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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Hard to feel sympathy when working class has been in much deeper shit, doing more demanding, more thankless work. But nevertheless... this is coming. People don’t assess relative privilege or choose burnout. It just hits.
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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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Replying to
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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Replying to
Was in Colorado last week w/friends who've been in mgmt consulting for ~10 years. Can confirm the post burnout existential wave coming. Was in their eyes (under actually) Waldenponding / Goat herding vibes were super strong. Also scanning for Rajneeshi 2.0 secular cult camps.
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