DISCLAIMER: the purpose of this post is NOT to say “just suck it up and deal with your shit work environment”. I just wanted to come here and share some of my own personal experiences with work.
For context, my situation: I work in a (non-medical) scientific lab. I went to university for 7 years to work in this field, and I'm on a permanent 2pm-10pm shift, working for an enormous corporation that gives zero shits about their employees and as such would rather require daily overtime from all of their existing staff instead of hiring more staff (because hiring more people means more PTO, more benefits packages, more RRSP matching, what have you and corporations are greedy). I've been dealing with burnout since my first year here, and honestly I'd say my biggest regret is encouraging myself to move up the ladder because now I'm in a pseudo-management position managing a team with extremely high turnover and substandard pay, and while I could take a significant pay cut and easily get a job somewhere else, I have reasons to be picky in my job search and move parallel to where I am now instead of making those sacrifices, considering at the end of the day I do have a ridiculous amount of job security where I am, and working through covid really showed that.
However, I just returned from a month-long stress leave, and the leave really opened my mind to some things, such as setting boundaries and self-advocating more. I definitely know I won't be here long-term, considering I feel like I can't make plans to start a family working 2-10, and that schedule has forced me to neglect habits and activities that I did regularly before working here, because many businesses aren't open past midnight when I typically get home (yoga, gym, or even just meeting friends for dinner or coffee). I found I was ALWAYS tired, and the reason I finally buckled down and took a stress leave was because I was getting chronic physical issues that were almost 100% attributable to my burnout/mental issues.
My particular lab is smack-dab in the middle of a large building as well, so literally the only sunlight I usually see is on the drive to work. I deal with florescent lights all day and it's dark when my shift is over.
So coming back from stress leave had me thinking about trying to be proactive to find coping mechanisms for the things that just really suck about my job, and one way I've managed so far is by alotting 15-20 minutes of break time for a walk around the block when it's sunny. I have to say, this one thing has really helped my state of mind. I'm obviously still looking for other work, but getting that 20 minutes of sunshine instead of spending my whole lunch in the same building that stresses me out all the time is a true break and genuinely feels like I can disconnect from work entirely for that time. Today, the air was fresh, the birds were chirping, the flowers were blooming, and it just felt so refreshing and relieving and makes me feel like I can go back into the building with some peace of mind.
I was damn near suicidal over a month ago before my leave and little things like this I'm hoping are things that can stick and help me feel like a better version of myself.
If anyone can relate, or feels like they're in a rut due to a toxic work environment, I truly hope you can find these little things in your routine that don't feel like chores to accomplish but help you feel like you.