I just took three weeks off and sat in my apartment. I was borderline close to quitting my job due to some sort of burn out. Prior to my vacation I had a discussion with my manager about what was causing me frustration. She took steps to fix and restructure my work to relieve stress. For instance, a more senior engineer was micromanaging me and it wasnt adding any value at all. She stopped him from doing that.
I came back from work and now I actually feel great.
But I literally did nothing on that time off. I just watched TV, hit the gym, slept.
You can recover/avoid from burnout if people at your job are willing to work with you to change the situation. The big issue is most people in a work relationship are not even capable of changing work patterns. They dont have the management skill to do it, and will have the conversation, but continue down the same path. Thats when you leave.
> The big issue is most people in a work relationship are not even capable of changing work patterns
If only watching the entire Star Trek: The Next Generation series was part of the onboarding process. If you watch this show through a lens of how it applies back to real life and team dynamics it's as close as you can get to guaranteeing success.
And it's important to do what you did: talk to someone about it that can do something about it. I have a friend who'll complain to me, not to the people he works with & for. He's too shy for that and rationalizes it as "they wouldn't understand/wouldn't want to change anything/couldn't even change" and suffers while the people who define the processes he suffers from don't know.
I think all too often you get so burned out that it doesn't really matter what changes it won't be enough. It's like when they offer you a 3% pay increase to stay when you give your two weeks, it's too little too late. I think it's the responsibility of a manager to keep their people from over working, they certainly have no problem saying something if you are under performing. If people are burning out it's the managers fault, it does the company no good to have a top resource out for several weeks because they had a nervous break down from over work.
I was "laid off" from a job a few months ago. I put "laid off" in quotes because I'm reasonably certain that they were just being nice and didn't want to tarnish my resume more than they had to. By all accounts I was most certainly fired. [1]
I had a pretty bad attitude and had trouble focusing on work. I thought it was depression, and that's probably a factor of it, but having been unemployed for the last three months now, I think I was just going through a really bad case of burnout. I didn't really want to do anything productive, I just felt bad, and as a result I was missing deadlines and not doing terribly well, and eventually they decided to let me go. They told me it was budget cuts, but I think that might have been more of a catalyst than a cause, and this was depressing because by all accounts this was the best job I'd ever had.
If anyone's reading this, take burnout (and depression) seriously. I lost a great job because I didn't.
[1] I'm reasonably confident you could figure out which company I'm talking about with some searching, but I politely ask that you don't post it here if you do.
I experienced something similar recently. In my case, I quit after some unpleasant exchanges with management that were an indirect result of burnout and a difficult work environment.
I would absolutely agree that folks should take burnout (and depression) seriously.
However, please stop blaming yourself entirely for the burnout. It's OK to take some responsibility for not being productive, of course -- any good person would do that in your shoes! But it's your manager's responsibility to give you a productive work environment. If they don't directly contribute output, that's effectively their only responsibility.
So keep in mind that you don't exist in a vacuum, and your boss could almost certainly tell that something was wrong... so unless you are very, very, very good at hiding burnout and depression symptoms, they knew what was going on and didn't fix it. Maybe your problems were too significant for a manager to meaningfully deal with (they're not a psychologist, after all), but if they didn't try to help, that's on them. Not you.
i think you should question the validity of your statement, “I lost a great job..”
what was so great about this job? since you likely departed from a big tech company I assume the compensation was most or all of the reasons you thought it was great. you probably wouldn’t get burnt out doing something at a great job imo.
> I had a pretty bad attitude and had trouble focusing on work. I thought it was depression, and that's probably a factor of it, but having been unemployed for the last three months now, I think I was just going through a really bad case of burnout.
This relates to what happened where I was working, and cynicism crept in.
Did you get better? I had a big quit burnout a few years ago. Or so I thought. If it doesn't get better after you quit, it's not burnout. Mine was a health issue.
I'm starting to think that we, as humans, are collectively brute forcing the world around us. Each of us has the things we see in front of us, the things we think are important, and if they turn out to really be important the solutions we come up with spread.
Because each of us has different experiences and perspective, we all explore a different part of the solution space. Of course we think what we're doing is important, that's why we do it.
The big problem is that we all deserve to live a good life, even if only some of us are lucky enough to find these difficult to find solutions.
100%, your comment puts it in really nice words. Plus, the requirements for a good life are so low compared to the lifestyles which the rich lead. It is frustrating that we haven’t got there as a society yet.
Imagine a world where you could YOLO into a Ph. D research position, and if you burnt out be able to have a bed, food, clean water and access to medical care. It’s not much but seems utopian compared to the world today.
> Of course we think what we're doing is important, that's why we do it.
We think it is important... or we think it is fun? I expect a lot of us are, for example, guilty for diving in and creating software (or whatever your craft is) that we think others will like/pay for, but don't actually ever stop to talk to people to see if that's the case because collecting data isn't nearly as enjoyable. Maybe you will get lucky and there will be interested parties aligning around your random guess. But more likely nobody will care and you'll go back to the drawing board to commit the same mistake again and again.
I disagree. A small subset of us sees things around them and says "I'll come up with a solution for that". Some of them work on problems that aren't really problems for most of us. Others work on problems everybody would love a solution for and fail. Neither of them are likely to not have a good life, because we extremely reward the successful search, but we also reward the search if it wasn't successful. Founders who ran companies don't transition to the gutter when they fail, they transition to a senior project management role where their skills are useful.
We don't reward hedonism, not even trying to solve any problem and avoiding the search for solutions. I haven't heard an argument why we should, why individuals not trying to contribute at all is desirable to a society.
The author lists an incredible 17 different projects they're trying to build or maintain at the same time. This ranges from a new cloud platform company to a game runtime to a custom IDE and more.
This isn't just about burnout, it's about spreading yourself too thin.
This reminds me of a lot of the enthusiastic juniors I interview who want to tell me about their 10 different side projects, none of which got further than a quick proof of concept before they moved on to the next thing. If you hire them, guess what you're going to get? Someone who wants to build proof of concept work and then move on to the next thing as soon as it gets boring. The rest of the team doesn't want to spend their careers picking up the pieces after someone did the fun part and got bored.
Personally, if I'm reading an official company blog where the author is bragging about working on over a dozen different large projects simultaneously, I have zero interest in adopting the platform. It's almost guaranteed to be abandoned for the next fun idea, with features left unfinished. When I click on the "Pricing" page I'm given a placeholder that says it's free until the author gets around to building to billing part of the company.
I know the author wants to position themself as a "monastic code machine", but I think the biggest thing missing from this person's life is some diversity of activities. My recommendation: Put all but one of the projects on a clear, definitive pause. Focus on the business first. Then use your free time to get out, try new activities, and meet new people.
So many of the burnout stories I read online start with people who code all day at work and then come home and try to code all evening on side projects. That can be fun for a while, but if that's the entirety of your life you're going to burn out eventually. Get outside and do something else. You'll be more refreshed when you come back to these projects.
Howdy, I'm the author and thank you for commenting.
The core problem that I have is that I've realized that life has this rule: play stupid games, win stupid prizes. In my career, I've already demonstrated the capability to achieve. I'm a good cog, but for some stupid reason, I want some kind of something else. The best way to put it is legendary status.
I've realized many things as of late, and I'm focusing hard on the core project which is the new cloud because there I can have impact and I have the credibility to do it. The new runtime is neat in a myopic way, but it's not the way. The same is true for the web IDE and more. Many of the projects are done (like the network protocol) because I just have enough experience to focus on the right things (and the more depressing aspect there is the things I have to avoid doing because I created a patent for another company)
> My recommendation: Put all but one of the projects on a clear, definitive pause. Focus on the business first
This is what I'm doing except I'm focus on the core infrastructure such that I can invite people to use it. I intend to work with high school kids to build games and work on the rough edges. This focus on helping kids has been very focusing as I need a body of literature to throw at them to consume (in this case, Phaser.js tutorials) while I support them on the network end and gather feedback.
I disagree with your point about juniors with unfinished side projects. There are fun parts of coding and tedious parts. Greenfielding, using a new language/framework/library, coming up with high-level architecture is fun. Tracking down bugs, forcing a new feature into a legacy system and writing test is not fun. I'll do it if I'm compensated, and it can be rewarding in it's own way, but if I'm coding for leisure (and avoiding burnout), then yeah, I'll drop a side project as soon as it stops being fun.
> This reminds me of a lot of the enthusiastic juniors I interview who want to tell me about their 10 different side projects, none of which got further than a quick proof of concept before they moved on to the next thing. If you hire them, guess what you're going to get?
I think it's an unfair assessment. You can't compare what people do during their free time and what they do at work.
That being said, one of my brightest colleague is exactly like that. He seems to have a hard time finishing projects. It's always 90% done, poorly documented. Some other engineers are slower and less creative, but they deliver. In the end, everybody brings something to the table.
Did you read the post? He obviously said that he was working on too much at once and then goes on to cut back and say he is happy and focused moving forward...
That is perfectly logical and doesn't invite judgment about his daily activities or "going outside" or whatever you are talking about
I am consistently frustrated that I don't have enough energy after work to spend time on my personal projects, so I wait for the weekend, at which point I just want to rest. Two-day weekends are not enough to balance life and work!
I've eased this multi-project burn out in those steps:
- move all projects to a monorepo. This is great because all projects are in one place, they become interconnected as some code will end up being a library for multiple ones. This ensures that even when I'm doing side-project "foo" some of the code or stuff will also end up improving "foo" or "bar".
- move the monorepo to github codespaces. The very last thing I want to do when I want to work on my side projects after some time is to remember how I had to setup everything, from ide, to the os, etc.
- keep todos, documentation, notes, all in the monorepo. What did I have to do? `apps/foo/todo.md` or search in the project for "TODO:". No point into having docs on different services, they stay close to the project.
- write E2E and integration tests first, never unit test anything that doesn't really need to, implement in the end.
And that's it. Lowering a lot the entry barrier to contributing and getting back on projects was a huge step (I literally need codespaces to load). Then came creating an ecosystem around my projects thanks to the monorepo. I can now forget a project for months and come back to it with a small effort or checking back where I was.
I admit I will never write git in two days like Linus, I won't be releasing a hit game on Steam at any time, but I have fun with my projects, I learn a lot, and even though they move slowly they do move consistently in time.
Not saying you will release a banger OSS project this way or some killer application that will make you rich, that requires discipline and focus more than organizing a git repo and few tools, but you will build yourself a nice playground which at every iteration will make further experimentation or production have lower friction.
I wonder if it's a good idea. Some projects have nothing to do with each other. The toy compiler in Haskell isn't going to benefit from the experimental OS in C. On the other hand, the git history and branches will be harder to manage.
Author here, the one project that has been causing me stress are the ones outside my current mono repo. The core project is giant, but the other two repos (the IDE and runtime) are separate...
The tool chain I'm using is easy to install fortunately, and I can bootstrap it quickly. I've automated most of it to a single command line, and I can deploy in two commands (for sanity sake).
This is the typical coming of age of the “new/inexperienced” engineer who wants to build everything from the ground up since he thinks he can do it all better, with new languages, fresh ideas and it will be finished “next week” anyway.
Ultimately he will learn a lot about himself and the problems he wants to solve, but can never finish them, since he will realize that he cannot do it all at once - the solutions that are available have already had thousands of man hours poured into them.
He will learn to prioritize and think more about conceptualization and pre planning, and how to leverage existing solutions more.
Author here, you're right except I'm on the far end of inexperienced. I'm basically retired, and the core isn't isn't that I can't execute. It's that it will take too long until I can invite people in to play with me.
What I forgot was how hard it is to teach just one thing at a time, so I'm focusing on that one thing. I still believe in my end vision, but I need to bring others along for the ride.
Burn out not usually presents with the full "i cant work anymore" symptoms from the onset. It usually starts with a "i cant take this main projects stress" anymore.
Better switch to a side-project that is not so stressful.
Something small.
A website.
A framework.
A library.
Something to feel the magic again, of creating, without getting crushed alive.
I completely agree. Problem is, I get so tired after work that my "intelectual energy" goes below zero.
I think it's urgent to change the working hours model. I want to engage with my kids while they care, I want to enjoy my mom's health while she is alive, and I don't want to wait for my vacations to only then do that.
"An ambient angst pervades our society-there's a sense that somehow there's probably something we should be doing that we're not, which creates a tension for which there is no resolution and from which there is no rest."
It's super hard to cut scope. Knowing that the software you write has imperfections but needing to move on to building the next feature creates angst. Knowing there's a better solution but not having the time to implement it can drive you crazy. You need to learn how to let things go and make peace with it.
Howdy, author here, and yes, I'm yak shaving. My vision wasn't to just build a single game, but to build a "Roblox for online board games".
I've been in the beginning phases of building the runtime and getting the editor to work when I realized that it is going to take much longer to do at the quality that I want. Worse yet, my own credibility of building beyond the infrastructure is shaky, and I could already see the mistakes pile up which means that fight is going to take much longer.
My company just announced they were hacked a third time in about a year and each time they get more and more…. Draconian, about security measures. Each time my job gets more and more difficult. I have to approve MFA requests on my phone around 6 times a day because the login timeouts are so low.
Now they’re saying we aren’t going to be able to use our own devices, and must use the company-issued computers that are running Windows. That makes no sense. Force me to use the least secure OS because “we need to beef up security”. I do mostly data science work that lends itself to not only a *nix OS but Linux specifically. There are things I use to complete my work that are Linux-only, so I wouldn’t even want a Mac.
I started job searching when this news dropped. Life is too short fellas. Life is too short. Make it harder to do my job, for no real reason beyond bureaucracy and politics, and I am out.
Using your own devices is called “BYOD”. There’s a joke in IT operations/security that the “D” stands for “Disaster”. It’s completely impossible to run a secure operation if people are allowed to use their own devices. If you cannot enforce standard builds, security policies, and updates, then you simply cannot be secure.
Windows has come a long way in the past 20 years, and it is definitely on par with regards to security (in general) as other operating systems. However, it also has the advantage of being able to be joined to a domain where Group Policies can be pushed. No other OS has a meaningful equivalent of Group Policy (no, Ansible, etc don’t do the same thing, and would require an enormous amount of effort to replicate what Group Policy does).
This post is talking about burn-out, and that definitely can cause negative emotions. But in your case, it sounds like you’re expecting to be treated as a special snowflake and they’re not having it. That would understandably cause negative emotions for you, but the underlying reason in your case is caused by a (probably) incorrect perception of yourself that you should get special treatment for some reason, and you’re having a tantrum because you’re not getting it.
I don't know if this is the case for anyone else, but for me when I would come home and sit at the computer working on personal projects, then go to work and work on work, I was burnt to a crisp.
Finally I started hobbies at home totally removed from what I did at work, knowing I would be bad at them. Knowing I could give up on them. Knowing there was no pressure to finish or be good at a thing helped me alleviate the pressure of work where I had to perform.
[+] [-] fdgsdfogijq|3 years ago|reply
I came back from work and now I actually feel great.
But I literally did nothing on that time off. I just watched TV, hit the gym, slept.
You can recover/avoid from burnout if people at your job are willing to work with you to change the situation. The big issue is most people in a work relationship are not even capable of changing work patterns. They dont have the management skill to do it, and will have the conversation, but continue down the same path. Thats when you leave.
[+] [-] nickjj|3 years ago|reply
If only watching the entire Star Trek: The Next Generation series was part of the onboarding process. If you watch this show through a lens of how it applies back to real life and team dynamics it's as close as you can get to guaranteeing success.
[+] [-] mansoon|3 years ago|reply
And I guess he was right? I did have the power to change in that situation.
But it made asking for help kind of pointless.
I was already blaming myself.
This is turning into a pity party.
Eh.
[+] [-] luckylion|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] screwturner68|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tombert|3 years ago|reply
I had a pretty bad attitude and had trouble focusing on work. I thought it was depression, and that's probably a factor of it, but having been unemployed for the last three months now, I think I was just going through a really bad case of burnout. I didn't really want to do anything productive, I just felt bad, and as a result I was missing deadlines and not doing terribly well, and eventually they decided to let me go. They told me it was budget cuts, but I think that might have been more of a catalyst than a cause, and this was depressing because by all accounts this was the best job I'd ever had.
If anyone's reading this, take burnout (and depression) seriously. I lost a great job because I didn't.
[1] I'm reasonably confident you could figure out which company I'm talking about with some searching, but I politely ask that you don't post it here if you do.
[+] [-] vanilla_nut|3 years ago|reply
I would absolutely agree that folks should take burnout (and depression) seriously.
However, please stop blaming yourself entirely for the burnout. It's OK to take some responsibility for not being productive, of course -- any good person would do that in your shoes! But it's your manager's responsibility to give you a productive work environment. If they don't directly contribute output, that's effectively their only responsibility.
So keep in mind that you don't exist in a vacuum, and your boss could almost certainly tell that something was wrong... so unless you are very, very, very good at hiding burnout and depression symptoms, they knew what was going on and didn't fix it. Maybe your problems were too significant for a manager to meaningfully deal with (they're not a psychologist, after all), but if they didn't try to help, that's on them. Not you.
[+] [-] mylons|3 years ago|reply
what was so great about this job? since you likely departed from a big tech company I assume the compensation was most or all of the reasons you thought it was great. you probably wouldn’t get burnt out doing something at a great job imo.
[+] [-] mathgladiator|3 years ago|reply
This relates to what happened where I was working, and cynicism crept in.
[+] [-] kyleyeats|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kerpotgh|3 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] pontifier|3 years ago|reply
Because each of us has different experiences and perspective, we all explore a different part of the solution space. Of course we think what we're doing is important, that's why we do it.
The big problem is that we all deserve to live a good life, even if only some of us are lucky enough to find these difficult to find solutions.
[+] [-] fsociety|3 years ago|reply
Imagine a world where you could YOLO into a Ph. D research position, and if you burnt out be able to have a bed, food, clean water and access to medical care. It’s not much but seems utopian compared to the world today.
[+] [-] randomdata|3 years ago|reply
We think it is important... or we think it is fun? I expect a lot of us are, for example, guilty for diving in and creating software (or whatever your craft is) that we think others will like/pay for, but don't actually ever stop to talk to people to see if that's the case because collecting data isn't nearly as enjoyable. Maybe you will get lucky and there will be interested parties aligning around your random guess. But more likely nobody will care and you'll go back to the drawing board to commit the same mistake again and again.
[+] [-] luckylion|3 years ago|reply
We don't reward hedonism, not even trying to solve any problem and avoiding the search for solutions. I haven't heard an argument why we should, why individuals not trying to contribute at all is desirable to a society.
[+] [-] lp4vn|3 years ago|reply
Unfortunately this world you talk about doesn't exist anymore.
Now we live in the world where "it is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose".
[+] [-] PragmaticPulp|3 years ago|reply
This isn't just about burnout, it's about spreading yourself too thin.
This reminds me of a lot of the enthusiastic juniors I interview who want to tell me about their 10 different side projects, none of which got further than a quick proof of concept before they moved on to the next thing. If you hire them, guess what you're going to get? Someone who wants to build proof of concept work and then move on to the next thing as soon as it gets boring. The rest of the team doesn't want to spend their careers picking up the pieces after someone did the fun part and got bored.
Personally, if I'm reading an official company blog where the author is bragging about working on over a dozen different large projects simultaneously, I have zero interest in adopting the platform. It's almost guaranteed to be abandoned for the next fun idea, with features left unfinished. When I click on the "Pricing" page I'm given a placeholder that says it's free until the author gets around to building to billing part of the company.
I know the author wants to position themself as a "monastic code machine", but I think the biggest thing missing from this person's life is some diversity of activities. My recommendation: Put all but one of the projects on a clear, definitive pause. Focus on the business first. Then use your free time to get out, try new activities, and meet new people.
So many of the burnout stories I read online start with people who code all day at work and then come home and try to code all evening on side projects. That can be fun for a while, but if that's the entirety of your life you're going to burn out eventually. Get outside and do something else. You'll be more refreshed when you come back to these projects.
[+] [-] mathgladiator|3 years ago|reply
The core problem that I have is that I've realized that life has this rule: play stupid games, win stupid prizes. In my career, I've already demonstrated the capability to achieve. I'm a good cog, but for some stupid reason, I want some kind of something else. The best way to put it is legendary status.
I've realized many things as of late, and I'm focusing hard on the core project which is the new cloud because there I can have impact and I have the credibility to do it. The new runtime is neat in a myopic way, but it's not the way. The same is true for the web IDE and more. Many of the projects are done (like the network protocol) because I just have enough experience to focus on the right things (and the more depressing aspect there is the things I have to avoid doing because I created a patent for another company)
> My recommendation: Put all but one of the projects on a clear, definitive pause. Focus on the business first
This is what I'm doing except I'm focus on the core infrastructure such that I can invite people to use it. I intend to work with high school kids to build games and work on the rough edges. This focus on helping kids has been very focusing as I need a body of literature to throw at them to consume (in this case, Phaser.js tutorials) while I support them on the network end and gather feedback.
[+] [-] vlunkr|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] yodsanklai|3 years ago|reply
I think it's an unfair assessment. You can't compare what people do during their free time and what they do at work.
That being said, one of my brightest colleague is exactly like that. He seems to have a hard time finishing projects. It's always 90% done, poorly documented. Some other engineers are slower and less creative, but they deliver. In the end, everybody brings something to the table.
[+] [-] newsiehey|3 years ago|reply
That is perfectly logical and doesn't invite judgment about his daily activities or "going outside" or whatever you are talking about
[+] [-] yboris|3 years ago|reply
I am consistently frustrated that I don't have enough energy after work to spend time on my personal projects, so I wait for the weekend, at which point I just want to rest. Two-day weekends are not enough to balance life and work!
[+] [-] epolanski|3 years ago|reply
- move all projects to a monorepo. This is great because all projects are in one place, they become interconnected as some code will end up being a library for multiple ones. This ensures that even when I'm doing side-project "foo" some of the code or stuff will also end up improving "foo" or "bar".
- move the monorepo to github codespaces. The very last thing I want to do when I want to work on my side projects after some time is to remember how I had to setup everything, from ide, to the os, etc.
- keep todos, documentation, notes, all in the monorepo. What did I have to do? `apps/foo/todo.md` or search in the project for "TODO:". No point into having docs on different services, they stay close to the project.
- write E2E and integration tests first, never unit test anything that doesn't really need to, implement in the end.
And that's it. Lowering a lot the entry barrier to contributing and getting back on projects was a huge step (I literally need codespaces to load). Then came creating an ecosystem around my projects thanks to the monorepo. I can now forget a project for months and come back to it with a small effort or checking back where I was.
I admit I will never write git in two days like Linus, I won't be releasing a hit game on Steam at any time, but I have fun with my projects, I learn a lot, and even though they move slowly they do move consistently in time.
Not saying you will release a banger OSS project this way or some killer application that will make you rich, that requires discipline and focus more than organizing a git repo and few tools, but you will build yourself a nice playground which at every iteration will make further experimentation or production have lower friction.
[+] [-] yodsanklai|3 years ago|reply
I wonder if it's a good idea. Some projects have nothing to do with each other. The toy compiler in Haskell isn't going to benefit from the experimental OS in C. On the other hand, the git history and branches will be harder to manage.
[+] [-] mathgladiator|3 years ago|reply
The tool chain I'm using is easy to install fortunately, and I can bootstrap it quickly. I've automated most of it to a single command line, and I can deploy in two commands (for sanity sake).
[+] [-] zaptheimpaler|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tacker2000|3 years ago|reply
Ultimately he will learn a lot about himself and the problems he wants to solve, but can never finish them, since he will realize that he cannot do it all at once - the solutions that are available have already had thousands of man hours poured into them.
He will learn to prioritize and think more about conceptualization and pre planning, and how to leverage existing solutions more.
[+] [-] mathgladiator|3 years ago|reply
What I forgot was how hard it is to teach just one thing at a time, so I'm focusing on that one thing. I still believe in my end vision, but I need to bring others along for the ride.
[+] [-] TrispusAttucks|3 years ago|reply
Work is typically performed to achieve some end result. Either an outcome or a material gain.
Until relatively recently in human existence the work performed to derive the output was varied and specific to the desired outcome.
For example: I want to eat carrots. I plant carrots. I want a shed. I build a shed. etc.
Now all work passes through the same point. Perform professional duties. Collect money. Buy outcome.
I get that it's not efficient to do many of these things but from a human fulfillment perspective there's a lot to be gained by doing them yourself.
The Task: "Variety is the very spice of life, that gives it all its flavor."
~ William Cowper
[+] [-] PicassoCTs|3 years ago|reply
A website. A framework. A library.
Something to feel the magic again, of creating, without getting crushed alive.
[+] [-] boredemployee|3 years ago|reply
I think it's urgent to change the working hours model. I want to engage with my kids while they care, I want to enjoy my mom's health while she is alive, and I don't want to wait for my vacations to only then do that.
[+] [-] unknown|3 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] zomglings|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tppiotrowski|3 years ago|reply
"An ambient angst pervades our society-there's a sense that somehow there's probably something we should be doing that we're not, which creates a tension for which there is no resolution and from which there is no rest."
It's super hard to cut scope. Knowing that the software you write has imperfections but needing to move on to building the next feature creates angst. Knowing there's a better solution but not having the time to implement it can drive you crazy. You need to learn how to let things go and make peace with it.
[+] [-] b1gnasty|3 years ago|reply
I don't see how any of the projects on this list are requirements for building an online board game.
[+] [-] mathgladiator|3 years ago|reply
I've been in the beginning phases of building the runtime and getting the editor to work when I realized that it is going to take much longer to do at the quality that I want. Worse yet, my own credibility of building beyond the infrastructure is shaky, and I could already see the mistakes pile up which means that fight is going to take much longer.
[+] [-] gymbeaux|3 years ago|reply
Now they’re saying we aren’t going to be able to use our own devices, and must use the company-issued computers that are running Windows. That makes no sense. Force me to use the least secure OS because “we need to beef up security”. I do mostly data science work that lends itself to not only a *nix OS but Linux specifically. There are things I use to complete my work that are Linux-only, so I wouldn’t even want a Mac.
I started job searching when this news dropped. Life is too short fellas. Life is too short. Make it harder to do my job, for no real reason beyond bureaucracy and politics, and I am out.
[+] [-] orev|3 years ago|reply
Windows has come a long way in the past 20 years, and it is definitely on par with regards to security (in general) as other operating systems. However, it also has the advantage of being able to be joined to a domain where Group Policies can be pushed. No other OS has a meaningful equivalent of Group Policy (no, Ansible, etc don’t do the same thing, and would require an enormous amount of effort to replicate what Group Policy does).
This post is talking about burn-out, and that definitely can cause negative emotions. But in your case, it sounds like you’re expecting to be treated as a special snowflake and they’re not having it. That would understandably cause negative emotions for you, but the underlying reason in your case is caused by a (probably) incorrect perception of yourself that you should get special treatment for some reason, and you’re having a tantrum because you’re not getting it.
[+] [-] ilrwbwrkhv|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|3 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] UnpossibleJim|3 years ago|reply
Finally I started hobbies at home totally removed from what I did at work, knowing I would be bad at them. Knowing I could give up on them. Knowing there was no pressure to finish or be good at a thing helped me alleviate the pressure of work where I had to perform.
[+] [-] spoonjim|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] revskill|3 years ago|reply
But thanks for sharing the experience.