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Mental health impacts of a big tech job

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Re: Mental health impacts of a big tech job

#41

Post by BikiniPrince »

zz865 wrote: post #12
mathgladiator wrote: post #2

So, recently I achieved happiness because I just don't care about the job anymore. I didn't even do my performance self review, and I wrote a poem instead. I got a Meets-Most, and I've never been happier. I'm writing my final proposal as one final swing at the bat and the title is "XYZ or Bust" where either I get buy-in or I'm leaving. I've never felt better in my entire career. This is made possible because I'm old…

This is one of the main reasons companies love hiring 20-29 yo people. They work their ass off because that is all they know, as well has having the time to do it. Once people hit 35-50 people realize there are more things to life.

The problem with the kids is they are still cutting their teeth in many aspects. I worked on a core product of a very large tech company on my last run. This wasn’t my first rodeo either. I happened to build most of the product our team owned. There were many disciplines involved and trying to get other experts to evolve was a never ending battle in a losing war. I won’t go into all the glory and failure or how things made it to where they were today. Despite an income that was quite silly I had to walk away. I can still run circles around people half my age, but I can hold the hill for so long. Many of the other old guard went the same route.

Re: Mental health impacts of a big tech job

#42

Post by jefftk »

Big Tech is hundreds of thousands of employees across thousands of teams with a wide variety of work environments. The author's experience sounds really rough, but it also doesn't make sense to generalize from there to this whole piece of the industry.

To give another data point, I've worked at a different Big Tech company since 2012, on two different teams, and haven't experienced anything like this. There's no pressure to work after hours, on weekends, or vacations. Just today I was debugging a release blocker with a coworker, and it got to be 4:30, which was when they had planned to end their day. It wouldn't even have occurred to me to suggest they stay late: we can pick it up on Monday and the release can slip.

I'm sure there are people at my company who have experiences closer to the author's: what I'm trying to say is that Big Tech is a big place, and if you find yourself somewhere with bad culture don't take that to mean there aren't other places you would like.

Re: Mental health impacts of a big tech job

#44

Post by snek_case »

deadmutex wrote: post #21
khazhoux wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So, recently I achieved happiness because I just don't care about the job anymore. I didn't even do my performance self review, and I wrote a poem instead. I got a Meets-Most, and I've never been happier. You can't do that! Hey, come back here! You're not allowed to do that! Can you hear me? Get back over here, don't walk away. Don't keep walking away. Stop!

Perhaps... but I think companies like FB also get (total guess) thousands of resumes per day. So, for every engineer that walks away, many more are knocking at the door. So, I think in management's eyes, very very very few people are irreplaceable.

That's not true at all where I am. Yes, I can post on twitter and get tons of CVs, but most applicants aren't that good. I may only want to interview 40% of the candidates I get, and I would really only want to hire about 1 in 5 people I interview. Interviewing takes time. Then after that, onboarding people on the job takes time too, it can take people several months to become effective on the job. Skilled, effective employees that you get along with are not easy to replace.

Re: Mental health impacts of a big tech job

#45

Post by ridaj »

murgindrag wrote: post #15

Quotes like this bug me: > If you find yourself in this type of situation, please do what’s best for you and get help if you are feeling stuck or overwhelmed. Get help the !@#$% where? There isn't a magic American "help" fairy who bails people out of trouble. These issues are complex, and therapists/counselors/psychologists suck up time and don't really address root causes.

+1 just get another job if the job makes you unhappy

Re: Mental health impacts of a big tech job

#46

Post by [deleted] »

mathgladiator wrote: post #6
chillwaves wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I didn't even do my performance self review, and I wrote a poem instead. It's not just the brazenness of the act, it's the fact you made your defiance into art that I really respect.

Here is the poem: I will not do this PSC. There is a future that I foresee. No longer shall I bend the knee to this process called PSC.

[deleted]

Re: Mental health impacts of a big tech job

#47

Post by aynyc »

mathgladiator wrote: post #6
chillwaves wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I didn't even do my performance self review, and I wrote a poem instead. It's not just the brazenness of the act, it's the fact you made your defiance into art that I really respect.

Here is the poem: I will not do this PSC. There is a future that I foresee. No longer shall I bend the knee to this process called PSC.

  Oh oh oh oh oh
  Now I can bring you in
  Warm or cold
  I'll get paid either way
  (Oh oh oh oh)
  It might not buy me happiness
  But it might just ease my pain
  (Oh oh oh oh)
  'Cause it's hard to live
  This life alone
  But it's all I've ever known

Re: Mental health impacts of a big tech job

#49

Post by yodsanklai »

avalys wrote: post #40

> but the big difference between then and now was that when I was home, I was home. Work stopped, and I could do something else for a bit and didn’t have to worry about anything until the next work day. I didn’t feel much of the mental fatigue I do now. This really has nothing to do with Big Tech and is a nearly universal characteristic of any job that requires mental effort instead of physical. Yeah, if you're getti…

A friend of mine is a pilot on long flights. He said that the great thing about his job is that he can totally switch off from work as soon as he leaves the plane. Feels like the best of both world. High paid job without the stress.

Re: Mental health impacts of a big tech job

#50

Post by dcolkitt »

semitones wrote: post #26
thethethethe wrote: post #16

Not really my experience at Google tbh. I've been at Google for a little under 4 years and been promoted twice but only work about 4 hours a day. Sometimes I don't do shit for weeks at a time and things seem to pan out ok. I'm not trying to humble brag that I'm 10x or anything--im not, I'm a B grade engineer at best. Sure it can be stressful sometimes, but I'd say that 80% of the time it's really chill.

I'd bet that you're not on one of the profit center teams... And that you don't have an oncall rotation. I worked in one of the ads teams at Google. I quit a few weeks ago, with reasons similar to the ones described in the article. I was giving just way too much of my life away for that work...

Interesting… Out of curiosity, do people in profit centers get paid more to compensate for the stress?

I’m thinking in terms of Wall Street banks, where for example traders might have very stressful jobs but receive huge bonuses that far outstrip what the more relaxed back office roles get.

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