Looking after yourself is important, at least as important as attending to your responsibilities.
My work has had so much pressure lately: persistent threat of mass layoffs, a massive reorganization, a new boss, a change in team dynamics that has seen some of the shittiness in others rise to the surface, new duties, needing to prove my worth at work all over again, make new relationships.
I haven’t been sleeping properly, my other latent health issues are acting up.
Screw work for today. Nobody will die if I don’t go. I’m just gonna chill.
I just want to remind everyone who needs to take a break to do it if they can. I realize its not an option available to everyone… I’ve lived most of my life in that mode but I’m able to do it for now.
I don’t take days off I just have days I don’t get anything done.
Nice! Then you get none of the relaxation and rejuvenation of time off, and got nothing done.
This is also what I do.
Yeah but it does come with the guilt and anxiety. All free of charge.
For me that is today. Nothing important happening and I don’t care about the little shit that doesn’t matter.
This is the way. It happened to my company twice in the last 5 years. So I took a lower job in the company that’s like 8% less pay, but 70% less work. Do whatever you have to do to mentally hold it together.
I’ve been thinking along similar lines and looking around for an exit from my current role.
“you know this move won’t look good on your resume for moving up later, right?”
Bitch this company and country have a year or two left, I’m just trying to keep my house in my name until the collapse.
Moving up has always meant moving out. Sometimes moving back, but then later moving out for good.
deleted by creator
I worked at my last job for 12 years- started as a help desk support agent, taught myself to code just to have a better understanding of the product, and then was offered a job on the development team. After being laid off in 2024, I mentally collapsed from burnout and exhaustion. Everyday working felt like I was pulling energy from an empty battery. Every year I’d end up using every sick day and using my vacation days as sick days just to rest. I was almost never physically sick (fortunately rarely get sick), but I was constantly exhausted and broken. I started forcing myself to get into work at 4-5am to avoid the stress of traffic, avoid as many interactions as possible…hood always up, headphones always on, and anytime anyone interrupted me or changed requirements that were already agreed upon, I’d have the most intense mental battles to be patient with them.
I applied for disability this month… I can’t do it anymore. These last 2 years not working I’ve felt the most alive I’ve ever felt. I have MY routine, MY time, and I get to choose what I want to invest myself in. I’m out of savings, and I’ll most likely be homeless again (was before my last job) before my disability application is even looked over.
It’s also odd feeling myself almost regress in many aspects. I feel like I’ve forgotten almost everything I learned about coding over the last decade, I feel unable to mask in the way to fit into corporate or job roles, and I’ve tried revisiting old interests and it’s like I’m starting from zero.
People might be critical of your choices, but as someone who finally felt a brief moment of relief after forcing myself to conform my entire life, I understand…
Yes.
I fully burned out in 2017, because I didn’t look after myself. … didn’t know how to either. It wrecked me in ways I don’t think I have, or will, ever recover from but I was able to rebuild into something more healthy. Regardless, I don’t fuck around with giving more than I can give anymore.
deleted by creator
So your parents pay for all your expenses while you are looking with disgust on how they contribute to this sick society?
deleted by creator
You’re catching some shade for it here, but I respect this fully.
We aren’t meant to be hammered flat into vectors of productivity that feed the appetites of the greedy. It takes courage to follow though and I want you to succeed. We live in a system that is hostile to life of all kinds, and that includes nearly all the humans.
It’s wild to me that anyone is siding with western culture anymore.
All of it is fucked… It’s like people aren’t even people. Like 2020 gave me some fear… But now I feel like this culture is just… Barely human.
All the stuff they collect and consume is like crack to them.
deleted by creator
Is there anything that makes you happy? Since you have access to money maybe you can find what that is, or spend more time on that, I’d like to be able to do that for myself tbh. Society is sick but there are still so many things out there where it’s about learning or doing something fun for the fun of it. You don’t have to contribute to a sick society, but you can at least find some joy in the madness right?
deleted by creator
heck im old and living off savings and sure im looking for work but like I could not be more demotivated with the way things are. I have never felt more like I have to put on a mask with work things than now.
deleted by creator
I worked at a research lab at one point. I would say there was really no mask there. There sorta was maybe at the high levels where the directors had to schmooze for grant funding but for us folks doing the work with the students it was a blast. I would likely still be working there except for the bush era cuts to NSF.
Word. I was at a meeting today and thought to myself, “oh I remember triclosan from my time in ICI contract manufacturing…when was that again??? …20 years ago? 💀”
There is a very thin slice of the working world where my particular quirks (within the bounds of a level of masking I can tolerate, generally) are not persecuted and I’m SOL otherwise.
I think things have gotten worse for sure.
Good advice! If you still have trouble letting go of the feeling you are shirking responsibility, remember how much worse you are at things when you are tired. Watch a YouTube video of a sleepy person trying to do something that requires concentration, remind yourself how much you can gain for your own sake as well as for your responsibilities by being rested.
