Your sons, your daughters

Mental health in the age of overtime

Featured in

  • Published 20170428
  • ISBN: 9781925498356
  • Extent: 264pp
  • Paperback (234 x 153mm), eBook

WEARY WORKING WARRIORS of Australia, we need to talk about what your heroic long hours, your selfless overtime, and your lack of self-care is doing to our nation’s mental health. I’m looking at anyone who associates the word ‘millennial’ with young people who seem to feel entitled to the ‘good things’ in life but are unwilling to put in the hard work to earn them; anyone who thinks being overworked and underpaid is a normal way to start your career.

Without a doubt, you’re going to experience some deep-seated resistance to what I am about to say. It’s not your fault; your work ethic has been conditioned with each and every pay cheque, and I’m about to undermine it. But you need to hear this, for the good of us all. So for the love of god, will you do yourselves the favour of putting aside your well-meant anxieties and hard-earned wisdoms for a minute, and just listen?

Already a subscriber? Sign in here

Share article

About the author

Courtney Landers

Courtney Landers has a science degree from Australian National University, Canberra, and is currently writing her PhD thesis at Pembroke College at the University...

More from this edition

Peasant dreaming

MemoirWHEN WE WERE kids, my sisters and I weren’t allowed to watch TV during dinner. The risk of seeing John Howard was too much...

The spectator

MemoirI WENT TO a high school filled with smart kids. Kids who had been specially selected because their brains were somehow advanced. But they...

A consensus for care

EssayI USED PENCIL to write the due date for my baby in my diary. It was one of those pocket business diaries, with times...

Stay up to date with the latest, news, articles and special offers from Griffith Review.