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Bumble closes to give 'burnt-out' staff a week's break

bbc.co.uk

251–260 of 305 posts

Re: Bumble closes to give 'burnt-out' staff a week's break

#251
post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a very subjective statement. The pandemic has been bar none the best period of my life. Increased physical and social distance from other people, no need to emote in public thanks to masks, no need to commute, greater accommodation for non-social options like self-checkouts. My physical and mental health have skyrocketed, and as a result I feel like I've been on vacation for a year and half, despite only taki…

I don't think this is how most introverts have felt. Introversion doesn't mean you dislike interaction with other people. Like others mentioned, what you're describing doesn't sound like just being introverted, it sounds like ASD or some other personality disorder. Definitely subjective though. I'd say I'm an introvert, and I've made it through ok, but it still very much feels like I lost a year of my life. It's real…

That's quite callous towards people with autism. Many people with autism very much want to socialize and integrate into society, but have difficulties doing so. I don't have difficulties socializing, I just don't like people (misanthropy) and get drained by socialization (introversion), which is why the pandemic has been a great time for me. Of course by that I mean the circumstances as they have impacted my life, not the health status of people.

Re: Bumble closes to give 'burnt-out' staff a week's break

#252
post #88

I never found vacations to be useful for burnout. What does work for me is having a 40 hour work week. If I'm doing the same job for 50+ hrs/week, I start to dread the work. That said, this is drastic, seems like something other than burnout is going on.

switching to a new project (or job) is generally the best thing for burnout as a dev. But a vacation is good for other reasons.

> switching to a new project (or job) is generally the best thing for burnout as a dev.

This works for me, but it is a very short term solution, about 6-12months in it always seems to creep back.

Re: Bumble closes to give 'burnt-out' staff a week's break

#253
post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm working a total of 7 nonconsecutive days in the next 30. Does that count? EDIT: Might be less. I forgot to count some other holidays.

Where do you work and do they allow telecommuting? (I assume you're being paid regularly over those 30 days)

Like I said earlier in the thread, Adobe. Currently we're fully remote, with a plan to go 50/50 hybrid when offices reopen. There is a process to apply for fully remote but you need to live within a reasonable distance of an office and "digital nomad" lifesytles won't be available. I have do a few coworkers who were fully remote pre-pandemic but that was generally the exception.

Re: Bumble closes to give 'burnt-out' staff a week's break

#254
post #28

700 employees seems like alot

It does until you mix that with all the employee perks and see that it could very well be strategic. From the article: > It also boasts a "Mommy Bar" - described as a "private lactation space" by Ms Wolfe Herd - as well as fortnightly manicures, hair trims and "blowouts" which the founder said showed "appreciation for our busy bees". It seems like an appealing target for private equity or managers installed by a pens…

[deleted]

Re: Bumble closes to give 'burnt-out' staff a week's break

#255

Maybe I am too naive but what the heck are they overworking on? It's an app with some basic functionality. Is software dev in such a sad state that you can't deliver a self-standing product that doesn't require teams working overtime to keep it running? I doubt that all of their staff is doing DevOps or maintaining servers which are the only two things that jump to mind as being labor-intensive for a an app with mill…

I don't know about your organization, but at mine utilization jumped like crazy when we all started working from home. People threw themselves into their work and stopped taking vacations. Not a lot of people have taken time to breathe in the last year. Was that focus and effort required? Probably not, but with nothing else to do and in a time of such economic uncertainty people did what they needed to make themselve…

Plus, with nobody doing anything social or interacting with other humans, I've noticed far fewer people getting sick, or taking the occasional Friday off to get out of town at the last minute.

Re: Bumble closes to give 'burnt-out' staff a week's break

#256
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you’re being overly reactive to the OP. Glee would be a lot more blatant and celebratory of the misfortune of others. I don’t think that’s their point. Not mine anyway. I’m pushing back on the sentiment you pose because it’s far too often used and oppressively effective.

It seems OP is quite gratified at the rest of us having gotten "... a sample of how miserable pre-pandemic life was for those of us who are more introverted or misanthropic." when even as mostly an introvert this pandemic has been more than the typical anxiety of having to interact with others when I didn't want to.

I'll copy another comment I made for convenience.

Please tell me where I expressed any glee at other people's misfortunes. What I said was the following which is a statement, not an expression of emotion:

> Those of you who have found the slightly over a year duration of the pandemic difficult have gotten a sample of how miserable pre-pandemic life was for those of us who are more introverted or misanthropic.

How other people feel doesn't impact me, but I do hope that people who have not enjoyed lockdown can gain some empathy for the people who have enjoyed lockdown. Pre-pandemic life was as uncaring and dismissive of people who thrive during the pandemic as pandemic life is towards people who thrived before the pandemic.

Re: Bumble closes to give 'burnt-out' staff a week's break

#257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a very subjective statement. The pandemic has been bar none the best period of my life. Increased physical and social distance from other people, no need to emote in public thanks to masks, no need to commute, greater accommodation for non-social options like self-checkouts. My physical and mental health have skyrocketed, and as a result I feel like I've been on vacation for a year and half, despite only taki…

I’m not sure if comparing introverted life to a pandemic where people’s friends and families are dying alone in a hospital is a good comparison.

I'm strictly talking about the day to day circumstances of distancing, masks, etc, not illness or death of loved ones as that's obviously an unpleasant thing at any time.

Re: Bumble closes to give 'burnt-out' staff a week's break

#258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a very subjective statement. The pandemic has been bar none the best period of my life. Increased physical and social distance from other people, no need to emote in public thanks to masks, no need to commute, greater accommodation for non-social options like self-checkouts. My physical and mental health have skyrocketed, and as a result I feel like I've been on vacation for a year and half, despite only taki…

Yea, I kind of cringe when I read the all-hands e-mails from my company that say things like "We know this has been incredibly difficult for all of you..." and " Everyone wants to get back into the office..." Wow, speak for yourself--it's been the best year of my life, and no, I'd rather just stay remote permanently, thankyouverymuch! On the other hand, it gives me a chance to step back and develop some real empathy…

> On the other hand, it gives me a chance to step back and develop some real empathy for everyone else. I recognize that I am blessed, and most people aren't wired like me, and the isolation has been really tough for them. When I interact with people over videoconference, I have to remind myself that this person might very well be suffering to the point of a mental breakdown from all this, and I need to communicate with care and thoughtfulness.

This is what I hope everybody else can come out of the pandemic with: empathy, particularly for people like you and me who have thrived during the pandemic. Unfortunately, I fear you are an exception and people will push to make things just how they were before, as evinced by your email. On the bright side, I think it will at least get a little easier to find remote jobs, etc moving forward.

Re: Bumble closes to give 'burnt-out' staff a week's break

#259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does it draw your vacation time? Mandatory vacations (especially around Christmas) were started in the early 2000s among Bay Area tech companies in order to reduce collective accrued PTO, reducing liability on the balance sheet—had nothing to do with worker health. Although that regime is certainly preferable to so-called "unlimited" PTO.

Unlimited PTO means they don’t have to pay out anything. It’s effectively 0 on the balance sheet.

Doesn’t the “P” mean paid?

Re: Bumble closes to give 'burnt-out' staff a week's break

#260
post #2

Good. We're taking all of July off at my company. Why? Because covid was an incredibly hard period for all of us and we as humans need a break. Somehow we all just seem to expect things to keep going like nothing changed. We all just seem to be expected to gloss over the pains of isolation, potential death and stress of work and life with no separation or boundaries. We made a conscious decision at my place of work t…

This is a very subjective statement. The pandemic has been bar none the best period of my life. Increased physical and social distance from other people, no need to emote in public thanks to masks, no need to commute, greater accommodation for non-social options like self-checkouts. My physical and mental health have skyrocketed, and as a result I feel like I've been on vacation for a year and half, despite only taki…

Good for you! You can continue working while other people take much needed time off.
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