The Productive Pessimist

  "Mental health at work" has become something of a buzz phrase in recent years, particularly in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. "Mental health" is the reason people "need to get back to the office" - because the extroverts are suffering, since they're no longer able to dominate meetings, talk people into agreeing to take on more work than they're actually comfortable with, or enthusiastically create a situation where, if getting drunk with people you already spend too much time with, or leaping on a zip wire, aren't really your thing, you're "unadventurous", "anti-social", and "not really a team player." The UK government insist work is good  for our "mental health", even as successful GPs decide they literally can't carry on anymore, and choose a permanent solution to the problem of burnout.  While the low wages, in comparison to the cost of living, and long hours of many jobs are actually c

  Resolve: "solve again." What's the point of that? Why 'solve something again' - resolve - when you can put Productive Pessimism to work to ensure it doesn't become a problem in the first place, and therefore doesn't need a solution. Many of us find we need some kind of 'psychological jump-off point' - how often do you find yourself saying "I'll start X project at 10.30am", only to feel, if you turn to it at 10.31am, that something is 'wrong', and you tell yourself that you can't possibly start until 11am now? The start of a new year is a huge psychological jump point. Not only do we feel a sense that we 'should' be doing something different, as a way to mark what we want to believe is a significant turning point, we're often more than ready for the invigoration of something new after what can sometimes feel like a frustrating fallow period for many people. At the end of the day, there is nothing magical or my