We have constant school shootings, 1 million dead from covid, personal trauma, and other constant shit all the time that breaks you down and tears at you and we all have to pretend like it doesn’t exist and just keep going to work. We have to keep sending emails to customers about asinine crap while basic rights are being stripped away. We have to meet our performance markers while recovering from Covid because quarantine still means you can do work remotely (but you need to be back in person as soon as the guidelines allow).
I helped a woman having a medical emergency in a restaurant the other night. She fell out of her chair, gashed her head, and had to be taken off in an ambulance. Once the blood was cleaned up, you would have had no idea. The floor manager and staff were still processing things and the customers were the ones who acted like nothing had happened and the offsite GM made them stay open (I overheard enough of the floor manager’s phone call to tell what was going on) The staff was still shaken up and all people cared about were their drinks and appetizers.
We have to disconnect from humanity in order to keep working, otherwise we risk loosing our means of survival. No wonder everyone is numb and lacks compassion. It also doesn’t help that one of the first signs of burnout is a lack of empathy. We can’t break the damned cycle.