[HN Gopher] For those who can afford it, quitting has become the...
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For those who can afford it, quitting has become the ultimate form
of self-care
Author : fortran77
Score : 34 points
Date : 2021-05-11 17:05 UTC (5 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.thecut.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.thecut.com)
| Hoasi wrote:
| > For those who can afford it, quitting has become the ultimate
| form of self-care.
|
| It makes for a good title, and it is true. If you think about it,
| it has always been the case.
|
| If you can afford not to, why would you work for the man, right?
| m0llusk wrote:
| Work can be rewarding and profitable. Being part of a skillful
| team that accomplishes meaningful goals can be a fun and
| personally enriching experience.
| ro_bit wrote:
| > For those who can afford to quit, claiming burnout may be an
| effective way to signal one's essential employability, a way to
| reassure your future bosses that you will work yourself to the
| bone for them, too -- right after this break.
|
| I'm not a hiring manager, but I'd imagine from the perspective of
| one that claiming burnout as a reason for leaving actually
| signifies the opposite - you're unable to manage a proper work-
| life balance and there's a risk you'll burn out in a new job too.
| bluefirebrand wrote:
| The simple solution is to not tell the hiring manager that you
| burned out. They don't need to know exactly why you left your
| job. Hell you don't really have to tell them you are
| unemployed.
|
| If you leave a long gap in your resume they will be curious of
| course. Say you quit to pursue a self-employment opportunity
| and it didn't work out.
| pmoriarty wrote:
| _" Say you quit to pursue a self-employment opportunity and
| it didn't work out."_
|
| That assumes you get a chance to explain.
|
| A lot of time your resume will just go in the trash as soon
| as they see a big gap in your work history.
|
| And if you do get a chance to say you were pursuing some
| self-employment opportunity in the gap, that'll rarely be
| good enough, because what most hiring manager want to see if
| that you kept your skills up to date in the interim and
| continued to do something related to your field (which people
| who are burnt out are unlikely to do). Otherwise you're going
| to fall behind... at least in the tech field.
|
| Other things that matter are:
|
| - how long were the gaps?
|
| - how frequent were the gaps?
|
| - how long did you work at each of your jobs?
|
| If the gaps are long and/or the jobs are short, they're red
| flags. It doesn't mean you won't get hired, or won't get an
| interview, but every red flag lowers your chances.
|
| With each gap you're digging yourself deeper and deeper in to
| a hole that will be progressively harder to climb out of.
|
| My advice is to switch careers as soon as possible.. the
| longer you wait the harder it'll be. Your choice of alternate
| career doesn't have to be perfect, and it doesn't have to be
| "your calling" (often people don't even know their calling
| until they try it). It's important to try, and maybe try a
| whole bunch of different stuff until you find a good fit, and
| not to just languish and rot.
|
| Easier said than done for someone suffering from burnout..
| but that's the way out instead of sinking further in.
|
| Of course breaks, therapy, and medication work for some, and
| I hope they work for you.
| PenguinCoder wrote:
| That's some grade A victim blaming right there. As if it's the
| workers fault for not 'maintaining work life balance properly'.
| Mountain_Skies wrote:
| Perhaps but isn't it probable that those doing the hiring
| will, right or wrong, engage in exactly that type of
| thinking?
| ro_bit wrote:
| I think you misunderstood the tone of my comment. I'm not
| saying that that is the case, but that I imagine that kind of
| victim blaming or whatever you want to call it is what a
| hiring manager would use with an applicant claiming burnout.
| agf wrote:
| The latter part of the article, about "The Burnout Society", maps
| much more to how I and others I know use the term. There was a
| period at my job where I was burned out -- but that ended when I
| decided that I was never going to achieve what I had hoped for
| the organization. I had become an "achievement-subject", and just
| deciding not to be one largely removed the feeling of burnout.
|
| My last day at my current job is Friday, after nearly nine years.
| I'm not leaving because of burnout, but because I no longer need
| the job (right now -- it's not like I never need to work again)
| and it's no longer rewarding in non-financial ways day to day.
|
| While my time will be very lightly scheduled and contain almost
| nothing that looks like work, I do have goals for my time off and
| a rough timeline for when I'd like to return to work. Those goals
| would be very difficult to achieve (for me, not necessarily for
| others) while also working full time. I am the perfect example of
| someone quitting as an act of self care.
| m0llusk wrote:
| Terminology may be a source of complication here. The word
| "burnout" became closely associated with drug addicts
| experiencing serious problems back in the 60s and 70s and has had
| stigma about it ever since.
|
| In my experience "exhaustion" is a less provocative while also
| being a more accurate description of what is going on. Being in a
| competitive, high productivity mode as much as possible can take
| a toll on people especially in the modern always connected
| environment.
| bluefirebrand wrote:
| This seems like a weird quibble to have. "Burned out from work"
| has been an acceptable term for "extremely stressed and
| exhausted from work" for at least a decade.
|
| The workaholism comparison to drug addiction is actually pretty
| apt, too.
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