As he sat at his computer on a recent Sunday afternoon, preparing for work week, Jonathan Frostick, a program manager at an investment bank in London, said he could not breathe. His chest tightened and his ears began to protrude. He had a heart attack.
His first thoughts were about how this would disrupt his professional life.
“I had to meet with my manager tomorrow,” Frostick, who works for HSBC, wrote in a LinkedIn post. “It’s not convenient.”
Later, while recovering in a hospital bed, Mr. Frostick began to examine his life, he wrote. Under a photo with him in the hospital bed, he posted new promises for his future life:
“I don’t spend all day on Zoom.”
“I’m restructuring my approach to work.”
He would no longer tolerate drama at work. “Life is too short,” he wrote.
Finally: “I want to spend more time with my family.”
Since describing his epiphany a week ago, his post has been enjoyable more than 200,000 times. He received more than 10,000 comments from readers describing how his own death brushes led them to retire from work and take stock of how they had lived their lives.
The post resonated at a time when tired people around the world are facing frightening, frightening stresses and more during the coronavirus pandemic.
Even those who have been fortunate enough to keep their jobs have questioned their purpose in life, while spending long hours on Zoom calls and answering emails during the night.
At the same time, employees who have managed to achieve a better work-life balance during the pandemic are now relying on returning to work, leading them to reevaluate how much time they want to spend working.
“I know countless people in recent years who have suffered life-threatening illnesses just because there are no downtime – always on duty,” wrote a management consultant in Alberta, Canada, in response to Mr. Frostick’s post. “It is absolutely harmful to our health, but we are built on the existence that we must always push.”
Another person described how she had become so burned at work that she was admitted to a psychiatric hospital.
“I mean, brother,” wrote a self-described Nigerian entrepreneur who said he sold several cars and houses to live a happier and more “spartan” life. “Brother, welcome to real life. Now you will really, really live. ”
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Others gave him tips on how to lose weight – Mr. Frostick also promised to lose 15 pounds – or asked him to appear on their podcasts so he could share his story with their listeners.
Beyond compensation and professional status, a job offers social rewards such as praise from colleagues and supervisors, which can become addictive, said Glen Kreiner, a professor of management at the University of Utah.
People become so protective of the identity they create in a job that they will work long and difficult hours without taking a break to consider whether they are happy or fulfilled to protect it, said Professor Kreiner.
“We as humans tend to be mindless instead of mindful,” he said. “When we are in a state of mind, we are on autopilot.”
Professor Kreiner added: “Sometimes that’s why it takes a catastrophe like this to get us off autopilot.”
Mr Frostick did not immediately respond to a message for comment.
In an interview with Bloomberg News, Mr. Frostick, the father of three young children, said that during the pandemic, he and his colleagues spent a “disproportionate amount of time on Zoom calls.”
Before the heart attack, Mr Frostick worked for 12 days, he said, missing his colleagues and suffering from isolation from work at home.
“We’re not able to have those other conversations near the desk or the coffee machine, or take a walk and talk,” Mr. Frostick told Bloomberg. “This has been quite profound, not just in my work, but in the entire professional services industry.”
Robert A. Sherman, a spokesman for HSBC, said the company told employees the importance of balancing work with healthy lifestyles.
“We all wish Jonathan a full and speedy recovery,” he said in an email. “We also recognize the importance of personal health and well-being and a good work-life balance. The answer to this topic shows how much this is in people’s minds and we encourage everyone to make their health and well-being an absolute priority. ”
On Wednesday, Mr Frostick thanked the thousands of people who wrote to him and wrote that he could now move around the house for two to three hours in a row.
Later, he wrote another post indicating that he had gone from searching for the soul to trying to answer deep philosophical questions.
“Who am I? It’s like a riddle that my mind can’t solve,” he wrote. “I have no idea who I am. It will take some time … Can you answer who you are?”