It's pretty important to add that there was a latent distress in this person all along, with a big dose of untreated mental health issues. The protagonist ment

It's pretty important to add that there was a latent distress in this person all along, with a big dose of untreated mental health issues. The protagonist mentions that their previous jobs gave the same anxiety and pointlessness. (The previous boss that was bombarding them with tickets, emails, etc. seems like a stand-in for typical micromanagers who don't respect boundaries. And the protagonist was obviously bad at saying no and standing up for themselves, etc.)