Burnout: 'Sick and tired of feeling sick and tired'

Their model is to hire fresh people and burn them out.

Increasingly this is the direction western corporations are moving. Their ideal model is: place performance quotas above long term sustainability, people then burn themselves out, you then fire them for performance reasons, and you have them on an aggressive noncompete and threaten them with it when they try to work elsewhere after. Totally consume them. Basically institutionalised "f--k you", gleefully chewing up other human beings.

In some ways we're moving to something worse than slavery. At least with slaves they were seen as "assets" rather than "temporary rentals". They had to take care of them out of necessity, so their evil had that limit on it.

Some people don't have much choice or prefer focusing on their personal life.

I have some experience with both sides of the coin, here's my personal take on it:

I'm currently taking a month off work, after leaving an ad tech company, full of wonderful and brilliant people, one of the few places in the industry where ethics are constantly discussed and have impact on the direction of the business.

The reason I joined was burnout due to several years of crunch, stress, the most common startup scenario, I guess. The company I joined is famous for great work-life balance, their involvement in the XP community and friendly culture.

But, one of the reasons I left was to work on more meaningful or rewarding projects. I became frustrated with the industry as such, the constant invasion on privacy, its impact on the society as a whole.

I'm in a very priviledged position, due to the job market in my area and the experience (I started working at a fairly young age). I can afford to take a month and look around.

Here's the thing, I wouldn't be able to identify and pursue some of my goals if I didn't work in ad tech, pharma or finance. I just wouldn't have enough deep domain knowledge to approach these problems in a constructive manner. The conversations I have now and the work I can even attempt to do can be much more impactful, purely because I just know more than I used to.

> Anecdotally, I believe burnout is more likely when you work on a job that only cares about profits, or is not fulfilling in some meaningful way.

Both apply to me (which I realised recently), but as far as I know the term burnout used to refer mostly to stressful occupations doing social good (nurses, teachers). A similar discourse around tech jobs is a fairly recent phenomenon. I think that stress can make the most meaningful occupations depressing, purely because it prevents us from seeing their value.

- if they don't accept a job like this, they won't get a job anywhere else - this is the only way to make good money - there is no other way to rise up the ranks - loyalty is rewarded - this is a just sacrifice - they're invincible due to their youth

What they're doing however is working / giving away their life for free. It's cheaper for companies to hire people that give away an extra 10-20 free hours a week instead of hiring somebody to work for those extra hours. Even they say "we'll pay you x1.5", they're still making money because they aren't paying x2 for the second person on the payroll.

Unfortunately employees will vehemently defend these practices and even pride themselves on working 10 hours a day. They wear it like a badge of accomplishment and even look down others who don't do the same.

I take it you've never worked in a call center? When I did, anything under a `10` (out of 10) on the random surveys they sent out was considered a failure.