[OVERHEARD] Tech Burnout
Work burnout is real, but in tech it takes on a different flavour.
“Man, I just need to get another job and not feel this burnout all the time.”
— Anonymous Tech Worker, Facetime, Toronto park on Friday at 8:43pm
I heard this tech worker talking to a friend in Seattle (probably other tech worker) about this burnout on a Friday evening. And it reminded me of myself when I was in tech.
The conversation went a few other topics and while I couldn’t hear the other side of the conversation and I wasn’t eavesdropping too much (just because it was a very quiet park!) there was long pause and then this Toronto Tech Worker said:
“That is super toxic. They pit you against one another, no wonder it’s like that.”
Let me caveat by saying, I had some wonderful, meaningful jobs in Tech. Together with many other people, we produce some amazing service and products that have real impact into people’s lives. But yet, there are more people that work in Tech that claim to be more miserable with more people reporting outright burnout (as I have had). Some people say it’s even sad.
I’ve written about these some culprits in the past: bastardization of what it means to be working in “agile” by elevating it to cult-like status, many people trusted into managerial positions that neither have the hands-on technical experience or plenty of other things. But the underlying reality is that Tech has itself always been disruptive at breakneck speeds; it’s just that sometimes what is being disrupted and being pushed out is you.
There is a saying in the Tech world, particularly as it pertains to the growth of online, mobile and digital advertising and it is this: “if you are not paying for the product, then YOU ARE THE PRODUCT!” It’s a heuristic that describes how if you don’t pay directly for something that you use, you pay for it via your usage or personalization metadata. Like if you Instagram and while it’s free to use, you are “paying” for it one way or another by giving subtle and unconscious cues to Meta on what you like or don’t like and hence your feed.
I’d believe this applies to workers in Tech too (but applicable for all employer-employee relations). If the company is “invested in you” and your value isn’t returned to them within the next quarter (and this is particularly true in tech), then you are not facilitating or “paying” to create the companies product and you in a sense become a product of layoffs. Perhaps I’m stretching this a bit but what it really means is that Tech is a much more cut-throat place by nature; it deals in absolutes more than ever with the data about one’s contribution more easily tallied up than ever before.
Tech burnout is real. I’ve been there.
I remember hearing this one line repeated somewhere before: “If you can do an excellent job in tech even when you don’t like it, think about how good you would do if you did find a job (in tech or outside) that you like and are very good at.”
If you’re interested in learning about how Human Design/BG5 can do to find alignment in your career and/or business, sign up for a intro call with me.