Conversation

Mental health burnout pandemic coming to white-collar US. Seeing lots of signs. Too many people have been going brrr too long in too many places. And unlike service labor class we’re not used to it. Vaccines + summer + wealth boom + no vacation for a while...
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This might sound classist but though working/service class work like deliveries or groceries is long hours and physically demanding, it isn’t fragile the way creative information work is.
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Not sure where this ends. I strongly suspect asset price inflation is a big factor. When your net worth suddenly doubles in a pandemic you start to wonder why you’re killing yourself careering when the world makes no sense anyway and you have at least a temporary out.
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I didn’t take this seriously at first when it was just one anecdotal case. I thought maybe just that corner of economy. But then multiple uncorrelated corners started showing same patterns.
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Am more than mildly concerned. If a nurse or grocery worker burns out, economic capacity erodes in a predictable, incremental way. When random high-skill works start gong down its chaos monkey time.
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Remember if you burn out there’s a strong chance you’re doing real work, not bullshit work. This thing will disproportionately hit the most useful and critical high-skill people.
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Fortunately I think 80% will be fixable with a proper vacation. The other 20%.... they’re gonna cash out and not come back for a while. Expect a glut of amateur woodworking and bad PTSD art to appear for the next few years.
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I’ll take a nice low wooden bench if someone is looking for a healing thing to make while waldenponding and self-caring. About 4’Lx10”Wx18”H. What? Don’t look at me like that. I’m trying to help the burnouts here.
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I’m so going to hell. Kidding aside even I’m feeling it. Luckily this year is a steady-work year with somewhat predictable gigs so I don’t need hustle energy to make it work. Definitely don’t have it this year.
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While I don’t usually like predictability and kinda enjoy famine-feast volatility of consulting, this year I don’t think I could have handled it. By gig work standards this is a semi-retired vacation year, though I can’t afford to stay in this mode too long. I’d lose my edge.
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