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I just don’t want to be busy anymore

elenasalaks.medium.com

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Re: I just don’t want to be busy anymore

#241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t want overworked medical professionals. I want the hospitals to hire more people to work healthy 8 hour shifts. There is a viable different approach, but the employers do not like it. Let’s stop pretending.

Are 8 hour shifts healthy for patients? More handovers is strongly correlated with poorer patient outcomes. We need to strike a balance between the falloff in ability that comes with consecutive hours awake past a certain point, and minimizing handover.

You’re not wrong, but when doctors work longer shifts, they work fewer days of the week. The total weekly hours are the same, they are just distributed differently.

Re: I just don’t want to be busy anymore

#242
post #2

As a 54 year old Software Engineer, who has had a nice IT career for over 26 years, I'm spent. This is coming from someone who has always had a growth mindset and had a really hard time sitting still. I used to loathe naps and felt like I was missing out if I took one. Now, I take a one hour nap almost daily and I'm finding that after 1pm I'm basically fried (I start working around 7AM). I'm not sure what to do about…

Younger than you by not much and spent. I have no idea how to recover from this.

Re: I just don’t want to be busy anymore

#243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t want overworked medical professionals. I want the hospitals to hire more people to work healthy 8 hour shifts. There is a viable different approach, but the employers do not like it. Let’s stop pretending.

Are 8 hour shifts healthy for patients? More handovers is strongly correlated with poorer patient outcomes. We need to strike a balance between the falloff in ability that comes with consecutive hours awake past a certain point, and minimizing handover.

Refineries have blown up because of messed handovers, is the solution to have the console operators on 24h/7 days-a-week shifts?

Like the sibling comment said, if you are overworking then the process is broken.

The thing that I added, is that maybe the process remains broken because the employer finds it profitable.

Re: I just don’t want to be busy anymore

#244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but it sounds like the premise here is that the only purpose for a career is to "get rich". I think a lot of people genuinely enjoy the work they do, and the relationships they have with their co-workers. Or, on the darker side of things, over-work themselves because they can't find anything engaging _outside of work_. For both of those groups of people, they might not actually enjoy getting…

>the only purpose for a career is to "get rich". What other reason is there for a career? If there was no financial incentive for most, I highly doubt anybody would waste the time learning how to be a lawyer, programmer, or doctor. People don't just go into a career hoping to make a menial wage and work 40-60 hours a week.

> What other reason is there for a career?

A way to make a living doing what you love. I loved programming as a child/teenager. I wasn't paid then.

Re: I just don’t want to be busy anymore

#245
post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some employers will structure these as double trigger RSUs that do not vest until a date passes + a liquidity event occurs to avoid this.

I had no idea that you can get RSUs this way. Does anyone have any suggestions on what to search for related to this? Part of why I wanted to be a contractor was precisely because I didn’t want to play the startup lottery. But RSUs would give an alternative.

They’re extremely common at larger venture funded companies that in theory are closer to IPO.

Re: I just don’t want to be busy anymore

#246
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

any more details on "positive effects"? Have you had blood work?

I’ve done bloodwork prior to taking Ashwaganda and will do again in two to three months. Testosterone was low, not excessively so but was feeling exhausted and unmotivated. Ashwaganda appears to have given me the energy and motivation back but I’ve only been taking it for a week so am not exactly sure how I’ll fare in the longer term. It gave me enough energy to work out now so Im hoping to raise my energy to prior l…

Do you go to a doctor to prescribe blood work for you? I am interested in doing bloodwork as part of a wellness check to check for deficiencies etc but am unsure about how to approach this.

Re: I just don’t want to be busy anymore

#247

One thing that helped me is not to care so much about my employer's goals. It's almost heretical. But once you embrace this mindset, it does wonders. Or at least, it has for me so far. I think a lot of us want to be proud of the work we do, and we feel that if we slack off, then we shouldn't be proud. But it's the other way around. I think the slackers have it right. You're probably not going to get rich from working…

I know of so many folks in fang and my current job who’d disagree that you can’t get rich from a day job. Most of them got there by not being cynical about their employer’s goals and working with the team to make those happen.

I guess I’ve been incredibly lucky and probably am in a nice west coast dream bubble, but my bubble vision means I definitely don’t buy that am a rare unicorn. I don’t think I would feel happy about working with peers who had a cynical outlook and we’re not invested in the shared dream.

I am replying only because this was the top comment - I really hope I reach at least one person who’s on the fence about committing to a goal bigger than personal!

Re: I just don’t want to be busy anymore

#248

One thing that helped me is not to care so much about my employer's goals. It's almost heretical. But once you embrace this mindset, it does wonders. Or at least, it has for me so far. I think a lot of us want to be proud of the work we do, and we feel that if we slack off, then we shouldn't be proud. But it's the other way around. I think the slackers have it right. You're probably not going to get rich from working…

Great point. I try to apply it to myself. Instead of working twice as hard for 5 percent chance of any promotion or other benefit, I'd prefer working hard enough at minimum acceptable level and try to control things from expense side.

Re: I just don’t want to be busy anymore

#249
post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is tough if you actually try to have a team-oriented mindset. I’ve worked in groups (hard to really call them a team) where everyone, everyone , stiff armed duties. The end result is that the hard stuff, or low status stuff, never got done. I get there’s a balance, but if you entered a career where you actually care about the mission, it’s hard to just see that mission suffer because people want to take the easy…

Hospitals and contractors are great examples of professional fields where job roles are well-defined and the hours worked are carefully tracked. When contractors get too busy, they tell clients their project is delayed. When ER or ICU resources are maxed out, they stop accepting patients and send them to other nearby hospitals. When clinics are fully booked, they stop making appointments. I understand what you’re say…

[deleted]

Re: I just don’t want to be busy anymore

#250
post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is tough if you actually try to have a team-oriented mindset. I’ve worked in groups (hard to really call them a team) where everyone, everyone , stiff armed duties. The end result is that the hard stuff, or low status stuff, never got done. I get there’s a balance, but if you entered a career where you actually care about the mission, it’s hard to just see that mission suffer because people want to take the easy…

Hospitals and contractors are great examples of professional fields where job roles are well-defined and the hours worked are carefully tracked. When contractors get too busy, they tell clients their project is delayed. When ER or ICU resources are maxed out, they stop accepting patients and send them to other nearby hospitals. When clinics are fully booked, they stop making appointments. I understand what you’re say…

Contractors is overly broad but plenty of contractors work overtime and very long, stressful hours including weekends and holidays.

Hospitals on the other hand, you're just downright wrong about that. Not only in general do hospital staff work 12 hour shifts including being on-call and having to work abrupt hours, especially over the past year their hours have been absolutely ridiculous. This includes nurses and MDs.

Feel free to review some studies on this issue, it's not hard to find nor is it some kind of secret. Basic Google search pops this up within the first few results:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/200130302_The_Worki...

That study shows that in fact, nurses work their regularly scheduled shift less than 50% of the time, and 81% of their shifts involve overtime even though only 7% of it is scheduled in advance.

Here is a study looking at work hours among surgeons and physicians:

https://forums.ucdavis.edu/local_resources/docs/Freischlag-S...

It paints a very different picture from the idea that medical staff work very strict and well regulated hours. Their working hours are very chaotic and extreme.

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