing if they were in his shoes.

  1. Sure, Money is important. But money isn’t happiness

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 Winning the intended cash prize along with the 455 others’ share of money. Gi-hun indeed won big in life. But what was left of him by the end of the Squid Game was a traumatized soul after witnessing the death of his friends and the dead body of his mother. 

Il-nam, who is revealed to be the billionaire master-mind behind the squid game, couldn’t buy joy and happiness with all the money he had. As he participated in the games alongside the other participants, he experienced happiness as he re-lived his childhood memories and found a good friend in Gi-hun. But his idea of Squid Game was inhumane and barbaric. 

The series ends with Il-nam dying, having made a questionable decision about starting the Squid Game and being the reason for the deaths of almost 400 people. Gi-hun is shown moving to the US after a significant makeover with his appearance, only to discover the Squid Game’s establishers seeking the next batch of participants for their game. 

Review and Analysis of the video “Workplace Mental Health – all you need to know (for now)”

 The video “Workplace Mental Health – all you need to
know (for now)” by Tom Oxley, emphasized on the importance of
mental health at the workplace.
According to the speaker, many people working in the organizations are not able
to draw a line between their personal life and professional life.

                                                                              https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0XUimJbz44

 

 Many people look
at their phones before talking to their family in the morning or many people just
wake up suddenly at night where they still stress about work leading to
deprivation of sleep. Many people work every day, even on weekends. All these
things are early signs of stress which may have a harmful impact on the mental
health of the people working in the organization.

                                                                             

 Due to such hectic job routines, people working in organizations are so busy that
they are not able to draw a line between their personal and professional life and
maintain proper “Work life balance” where adequate working hours is followed
by adequate hours of rest and a reasonable time is given to focus both on
professional and personal life. 

                                                                                  

Absence of required “Work Life Balance” and unresolved mental health issues
creates anxiety, stress and depression in employees. It leads to increased
abseentism in the organization and such types of situations are responsible for
musculoskeletal and physical injuries of employees as well. 

                                           

                            

Unfortunately, in spite of such serious issues, people still work excessively and
not much importance is given to employees overall well being, especially mental
health.
People having poor mental health want to work the whole time and even while
doing work they tend to struggle a lot. They are not able to concentrate on the
work they are doing and have difficulty in communicating and juggling tasks.

                                                                                   

 Moreover, they face difficulty to approach their managers regarding the
problems. The people working in organizations are hesitant because they think
maybe their managers would also not understand them or they would generalize
their problem as “work stress” or they may even think that the managers could
ask them to leave the organization. Employees often feel such type of stigma by
either from their work environment or even themselves.
People working in organizations are so busy doing their work that they do not get
time off even to think about such problems and since these issues are not resolved,
the employees themselves could not explain the reason behind increased
abseentism. 

                                                                              

This is because organizations do not emphasize much on mental
health of employees as well as maintaining a “proper work life balance”.
The speaker also emphasized that they are many personal matters of employees
too which need to be taken care of but due to the “presentism” in organizations,
employees prioritize their work first making them neglect their own personal
matters and therefore work becomes a compulsion for employees. 

                                                                                         

This
“presentism” costs 1.8 times than that of abseentism.
In most cases, even the managers are not that well trained when it comes to taking
care of the mental health of employees. Since they don’t know how to converse
about it, they will tell their employees to see a doctor and be on medication, as
for the managers it’s just normal “stress”. 

                                                                                 

This method is actually quite
ineffective and the employees, who were performing well earlier, would also at
some point, not be able to manage working continuously and thus they would be
disengaged from their work. Since the issue is not resolved, they would be more
depressed and anxious. Therefore it would be recommended that before sending
employees to therapists, such problems of employees should first be resolved by
managers and for this to happen the managers need to trained, so that they can
wisely handle employee’s mental health. 

                                                                                   

For example : The speaker had interviewed two people : 

Nick who was a senior
manager at a global firm who performed very well in his work and constantly
exceeded expectations, as senior positions involve doing more work to earn more
money. When Nick’s family member died, he was only given two or three days
of compassionate leave. He wanted to have flexible time hours where he could
have holiday on Friday or weekends but his manager refused. Nick was hesitant
to speak to his manager and then went on medication. 

                                                                                      

Unfortunately, he didn’t
benefit anything and became disengaged from work and wasn’t able to come back
completely to the organization. 

On the other hand, there was another person named Sally, who was also a
successful manager worked at International Charity and same situation had
happened with her. Her family member died. But this time the situation was
different. The manager knew that it was an unfortunate incident and she knew it
would have affected Sally mentally. So, she granted Sally a reasonable leave
without forcing her to prioritize work. The manager even suggested that she can
comfortably work from home.

                                                                                  

 Many years passed and Sally still works
efficiently in the same organization and she is still a successful manager.
If we look at both the examples we can observe how it is important for the leaders,
managers and the organization as a whole to understand that “Work life balance”
is very important and the employee’s problems should be first resolved at
organizational level. 

The employees should be able to speak their grievances freely with their superiors
otherwise like Nick, an organization could lose its talented and hardworking
employees.
For this, there should be more emphasis on “mental health” of employees in the
organization. 

                                                                           

As leaders and managers, the most effective way to handle the
mental health of employees is to be a patient listener to the employee’s problems.
They should talk about mental health in a positive manner, giving employees an
opportunity to seek help as and when they need.
A leader should take initiative to train managers regarding mental health, to help
the managers identify the signs and symptoms whenever employees are facing
such kind if issues. They should be trained to be a patient listener. They should
be trained to understand the situation in depth and use the right words and advice
accordingly.

                                                                                    

 The organization should also focus on a reasonable “Work life
balance” to ensure employees physical and emotional well being.
The leaders as well as managers should be very supportive to their employees.
One more effective way to handle the mental health of employees is to see
problem and the stressed and anxious feelings from their perspective and then to
think what method could resolve the problem.

                                                                                     

 Reaching out as a helping hand to
employees is another great solution. The employees would then comfortably tell
what is bothering them and then the problems can be written down and reasonable
adjustments could also be made accordingly. Mindful meditation could also be
encouraged. 

                                                                                  

Conclusion

In conclusion, employees of any organization want the commitment of its
superiors that they can speak safely and comfortably about any mental issues or
grievances that they are facing. So, an employer and a leader need to make sure
that the employees can find a safe and comfortable place where they can talk
about their grievances freely without any hesitation.

                                                                                      

                                                                                   

 If the organization does not understand the importance of mental health now, all
the stress and anxiety would have a negative impact on employees just like Nick.
It would lead to increased abseentism of employees and the employees would
eventually be disengaged from work, exhibiting low productivity and then the
organizations would eventually have to lose its talented employees. So,
organizations should consider using its resources to focus more on the mental
employees as well. After all, the prosperity of organization depends on the
prosperity of employees.