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From Burned Out Tech CEO to Amazon Warehouse Associate

jasonshen.com

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Re: From Burned Out Tech CEO to Amazon Warehouse Associate

#2
I sometimes miss my old job hauling around boxes. It’s great exercise and you never have to take stress home with you. Good coworkers often times too

It just doesn’t pay enough to retire off of. Can’t easily build savings. Can’t easily pay for the dentist or other emergencies

Being a lead programmer pays a ton better. I just wish I wasn’t as stressful as it is

Re: From Burned Out Tech CEO to Amazon Warehouse Associate

#3
> For me, a lot of my meaning comes from two things. One is doing something in the world that feels like it's actually making things a little better somehow. And so contributing to society in some meaningful way.

> But the other thing is socialization with my coworkers is a huge part of my daily satisfaction in a job. You might be free Monday through Friday but all of your friends are working when you want to grab coffee.

I can't relate to many of the author's life experiences, but this quote really hit home. I think we're all wired to want to (a) make something better and (b) share our life and experiences with other people.

How (a) and (b) manifest varies greatly depending on life background and opportunities, but I can say most of the mental healthy difficulties I've had previously in life can be related to those two points.

Re: From Burned Out Tech CEO to Amazon Warehouse Associate

#4

I sometimes miss my old job hauling around boxes. It’s great exercise and you never have to take stress home with you. Good coworkers often times too It just doesn’t pay enough to retire off of. Can’t easily build savings. Can’t easily pay for the dentist or other emergencies Being a lead programmer pays a ton better. I just wish I wasn’t as stressful as it is

You're getting paid for the extra stress .... markets in everything.

Re: From Burned Out Tech CEO to Amazon Warehouse Associate

#6

I sometimes miss my old job hauling around boxes. It’s great exercise and you never have to take stress home with you. Good coworkers often times too It just doesn’t pay enough to retire off of. Can’t easily build savings. Can’t easily pay for the dentist or other emergencies Being a lead programmer pays a ton better. I just wish I wasn’t as stressful as it is

> Can’t easily pay for the dentist or other emergencies

Work a union job, not Amazon?

UPS benefits will easily cover your medical and dental problems. (Once you qualify.) I don't know anything about Amazon's worker coverage.

Re: From Burned Out Tech CEO to Amazon Warehouse Associate

#7

I sometimes miss my old job hauling around boxes. It’s great exercise and you never have to take stress home with you. Good coworkers often times too It just doesn’t pay enough to retire off of. Can’t easily build savings. Can’t easily pay for the dentist or other emergencies Being a lead programmer pays a ton better. I just wish I wasn’t as stressful as it is

I left devops behind to go back to an IT help desk. Around a 20% paycut but I never even have to have email on my phones, no on call, no weekends, I barely have to think much. Good benefits and still above average pay for my area and I can return to grad school part time. I realized I just dont deal well with stress and it easily spills over into my personal life, my stress started effecting my spouse so I had to go.

Re: From Burned Out Tech CEO to Amazon Warehouse Associate

#8
BTW, a highly disturbed sleep like he is describing is a common sign of burnout/depression/anxiety disorder. Do not ignore it! There are drugs and therapy, it is worth it. It is double worth it if you have the money to stay unemployed or have other ways of getting some extended rest, at least 3 months. BTW, there is even some chemical signalling pathway explanation for that connection. Or maybe it is hypothesized? IDK, it's above my knowledge level. But the correlation surely is real and strong.

Re: From Burned Out Tech CEO to Amazon Warehouse Associate

#9
"The experience was physically taxing, he was diagnosed with tendonitis after moving hundreds of boxes a day, but it pulled him out of his depression and helped him gain perspective and a deeper sense of meaning".......

I have mixed feelings about this. What this has proven is working at amazon warehouse sucks, and is not sustainable.

I've had many physical shitty jobs in my 20's. Then, I had some health issue and could no longer keep doing that to my body, so I went back to school and got a CS degree.

I sometimes get depressed and miss physical work, but then I remember how shit it was and how an injury would prevent me from working. As a dev I think I'm going to be able to earn money as long as I'm alive and have a functioning brain.

I guess once you have enough money then maybe someone might find that work fun? Obviously it helped the writer with depression. However, if he ever gets permanently hurt and it affects his daily life I have a feeling depression will come back in full swing. Office work is much much safer.

There are ways to help people through tech and have much bigger affect then moving boxes for a shitty company.

Edit: What helps my depression is connecting with people outside of work, helping people in my community, doing projects around my house and spending time with my son. Additionally, I try to make good choices when spending my money and limit my spending on stuff I don't need, as I dislike excessive spending.

Edit2: Some great comments below. This is very much poverty/shit job tourism, which the writer can escape at any moment. This is some BlackMirror type of content. Guy makes it big in tech, retires, now works shit job people are trying to escape to cure his depression. He then writes about it on a blog. Now, other non-aware devs might be reading it contemplating leaving their jobs to do a REAL job.

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