#burnout

this concept of working 60 hrs a week for 6 months to right the ship is becoming a thing. i for one am all in, let's go !!!!!

My manager has this way of talking that makes you question your own work constantly. He acts like we are lucky to even get a paycheck here. I see my teammates come in every morning looking completely defeated. It is really hard to watch good people get treated this way. I wish I could quit.

I thought I'd feel great this weekend, make up for lost sleep. I was very much wrong. I still feel like cr-p, I still can't relax, and I still have trouble sleeping. I think this whole thing has been hanging over our heads for so long that it'll take us a while to go back to normal.

Please!!

America feels like it’s falling apart. Prices keep climbing, people are barely getting by, and the pressure from every direction is unbearable. Schwab treats workers like disposable parts, piling on more stress while paying wages that can’t even cover the basics for most frontline employees . Yet somehow, everyone keeps showing up, pretending it’s normal, pretending nothing has changed. It’s madness, and everyone feels it, even if no one wants to say it out loud.

Are you feeling that?

My team is beyond the breaking point. And being told that we are empowered to say ‘no’ to incoming tasks isn’t working. If we say no, the action gets escalated, and then it comes back around with more weight, more visibility, and a stern warning.

How does this continue? Folks know the industry and job market isn’t great so they stay and swallow the pill (and their pride), but everyone is so stretched that quality of deliverables is decreasing, opportunities are being missed, communications are being overlooked, and morale issues are sort of acknowledged but swept under the rug.

Before joining this place 5 years ago I used to be told that I look 5-10 years younger than my actual age. The other day when I was looking at pictures only 6 months into working here, it was night and day compared to photos pre-ELV. The fear, anxiety and constant chaos of this environment will do it to you. Not to mention more health issues. I hope I can get some of that lightness of spirit back when I leave here.

How long was the recovery time? Tips? What worked well?

Please know it’s all going to work out. How management operates here says nothing about you or your worth. If you’re feeling stuck in a bad situation, reach out to your resources for help. Burnout is real and can keep you on the hamster wheel and stuck in a very rough mental and physical place. Take care of yourself first. You deserve to be happy. You are not alone in your feelings or experiences here. Please know if you are a decent human being with even a shred of integrity, your values will always conflict with those of corporate. The problem isn’t you. It’s the corporate system. It’s ok if you aren’t a game player. It’s a good thing to have strong ethics and morals. You are more than this job, and this too shall pass.

Every single person I worked with liked their job couple of years ago. Now none of them do. We are talking close to 100 people, not 5 or 6. This place REALLY messed up morale. Everyone is either too overpaid to leave, trying to find a new job, gone, close to retirement and sticking it out, or completely checked out and doing the minimum.

Any serious ideas on how to turn this around as a grass roots movement?

I lost all my gains from working out and became fat working day and night for this company. Now I don’t even complete my tasks and management is micro managing me/constantly asking me to present things about AI to the team. I don’t hang out with friends as much and have very little time to date/do activities.

I’m only 2 years out of college and know getting fired/PIP will likely force me out of tech forever and into low-skill no degree required work but that is concerning me less every day.

Too many good people are struggling right now — burned out, anxious, even dealing with health impacts. It’s easy to feel invisible, like just another name on a list. But we’re not, and we shouldn’t be to each other.

Everyone deserves respect and safety. When that’s missing, it doesn’t just hurt morale — it hurts people. If you see someone slipping, check in. “Hey — you okay?” can mean more than you think.

If someone’s afraid to report what happened, do it for them. Accountability starts with us. Big changes don’t excuse breaking rules, laws, or people.

Need help?
• Report issues anonymously: https://secure.ethicspoint.com/domain/media/en/gui/57844/index.html
• Know your rights: https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/state

We may not fix everything now, but we can protect each other.

Before you downvote, think: if someone was wrecking your health or threatening your family’s income for no reason, wouldn’t you want someone to speak up? We’re a $6 billion company, not a failing startup. This isn’t survival — it’s people going rogue, and it needs to stop.

I genuinely can't sleep. I'm trying so hard. But I just can't. It's 2:20 am.

I don't even know what to check my email. I don't know what to do anymore. I lost. I feel dead inside.

I know this is just a job. But it's also livelihood.

I want to be able to sleep through the night again. I haven’t had a proper night of sleep in what feels like months.

That’s it, yall. After 8 years here in IT, I’m quitting with nothing lined up. I genuinely cannot do this anymore. Sure, the market is horrendous, but I have enough saved up and my health matters more. I’ll be free to apply to jobs and network in peace, and able to focus on what matters in my life. Godspeed to anyone else who is stuck in this “company”. I should’ve just AEOI’d but i was naive. Oh well, new chapter! Sayonara! ✌🏿

I have a very obvious target at my back. Seems like they are giving me time to find something else BUT I will NOT leave without the package!

How long do I have left before I’m WFRd?

How long did you wait?

Also, I could pull the reverse card and go on another burnout leave but at this stage I wouldn’t mind the package and unemployment for a bit.

Anyone who truly cares about their work and their job, anyone who has an inherent desire to show up and do the best they can, anyone who has the beloved “Protestant work ethic,” will end up in a mad house.

The way to win is to simply stop caring. Nod enthusiastically as your boss pretends to care about you. Smile to anyone above you. Offload as much work as you can to other departments you know are also overworked and undertrained and won’t do the job correctly. Stop caring about the people you support, the company, or even your own perspective of being a hard worker that does what is right. Put 20% effort in at all times. Enthusiastically go along with whatever new initiative is that you absolutely know will fail, in fact, be a cheerleader for it! Tell all your colleagues how great and amazing it is you will be rewarded.

Adopt the mask that you initially judged other people for. Outwardly be a yes man. Inwardly, stop giving a single shred of attention to your job beyond what it takes to not get fired. Going above and beyond will do nothing for your career.

Being absolutely mediocre but pretending to be a sycophant will get you promotions and awards. Caring means you might actually try and solve problems or bring attention to leadership about why things don’t work. They do not want that. Being worried about your own quality of work and the people you support means you might express your workload is untenable and you need help, they don’t want that. So remove the human element completely. You are a salesman, not just for clients, but for every person you work with. Promise them the moon and deliver a brick of concrete, and tell them how much work and pride you put into it. To get to where they are, they also know to play the game, and will nod and pat you on the back and tell you what a good boy you are. And maybe even give you an award for it!

Schwab cares about appearances over absolutely everything else. Through the clients eyes means: make sure the client doesn’t see all of the absolute tu-ds that you deliver to them. Dress it up prettily. Tell them the diminished service and products and attention they get is actually for their benefit. And do the same for every single person you work with and for.

Former tech project manager here. Now part of the deadwood population here that is too young to retire but ready to GTFO. Where does a guy like me go? I’m tired of being railed into the ground.

I’m on my second company and third layoff since 2023, and at this point I’ve stopped pretending to be shocked. Every new job swears it’s different, then the same script plays out months later. This just goes to show that the grass is not all that greener on the other side.

Is this another way of quietly reducing the number of employees? We’ve had several positions sitting open for months, one since April, and nothing’s happening. All of us are taking on extra work we shouldn’t have to do just to cover for it, and at this point, I’ve got a feeling it’s going to stay that way.

Morale is in the toilet, it takes teams 10x as long to build anything meaningful in tech. No good requirements from business to even build anything. We continue to invest in things that are failing or aren't even thought through. It's just been a bunch of 32 plus managers trying to meet their goals to get big bonuses by being yes men and not innovating anything, laying people off to pretend to have profitability. Now we are seeing the fallout from these decisions. Optum used to be a company I was proud to say I worked for. But I have little faith, even my own manager is having a hard time getting us motivated. Fear will only motivate the masses for so long. Then people stop caring. The Indians are not gonna put up with this either, Optum is one of the lower paying employers in India too and they all know it. What IS the long term plan guys? Do you all think past the next earnings report? Because these decisions are not made by a company who is seeking long term financial gains. Good strong companies treat their employees like gold, not trash. The job market will change, the Indians will go to Humana or some other healthcare company that treats them with respect, and the Americans will be done with you. My advice? Invest in your long term employees. Especially considering that many of us have so much domain expertise that will put your systems in harm's way if you lose us.

Corporations are learning fast from each other how to sc--w employees over, and get rid of them on the cheap, or better yet, for free. Just watch the RTO conditions keep piling up until enough people quit because they can’t or won’t meet them. They don’t care that full RTO pushes the best out first, as people with strong resumes have options. But then again, when was the last time they cared about skill or competence?

Just when you thought the revolving door couldn’t spin any faster, here comes the 5-day RTO mandate starting 1/1/2026. Truist-wide hammer drop, no carve-outs. Grant spilled it to a handful Audit earlier today, claiming a bunch of folks will be thrilled and floating “feedback” that’s DOA. Delusional, out of touch, or just the yes-man script from a guy with zero audit experience who got dropped in to mop up DD's disaster?

Stings worse when you zoom out: nearly half (44%) of the department was hired over the past 12 months—all under the latest “intentional flexibility” BS promising at least one WFH day. D-mb as $hit, especially after it got chipped away from three days (or whatever loose vibe it was post-COVID), to two, now this—straight zero. Crystal clear they don’t give a d@mn about teammates.

And for those whose teams are scattered across offices? Purportedly the buildings won’t be total ghost towns, but good luck if you’re showing up with a floor full of random Audit bodies and zero from your actual team. Still grinding through 1+ hour commutes, just to fire up Teams for the exact same virtual pull-ups you’d have from home. Wasted time, zero upside—except awkward small talk with strangers over the Keurig.

But the real gut-punch is the burnout carving us up. Teammates who used to light up the room with laughs? Now overworked zombies, stressed to the brink, ducking out only for bathroom runs—no time for chit-chat, in-office or after. And yeah, it shows: more than a few have aged a decade in a few years, faces etched with the grind. Our team’s a powder keg, with mismatched placements forcing the rest to pickup endless slack amid accelerated deadlines, while many of our counterparts coast. Describing it as a dumpster fire is kind; we’re a skeleton crew teetering on collapse.

While many of us may have been hanging on—some because d@mn, we love the actual work; others because options feel slim right now—and props to the handful of directors who still give a d@mn, even that crew’s thinning out fast. But let’s be real: this grind’s unsustainable for the long haul, and 5 day RTO’s just the shove over the edge for too many. Expect a wave of us dusting off resumes soon, though I imagine that's the entire purpose of the new mandate. I'm sure this isn't isolated to Audit and that other areas are probably staring down the same sinking dread, swapping wild rumors, or scraping for silver linings that don't exist.

If you’re burned out, start saying no and stop feeling guilty about it. Managers here depend on us to keep their jobs alive, not the other way around. Half of them won’t even call you out because they’re terrified of confrontation. Keep saying no long enough, and they’ll finally lay you off with a nice severance attached. Sometimes that’s the only peace you’ll get from this place.

And I don’t even care anymore. I’ve given up on trying to make a difference because nothing changes no matter how hard you push. At this point, it’s just about getting through the day, collecting a paycheck, and hoping the next round of layoffs skips my name.

Since the onset of COVID-19, Dell has undergone significant changes that have made it an increasingly difficult place to work. Leadership appears indifferent to the strain and exhaustion employees are experiencing. The ongoing rounds of redundancies have created a sense of instability and mental fatigue, while the workload remains relentless. Employees receive little recognition or appreciation for their hard work or the personal sacrifices they continue to make.

The implementation of upcoming projects next year is expected to result in further reductions to the workforce, exacerbating an already challenging environment. This is no longer the company I once joined with pride; it has become an organization that seems to have lost its regard for the well-being of its employees
Are other sectors just as bad ?!

The tech’s impressive, I won't lie, but the culture’s another story. So much internal drama and empire-building, it was exhausting. I still can’t decide if I should be grateful for the experience or angry I stuck around for as long as I did.

Accenture is the definition of burnout. Same outdated systems, same empty promises, no real path forward. The layoffs are just the cherry on top of a very stale, very bland cake.

Every day I wake up dreading logging in. I’d honestly rather scrub floors than do this job anymore. That’s how far it’s gone. The stress isn’t worth the paycheck.

Every time I think we've hit rock bottom, they find a new way to stress us out. The constant changes, PIPS, the fake pep talks, the micromanaging, layoffs, AI... It’s draining everyone. Do they want to have a completely demotivated workforce that only does the bare minimum? Is that the goal here?

Things are so bad that people who used to care now just do the bare minimum to get through the day. And management is somehow shocked that productivity is dropping. Who would have thought that a toxic work environment goes hand in hand with mentally exhausted employees who barely give a damn.

Learned the hard way that extra effort doesn’t mean extra pay. They’ll just expect it every day after that. Unless it’s compensated or leads somewhere real, it’s just wasted energy. Work your hours, turn off anything work related for the rest of the day, repeat.

Our team has been short by at least three people for months, and our manager keeps acting like it’s normal. The few of us left are juggling way too much, and it's only a matter of time before things start falling through the cracks. If they're hoping this is going to work long term, they're in for a rude awakening.

I have been here for more than ten years and it feels like nothing has changed. No appreciation, no respect, and the same toxic setup year after year. People who care end up burned out, while bad behavior gets ignored. If anyone is thinking of joining, look somewhere that values its people.

Tell me how to quiet quit so I am doing it right.

I noticed recently a lot of messaging lately about how great it is to work at T, how everyone loves it and the benefit are fantastic (hooray for Lyra). Even our screensaver now tells how great it is to work here. Then I read this article and thought that's T.
https://www.shrm.org/topics-tools/news/linkage/hidden-cost-of-positive-vibes-only-at-work
Forced positivity comes with the unspoken expectation that employees should stay upbeat regardless of stress, fatigue, burnout, or team challenges. And while maintaining a positive environment is key, forcing a culture of unrealistic optimism isn’t grounded in reality. It creates a false environment

From Entrepreneur

Michael Dell Encourages Leaders to 'Make a Crisis' — Even If There Isn't One Already. Here's Why.
The 60-year-old CEO of Dell Technologies says crises motivate employees and bring about necessary changes.
——
This is the fastest way to create burnout. Apply pressure with no end while the CEO is on a private 787 jetting between on vacation spot to another. I’m sorry Michael, but this is not playing nice.

You may need an Apple News account. (Sorry)
https://stocks.apple.com/AupLrQI_HQ3OSCKZKzPUuHw

After half our team got cut, things have been brutal. We’re all doing twice the work for the same pay and pretending it’s normal. No new hires, no plan, just endless burnout and silence from management. I'm not sure anymore who got lucky, us or those who were let go.

My manager favors some employees while constantly giving others a nightmare workload. It's literally become unbearable. I’ve caught myself hoping for a layoff just to escape the daily toxicity more than once - and I can't afford to be laid off right now!