I’m starting to get pretty crispy around the edges at work. Not quite burnt out, but it could get there without good management.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this:
Most large software companies are horribly inefficient. Problems are obvious, yet somehow unsolvable. Spinning up work is more important than doing less, better.
I’ve been pushing this particular rock uphill for something like 25 years now in one form or another and literally nothing’s changed. No wonder I’m feeling fried.
@ctp So many threads of inquiry come together when one hits these moments.
For me, it's a question of meaning. What is it one is working for? There are various layers of meaning -- most of us have to do things to earn a living, or out of duty or responsibility to others; but one can and should go deeper.
@ctp One of the ways that I start to feel "burned out" is when there is insufficient deep meaning in my work.
Unfortunately, a great deal of work we do collectively just isn't really that important, but we're stuck, locked in by constraints (both self-made constraints and, yes, the intractability of our current world systems.)
@ctp Take away the layers of commercial/money stuff -- what is the ultimate purpose of the work we are engaged in? What stories do we tell ourselves about that, and are those stories perhaps fraying? That's when I feel the effects of burnout.
Personal example: doing a management consulting job (ha! yes these are often pointless.) It's to reframe a co's IT strategy and op model. But: (1) it will likely fail and (2) even if it works, it helps an awful polluting co to succeed. Meaning collapse...
@ctp I’m sorry to hear you’re feeling “crispy”. One consideration I’ve always put before anything else is the effect my work stress has on my family. As My Favourite Teenager will tell you, I haven’t always been 100% successful, but I’ve tried.
As others have said, if you’re feeling crispy, you’re already fried. It’s time to make changes, but every time I’ve crusaded to change a company I’ve ended up burnt out. I’ve learned the only thing I can change is myself.
Good luck.
@ctp you are not alone.
I have to re read this book at least once a year.
Emotional Intelligence 2.0 https://a.co/d/dDSNUF6
Watching the inevitable play out time after time while calling it out and then being dismissed takes its toll.
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