Due to extreme workload at work – (project manager with over 40+ projects) I called the Help Line to set up 'coaching' for stress. I completed the coaching and it was pretty much BS but the counselor was great and it did help me.
My wife and I are now signed up for couples coaching – kind of just for fun but also to work out some issues – nothing serious.
Doing the 'intake assessment' for couples coaching, the site asks a series of questions. I thought this sub would appreciate the absolute ass-backwards approach these corporate 'mental health' companies take.
The questions go like this:
“How much has your mental or physical health prevented you from performing your job?” answer choices are 'A Lot', 'Somewhat', 'Not At All' – along those lines – you get the idea.
I am just flabbergasted by this: Dude, it's my JOB that is fucking up my mental and physical health! If I didn't have a fucking job, I wouldn't need fucking counseling, drugs, or coaching for my fucking mental health! ARRRGGHH!!!!
And you just know these 'mental health' coaching/counseling companies are just logging all your answers and input and data and using that in sales pitches to win new business.
After each coaching session, I was required to fill out assessment forms. The results were presented back to me in simple line charts showing answers at the beginning as high stress and then progressing down to lower stress towards the end of the coaching sessions – as I mentioned earlier, I am less stressed about work after the coaching or learned some tools to help me stop having that impending-sense-of-doom feeling due to ridiculous work load. They take these simple line charts and present to the corporation that is paying them “Here, John Doe went from extremely stressed to not stressed at all over the course of six coaching sessions!” I'm sure they use the same data in their pitches to new potential customers. So essentially, once again, we – the working stiffs of the world – become the product.
This corporate-productivity-profits-at-any-cost bullshit just needs to stop. We just need to burn the whole fucking thing down and start over. It's just a mess.
Thanks for listening to my Ted-rant!