Good read about how fatigue is hard to fight physically and socially. In speaking of people who are not done recovering from covid while others have moved on:
..Long-haulers must resist the enormous cultural pressure to prove their worth by pushing as hard as they can. They must tolerate being chastised for trying to avert a crash, and being disbelieved if they fail. “One of the most insulting things people can say is ‘Fight your illness,’” Misko said. That would be much easier for her. “It takes so much self-control and strength to do less, to be less, to shrink your life down to one or two small things from which you try to extract joy in order to survive.” For her and many others, rest has become both a medical necessity and a radical act of defiance—one that, in itself, is exhausting.
In the workplace if is quite common to hear people talk about "powering through" being unwell, wearing it is a badge of honor that they can do that. It is show of both physical and mental strength - a signal perhaps for demonstrating they are good employees, worth paying for more so than those who lack such strength. When the norm is to power through, those of us who can't or won't are naturally at disadvantage - we are viewed as a less able, irresolute and not having the fight. That translates into perception that goes beyond how we act when under the weather.
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