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Half of Workers Around the World Are Struggling with Burnout

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Re: Half of Workers Around the World Are Struggling with Burnout

#52
post #46
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't want to exotisize "blue collar" labor. That being said, I've always wondered if burnout ends up being more likely in roles where you feel like you're suppose to care. Being bored all the time is annoying and sucks, but being in a thing where you feel like you _shouldn't_ be bored and yet are also sucks. Does it suck more? Not sure!

Value usually comes out of blue collar labor. Almost no value comes out of lucrative tech jobs. The tech that is making the world a better place usually has so many alternatives it wouldn't matter if you closed up shop or not.

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Re: Half of Workers Around the World Are Struggling with Burnout

#53
post #25

I used to be an employee that would kill themselves for even minimum wage. I think being a hard worker regardless of reward is an honorable trait, but keeping that up for decades is difficult. Naturally I am very loyal and agreeable. I like to solve raw engineering problems, but also social ones. I find a way to adapt to pretty much anything and anyone. This almost always ends with my employer exploiting me. Recently…

Why did you think being a hard worker regardless of reward is an honorable trait? I don't mean any disrespect but when i read sentences like that all that pops into my head is "sucker"

I was definitely raised that way. My parents are from New England so maybe a Puritan thing?

Re: Half of Workers Around the World Are Struggling with Burnout

#54
post #16

I used to think my burnout was from long hours, but I recently got a chance to work on a greenfield project at work and loved every second of the 60-70h weeks just building something really cool with a small team. The burnout nearly vanished during this time and only recently has started to reappear and I have a much better understanding now of what causes burnout for me specifically.

Is it normal in the US for software developers to work 60-70 hour weeks? I understand this is the case in hip startup culture, but what about normal, boring companies? I work as an embedded software developer in Belgium, and here 40 hours is normal.

No, that's an insane workload. Your employer doesn't even deserve 40 hours, let alone 70. Jesus, people, live your lives instead of toiling for the rich people who will take from you until you keel over.

Re: Half of Workers Around the World Are Struggling with Burnout

#55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless you have had a career as a janitor, it is extremely patronizing to tell the janitors of the world how fulfilling they should find their jobs.

Why is that?

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Re: Half of Workers Around the World Are Struggling with Burnout

#56

Most people don't have "fulfilling" jobs. They have a paycheck. A very small percentage of Americans, let alone those around the world, have the privilege of analyzing how their job makes them feel. I get paid great money to play with computers. My father was an elementary school janitor.

Big part of the problem is arguably alienation. A janitorial job can be rewarding because you can see that you are making a difference in the world. You get to meet the people whose lives are improved by what you do, every day. Filling out spreadsheets, it can be hard to tell what the purpose of what you are doing, whom it benefits, and how the world would be worse off if you simply didn't show up.

People think that the worst part of being a janitor is cleaning toilets. In reality the worst part of being a janitor is living in poverty. This is true about a lot of jobs in our economy.

Re: Half of Workers Around the World Are Struggling with Burnout

#57

> on average, 48% of workers from eight countries indicate that they are currently grappling with burnout. > Based on a survey of 11,000 desk-based and frontline workers in eight countries (Australia, Canada, France, Germany, India, Japan, UK, and US) The actual report[0] doesn't even mention _how_ they measured burnout, only that "The survey captured self-reported data". [0] https://www.bcg.com/publications/2024/fou…

They seem to rely on a corelation to feelings of inclusion.

> That’s because our research has revealed that burnout—which has historically been considered a consequence of long hours, a physically demanding job, or a high-stress environment—is also highly correlated with low feelings of inclusion. Essentially, employees who are more burned out feel less included at work.

And for determining inclusion they say the following:

> For this research, we quantified inclusion as a score of how inclusive an employee finds the workplace to be, using BCG’s BLISS Index, a statistically rigorous tool that identifies the factors that most strongly influence feelings of inclusion in the workplace.

Re: Half of Workers Around the World Are Struggling with Burnout

#58
post #21
post #2

I mean, it's hard to not feel burned out when your day consists of process, navigating politics, and implementing ideas that are clearly doomed to fail. It's a lot better than homelessness though.

This sentiment seems a lot like the “you have it great, there are starving kids in X who have it much worse” meme I often heard growing up. It encourages minimizing one’s problems, which can lead to all sorts of mental health issues. Thinking like this causes me to ignore real issues for too long, because someone else has it worse. It’s like gratitude’s evil twin of an emotion. But we should respect ourselves and str…

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Re: Half of Workers Around the World Are Struggling with Burnout

#59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is that?

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You're free to make judgements about my work all day.

Now come on, give me an argument for why it is patronizing. Stop implying it.

Re: Half of Workers Around the World Are Struggling with Burnout

#60
post #2

I mean, it's hard to not feel burned out when your day consists of process, navigating politics, and implementing ideas that are clearly doomed to fail. It's a lot better than homelessness though.

> It's a lot better than homelessness though. Yeah, I feel like more people in the developed world should go spend quality time with the least among us, the homeless, and folks in the developing world. A lot of people with burnout will find themselves skipping to work. Because at least you're not living in trees with insects and hollowing out a log to sail to another island to get your special needs kid to a doctor o…

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