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What's the application of all this? I'm definitely burned out, but my boss doesn't care, there's no way I can get a better job in this market (even if I had th

What's the application of all this? I'm definitely burned out, but my boss doesn't care, there's no way I can get a better job in this market (even if I had the energy to practice leetcode problems to prepare for interviews), and I'm not rich enough to just stop working. Therapy, exercise, and medication are only enough to allow me to keep going in this bad situation.

dotancohen 3y ago
I'd really like to talk to you in private if you don't mind - I've just become interested in mental health recently and I think that I need the advice of someone who is decidedly _not_ a professional. I'd love to hear from you if you don't mind. My Gmail username is the same as my HN username. Thanks!
kiliantics 3y ago
organise with others, form a union
- harimau777 3y ago
  That's not an option in my case. There's only a handful of us left who aren't offshore contractors and many of my co-workers would turn me in to management the moment they heard me talking about a union.
huytersd 3y ago
Yeah I like how society so “sincerely” talks about fixing problems with therapy and exercise when the main problem in most people’s lives is the requirement that they work hard day in and day out. As a society we have no solution to this problem so we invent various ways to “fix” the problem without talking about the source. I realize people have to work, I just wish society would actually talk about the elephant in the room.
- mccrory 3y ago
  It’s not society, it’s a capitalism problem. The harder you work, the richer and more powerful those above become, they will resist anything that goes against this cycle, such as you working less.
  - nicbou 3y ago
    Other financial systems had their other incentives to work yourself to death. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stakhanovite_movement https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stakhanovite_movement
- WorldMaker 3y ago
  > I realize people have to work Do they really, though? As a culture, we've invented so many BS jobs and so many silly corporate culture ways of filling at least 8 hours 5 days a week almost every week a year whether it is useful to us or not out of some puritan-based pseudo-religion that tells us that "work" is good for the "soul" and anyone who doesn't "work" is evil and undeserving of god's/society's love. The 40 hour work week was chosen because it is right near the cutoff of people's exhaustion level, not that it has anything real to do with productivity or usefulness to ourselves and our society. If we are going to talk about elephants in the room: why can't we find more time to open room for hobbies and personal/family time? Why do we have to work so much? Why are we focused so much on corporate profit and greed? What good are we really doing for ourselves and our society with our current forced work culture?
  - singleshot_ 3y ago
    Me personally? I am concerned about dying of a preventable disease in my middle to old age and without work, there is no insurance. With no insurance, presumably I would be left to die by a harsh, uncaring society. So I think your question might be reversed: what good is society doing for us, by forcing us to amass wealth because we are scared of being discarded to die early? The answer, of course, is that society accomplished by way of this blackmail the ability to deliver many plastic electronic consumer goods that would not otherwise be available.
    - WorldMaker 3y ago
      Among other things, there is that ugly presumption that health insurance has to be tied to your employer. This is an interesting and almost peculiarly American viewpoint, because that's the status quo we frogs were slowly boiled in across decades and generations until few remember there's an option to jump out, that it isn't a "day spa" and we're all likely to die of this problem. Why should this be a concern of our employer and how much they think our "work" is worth? Why have we allowed this "blackmail" to rot all around us and settle into feeling so normal? Why do people that don't "work" deserve to die of preventable diseases? What makes them so undeserving/undesirable of health? Why are health insurers for-profit companies seeking so much greed and wealth at the expense of actual public health? Is this the society we really want to live in where we are all (yes, even Billionaires) three bad months away from homelessness and six bad months away from dying of something preventable? I assume that "the ability to deliver many plastic electronic consumer goods that would not otherwise be available" is a joke in the face of that existential terror, but I cannot tell any more on sites like HN.
bonton89 3y ago
Your work make you take the test and then when it is determined you're burned out you'll be randomly selected for a layoff.
troyvit 3y ago
> there's no way I can get a better job in this market (even if I had the energy to practice leetcode problems to prepare for interviews), and I'm not rich enough to just stop working. I had almost this same problem. I just got a "worse" job but for a cause I believe in. I took a big pay cut but I'm a happier person.

dotancohen 3y ago

I'd really like to talk to you in private if you don't mind - I've just become interested in mental health recently and I think that I need the advice of someone who is decidedly _not_ a professional. I'd love to hear from you if you don't mind. My Gmail username is the same as my HN username. Thanks!

kiliantics 3y ago

organise with others, form a union

harimau777 3y ago
That's not an option in my case. There's only a handful of us left who aren't offshore contractors and many of my co-workers would turn me in to management the moment they heard me talking about a union.

huytersd 3y ago

Yeah I like how society so “sincerely” talks about fixing problems with therapy and exercise when the main problem in most people’s lives is the requirement that they work hard day in and day out. As a society we have no solution to this problem so we invent various ways to “fix” the problem without talking about the source. I realize people have to work, I just wish society would actually talk about the elephant in the room.

mccrory 3y ago
It’s not society, it’s a capitalism problem. The harder you work, the richer and more powerful those above become, they will resist anything that goes against this cycle, such as you working less.
- nicbou 3y ago
  Other financial systems had their other incentives to work yourself to death. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stakhanovite_movement https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stakhanovite_movement
WorldMaker 3y ago
> I realize people have to work Do they really, though? As a culture, we've invented so many BS jobs and so many silly corporate culture ways of filling at least 8 hours 5 days a week almost every week a year whether it is useful to us or not out of some puritan-based pseudo-religion that tells us that "work" is good for the "soul" and anyone who doesn't "work" is evil and undeserving of god's/society's love. The 40 hour work week was chosen because it is right near the cutoff of people's exhaustion level, not that it has anything real to do with productivity or usefulness to ourselves and our society. If we are going to talk about elephants in the room: why can't we find more time to open room for hobbies and personal/family time? Why do we have to work so much? Why are we focused so much on corporate profit and greed? What good are we really doing for ourselves and our society with our current forced work culture?
- singleshot_ 3y ago
  Me personally? I am concerned about dying of a preventable disease in my middle to old age and without work, there is no insurance. With no insurance, presumably I would be left to die by a harsh, uncaring society. So I think your question might be reversed: what good is society doing for us, by forcing us to amass wealth because we are scared of being discarded to die early? The answer, of course, is that society accomplished by way of this blackmail the ability to deliver many plastic electronic consumer goods that would not otherwise be available.
  - WorldMaker 3y ago
    Among other things, there is that ugly presumption that health insurance has to be tied to your employer. This is an interesting and almost peculiarly American viewpoint, because that's the status quo we frogs were slowly boiled in across decades and generations until few remember there's an option to jump out, that it isn't a "day spa" and we're all likely to die of this problem. Why should this be a concern of our employer and how much they think our "work" is worth? Why have we allowed this "blackmail" to rot all around us and settle into feeling so normal? Why do people that don't "work" deserve to die of preventable diseases? What makes them so undeserving/undesirable of health? Why are health insurers for-profit companies seeking so much greed and wealth at the expense of actual public health? Is this the society we really want to live in where we are all (yes, even Billionaires) three bad months away from homelessness and six bad months away from dying of something preventable? I assume that "the ability to deliver many plastic electronic consumer goods that would not otherwise be available" is a joke in the face of that existential terror, but I cannot tell any more on sites like HN.

bonton89 3y ago

Your work make you take the test and then when it is determined you're burned out you'll be randomly selected for a layoff.

troyvit 3y ago

> there's no way I can get a better job in this market (even if I had the energy to practice leetcode problems to prepare for interviews), and I'm not rich enough to just stop working. I had almost this same problem. I just got a "worse" job but for a cause I believe in. I took a big pay cut but I'm a happier person.