In 1964 Polish diplomat Manfred Lax advised colleagues: “Don’t get tired”. He himself, of course, did exactly the opposite, but that is probably why he gave this advice.

The Polish diplomat has been on a dual diplomatic mission in recent weeks as a member of a group dealing with the complex issues of creating a new United Nations trade mechanism, and as chair of the 28-country space legal subcommittee. Yorker was writing for the Times at the time.

“Do not get tired and try to take time for personal pleasure,” the members of the diplomatic corps were urged.

Death of Czech diplomats

The Czech Foreign Minister wrote the same a few days ago in a letter to members of his country’s diplomatic corps after three sudden deaths of diplomats in the last five months. “Remember that every job, including ours, has its own values ​​and aspirations, but also health has limits“, the letter says, among other things, as published by the Czech media last week, as well as by Politico on Easter Monday.

“The position of a diplomat involves working in extremely difficult conditions and often in isolation from the family,” said Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky. “Our colleagues perform this service even in war zones under strict security measures, with limited mobility in the country of deployment. Diplomats are subjected not only to great pressure in their professional and personal lives, but also to often difficult climatic conditions.”

The sudden death of diplomats, which the Czech minister spoke about, was the deputy ambassador to Israel Monica Studenawho died last month at the age of 50. In February Jacob Durr, the Czech ambassador to Poland and former permanent representative of the country to the EU, has died at the age of 46. And in November 2022, Ambassador to Switzerland and Liechtenstein, Katerina Fialkovadied suddenly at the age of 55.

So far, according to Czech publications, the cause of the death of three diplomats at the zenith of their careers is unknown. According to the Czech newspaper Seznam Zpráv, the country’s Foreign Ministry is considering the possibility of reviewing working conditionsat the same time, as they say, access to psychological assistance for diplomats and their families should be improved.

The same publication, however, says that Czech diplomacy has experienced perhaps the most difficult period in its thirty-year history. The Foreign Ministry is reportedly facing unprecedented pressure, especially from President Milos Zeman and his entourage, to change the focus of foreign policy from West to East and towards authoritarian regimes.

Diplomats with burnout

June 2022 French diplomatsreacting to the then promoted changes, the Foreign Ministry moved more decisively: they went on strike, saying, like the French ambassador to Azerbaijan, that “French diplomats are capable and devoted in body and soul, but they also understaffed, overburdened, underpaid”, which, as they themselves said, does not allow them to promote the interests of France in the envoy countries.

A month later, a Foreign Policy article spoke of the understaffing of American embassies in Africa. In addition to the question of the multi-layered and meaningful presence of diplomatic missions on the continent, the report spoke of overworked diplomats, who are even more tired of understaffing. “For the State Department, staffing shortages have worn down already overworked diplomats, reflecting a broader staffing challenge as the department struggles to overcome the effects of a Trump-era hiring freeze.”

October 2019 Israeli diplomats has begun strike indefinitely, closing more than 100 embassies and consulates around the world in protest against working conditions, according to Agence France-Presse. A longstanding dispute ensued between the diplomatic staff and the finance ministry, which, according to Israeli reports at the time, was in deep crisis after repeated cuts to its budget. In fact, the ministry’s accountant general ordered the envoys to stop all business travel and entertainment, as well as stop local staff from working overtime at every embassy and consulate.

Also in 2011, there were reports that European diplomats wanted to leave their posts due to working conditions. The EUobserver report notes: “Working for the new European External Action Service seemed to be one of the sexiest positions in Brussels. But over the past nine months, about 60 employees have quit due to reports of poor working conditions. According to its own data, 27 people passed to the EU Council. Another 16 went to the European Commission. Six remained in the European Parliament and seven in the private sector. Three more have stepped down from the board of their own head of the agency, Catherine Ashton.” Elsewhere in the report, EUobserver sources described the agency’s administration as “a complete mess… a nightmare”.

And Canadian diplomats went on strike in 2000 because the money they received didn’t match what they said was their job, and many members of the Canadian diplomatic corps went on a mass strike.

However, the coronavirus pandemic has highlighted additional challenges for diplomats. The ambassadors of the United States and Australia, according to international publications, appealed to the relevant ministries of foreign affairs, as diplomatic missions in the period 2020-2022 showed an increase in mental health problems.

It’s not just prestige

Diplomat, diplomatic corps, diplomatic mission. The meaning of these words – at least for us – has something of … myth and envy. Who wouldn’t want to travel, live and work around the world as a top notch employee?

And yet… Such a position gives more than just privileges and prestige. The world of diplomats is intertwined with secret services and at the same time he is under pressure from politicians – work in the diplomatic corps is shaped in accordance with the respective government and the foreign policy that it wants to follow.

When we put the question before diplomatic source who spoke to “K” on condition of anonymity, the visceral response before the question was completed was: “It’s all too banal, it’s hard work, it’s not all that rosy.”

“The daily life of a diplomat is difficult. That is, the point is not that he works according to his own schedule and leaves … for the sea. And I say this with the sea, because we are getting calls from future colleagues who are about to start working with the embassy and ask us first, let’s say how far the sea is, ”says the same diplomatic source.

Emergency situations are usually

On the question of complexity of the work of a diplomat, according to a diplomatic source, is intertwined with the nature of the duties. “It depends on different industries. Another thing in the embassy, ​​another in the consulate, where we think that the consul simply processes the requests of his compatriots in the country of departure. Consultations with the political authorities, with the special services, with the police are ongoing, the defenders have their own burden, economic cooperation is another branch. Everything goes through diplomats. The everyday life of a diplomat does not end easily. We have to take care of the necessity of the work itself. For example, the ministry of the sending country cannot request a report, and we just leave it for… tomorrow. We must immediately respond to the request, even if we are many hours from the homeland and its services.

“Diplomats usually live in emergency conditions,” K reports. “This goes beyond the logic of civil service, as it appears to most outsiders. However, exhaustion, that is, the limits of each, depend on his psyche. Other diplomats are more vulnerable, others think they can do anything by dragging their entourage into grueling working conditions. Of course, not everyone ends up with burnout or worse. But what I can say for sure is that everyone gets tired.”