#burnout

It took getting sick to realize how bad it had gotten. Now all my energy will be focused on finding a way out.

It would be nice to say these things without feeling like you’ll be putting a target on your back. But here we are, so I will just state it here and wondering which upper upper management actually reads it?
There are concerns about how you’re framing discussions around work habits. When you mention waking up in the middle of the night thinking about work, or suggest that employees log in after hours for trainings so we can be the first org to finish it, you send the message that overextending ourselves is encouraged. This contributes to a culture that leads to burnout. Please be more intentional about promoting healthy work-life balance and sustainable productivity.

That’s all.

I used to care. I really did. Now, with everything, I’m hoping I get laid off so I can move on.

Younger folks, seriously, don’t fall into the trap of doing two people’s jobs because the company refuses to hire enough staff. Work at your normal pace, take your breaks, and use your time off. If they keep cutting people, they’ll eventually realize they have no one left to fire.

I left Wells Fargo, and now that I’m at another bank, I can really see how weird things were there. No constant process changes, people aren’t as burned out, and managers actually care. If you’re feeling drained, maybe look around a bit before you start thinking that’s just how it has to be.

At this point, I’d feel both relieved and terrified if I got laid off. Relieved to escape the exhaustion and anxiety, but scared of what comes next. And if I stay, I know I’ll just feel numb, dealing with the inevitable toxic fallout from the cuts. No matter how you look at it, this isn’t how anyone should feel about their job.

Ah, the newest corporate gospel has arrived. Another “inspirational” RTO email reminding us that being in the office builds connection — which is ironic, considering I haven’t connected to anyone except the guy who keeps stealing my chair.

Leadership preaches “collaboration,” but what they really mean is: we signed leases, now fill the seats.
They’ve got family photos, doors, and flexible calendars; we’ve got assigned burnout.

The new buzzword of the week? “Ten toes down.” Cute. I guess that’s easy to say when your toes aren’t in traffic for two hours a day.

Every line of these emails reads like it was generated by a bot trained on stale HR slogans. “Culture!” “Teamwork!” “Innovation!” — all while the rest of us are juggling hot desks, dropped calls, and existential dread.

If they actually believed in teamwork, they’d try working by the same rules they force on everyone else.
Until then, spare us the sermons and just call it what it is: office rent recovery.

After each round of cuts I stopped doing something, whether it's the overtime or the extra polishing that used to matter to me. At first I fought to keep standards up, then I realized it was nothing but self punishment. Now I guard my time and try not to let the job eat me, and I make sure to do just a bit less after every round.

I have three roles shoved onto my plate and at this point I'm just trying to keep the lights on. Some weeks I survive on coffee and sheer stubbornness, but to say it's burning me out would be an understatement. The whole arrangement feels temporary and unfair to anyone with a life outside work.

It’s been two years since AT&T blindly followed Amazon into the RTO disaster. And for what? Nothing’s improved… morale, productivity, retention, all worse than before. The only thing that’s gone up is burnout.

Since then, almost no one else has moved to 5x RTO. The vast majority of major companies are still hybrid because they see the damage this kind of policy does to reputation, to employee engagement, and to the bottom line.

And to the guy claiming “5-day RTO is becoming the industry standard” - no, it’s not. It’s been two years, and nobody’s joining this sinking ship. No other major company in the industry does more than 3 days. You’d have to be completely delusional to believe otherwise. Or maybe you just think we’re a tech company. LOL.

They’re all terrible enterprises that only care about the bottom line, no matter the cost to clients or employees. But Optum has been, hands down, the most exhausting, mentally, physically, and emotionally. The mix of daily toxicity and uncertainty, constant ethical dilemmas, and the pressure to underserve clients has taken a real toll. I don’t know how the rest of you are coping, but I can’t seem to shake it off, even in the little free time I get.

Especially not this one. I’ve been doing the bare minimum for a while now. The only times I’ve actually put in extra effort were to help a teammate in a bind. At least when I get the boot, I won’t have any regrets.

I've been under a lot of stress lately and working long hours. It made me curious about how others define Work Life Balance for themselves. While I can find plenty of definitions online but Im more interested in hearing how my peers and colleagues here at Humana personally think about it.

Anyone else here feeling exhausted? And I mean really exhausted? Anyone noticing team dynamic and personality changes? Speaking to many colleagues seems like many are feeling this way but feel helpless that the continued re-org, endless trainings, AI measuring meetings and competencies, half baked offers that don't make sense, constant changes... is Anyone seeing this? Or at all feeling heard? Or is it just me?

I have been with this company for five years and waited so long to get into Navi because they actually use to be really selective with who they hire: getting bought out by Optum who in turn got bought out by UHC has been a horrible down spiral and the writing on the wall is clearly seen but with the job market no one wants to take that leap of faith and quit. I am at a lost of what to do. I have never in my life experienced burnout until this year and my god is it fu--ing awful. I love what I do and I excelled at it then this year we went under another pointless restructuring and now I have a supervisor who’s inauthenticity can be seen from space. Which reflex poorly on the team and the people they brought over to ours are just je-ks. They offer one mental health day: always say they will support your career growth but never mention the certifications or classes you can take, leadership is AFK in the chat and these “gimme days” or whatever with the SNF dept only seem to be granted to who’s tongue is in the supervisors butt at the time. Not to mention the mocking emails of how well the company is doing and brown nosing when those surveys come around, which is tomorrow actually! This job has made my mental and physical health take a shape decline and I’m just ready to end it all.

When we worked from home, people cared more. We gave work extra attention, checked in after hours, and delivered our best because we had the energy to. With 5-day RTO, that’s gone. Now it’s just “do your 8, get out, forget about work.” The commute wears everyone down, the scramble for unassigned seats is ridiculous, and by the time you settle in, you’re already drained.

This idea that RTO “fosters collaboration” is a complete fantasy. There hasn’t been a single in-person meeting. None. Everyone is still on Teams calls with headphones in, just now doing it in a noisy, call-center style cube farm. The only collaboration happening in the office is people bonding over how much they hate leadership and this pointless RTO policy.

It’s not one-size-fits-all. Forcing everyone into the same miserable setup doesn’t make the company stronger, it just burns people out and lowers the quality of work. Productivity, morale, and loyalty are all tanking. But sure, let’s keep pretending warm chairs equal results.

Fidelity is really piling on the workload for people in advisory services. In the IMC space the workload is doubling & of course without any substantial pay upgrades to match.

What I am witnessing is a major culture shift where Fidelity is embracing the Wells Fargo culture of sales at the cost of employee burnout and turnover which I would not be surprised to start seeing more unethical behaviors while the standards of care is being preached. I personally feel there should be those that go out and gather the assets and there are those that maintain and retain the assets. When companies start forcing everyone to be in a high pressure sales role then you can kiss standards of care & company loyalty out the window.

Sad to see some really strong technical folks pushed out over the years and now it’s starting to show with those remaining burned out juggling the additional responsibilities. A week of meetings and nothing to show but follow up meetings.. Demoralising watching some really good people no longer speaking up on calls anymore as they are fed up an burned out.
Top table need to take responsibility for their actions. JC and AL need to go. Time for fresh visionary leadership and direction with a major clear out overdue.

one thing i really miss from corporate sales is the slow unraveling of everyone around me.

sales is stressful. the quotas are heavy, the customers are demanding, and the pressure never really ends. the obvious signs of burnout are easy to spot, but there are also quieter ones, little signals that someone is sinking into what you could call corporate depression.

the first is education. when someone suddenly decides they need an online mba, even though they never mentioned it before, that’s not ambition — that’s usually a cry for help.

the second is airline status. when a salesperson becomes obsessed with hitting the next tier, it usually means they’re spiraling. i remember once flying to chicago on december 30th, just for lunch, and flying back the same day. it wasn’t about chicago. it was about the airline points.

the third, and most serious, is whisk-y. not just buying more bottles, but diving deep into regions and styles. i had a friend in seattle who proudly told me he only drank scotch from islay. we even argued about how to pronounce it. the whole conversation was absurd — two burned-out salespeople debating peat while quietly falling apart.

and the company’s answer? quarterly video calls with hr where the sales team does breathing exercises over zoom. lawsuits and mental health claims piling up, and their defense is, “well, we had them exhale together.”

corporate sales was many things, but above all it was a master class in pretending everything was fine while quietly losing your mind.

I've now scheduled my ME day three times, and each time something comes up. Today was the third attempt, and I've been told I need to provide information to my manager by noon. Every time I try to take this day, I'm told there's something due or overdue, and because we’re so short-staffed, I need to step up. I’m just exhausted.

On top of this, my boss has already said I need to start coming into the office three days a week before November 1st. They’ve also questioned why I haven't done any charity work this year, saying it could affect my performance review and that I should try to schedule something. I’m working seven days a week, and yet it still doesn’t feel like enough. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to keep up.

HP has really turned into one of the worst places to work. It feels like nothing more than a sweatshop. I am told, no salary increases and no bonuses this year and that I should be happy to have a job considering the job market. I am just tired and ranting and I am sure no one cares especially here.

They’ll burn out your creativity, crush your motivation, and smile while doing it. Get out while you’ve still got some spark left in you, because they won’t give it back once it’s gone.

You can tell a healthy company by the way it grows. A sick one just keeps restructuring to squeeze a few more bucks out while everyone burns out. Sound familiar? Working here is like living in a company that’s eating itself alive instead of actually improving.

I’m on what’s left of a team (and I use the term very loosely at this point) that used to actually function, and now I’m basically drowning. If we ignore the fact I’ve lost coworkers who were like family, having to cover all their jobs with the few people we have left has all of us considering quitting, even without something else lined up. They expect too much of us.

Unlike most folks here, I liked working at Chevron. Good people, good pay, interesting work… I’m considered a high performer…but I’m so burnt out I don’t know what to do. I’ve been working basically 2 jobs for the last 3 years. I’ve reached the point where I dread coming in, looking at emails, getting IMs. My bosses have agreed it’s unsustainable, but I’ve cycled through 3 bosses in this period, with no continuity to make changes.

And, it’s clear post reorg this will all get worse. Less competent bosses with less time.

The only solutions I see are quitting or a leave of absence. Taking vacation is pointless, as I end up working 20-40% of the time anyway.

Every morning I have to talk myself into staying one more day.

Any other teams just kind of hitting a wall? No one on my team is really motivated, and I think everyone is just burnt out. No hiring, but layoffs and zero company loyalty will quickly destroy whatever pieces are left of this place.

Five years of micromanaging, angry clients, and being treated like a kid. I finally hit the point where I said no more. Scariest move of my life but now I sleep through the night.

Each day it more and more reminds Squid Game. I am happy that I left it before this sick olympic cut game started. Remember to refresh your resume, plan updating your skills (there are many trainings online), do not ignore mental issue signs (burnout is a really a huge problem). I keep my fingers and thumbs.

Four years here is what it took for me to be done. The toll this place takes isn’t worth the paycheck anymore. I dread logging in every single day, and I can’t imagine ever feeling any different. The whole system is built to grind people down until they finally break, and I guess I did.

Bad enough that every day feels like a punishment for a choice I barely remember making.
And if I dare complain, Ernest’s voice echoes in my head: “You self-selected for this role.”

The expectations?
They are not expectations. They are shackles.

Seven days a week. Twenty-four hours a day. No pause. No mercy. No life. And still “You self-selected for this role.”
Four jobs crammed into one because people burn out and leave, and replacements never come. Their absence becomes my burden. And still “You self-selected for this role.”
Forced into company charity work, even though my own family barely remembers what I look like. And still “You self-selected for this role.”
Begging for scraps of budget, even with a team of a hundred souls. Every dollar has to pass through Ernest, because we are all assumed to be thieves stealing from his bonus. Because God knows, we will never see one. But of course “You self-selected for this role.”

I missed my son’s entire summer of sports. Every game. Every smile. Every memory.
Gone. Because I was chained here.
I leave home at five in the morning, return after seven at night, and collapse into bed only to wake up still exhausted.
I have fallen asleep in the bathroom at work. I have fallen asleep driving to work.
I confessed this once to my colleagues. You know what they said?
“Do not say anything. Do not make Ernest angry. He does not care.”

And he does not.

We cancelled the VIA because Ernest did not want to hear the complaints.
The job market is brutal, and he knows it. He wears it like armor, like permission to treat us all like dirt. Like criminals. As if respect is too expensive a luxury to waste on us.

Quarterly reviews? Forget it. My boss literally told me to just get AI to generate something. Promotions? Not a chance. Ernest fills jobs from the outside, proudly waving the diversity flag, while those of us drowning here never get pulled from the water.

Every single person in Supply Chain hates their job in Spring.
We are exhausted. We are broken. We bleed for this place, and in return we get nothing. No bonuses. No stock worth anything. Just the knowledge that Ernest collects his fat paycheck on the blood and sweat of our backs.

And the Fire Side Chat?
God. Two hours before, you will hear someone calling this place what it is, a shithole. But once the cameras roll, suddenly it is smiles and empty words about how great it all is.
It is pathetic. It is tragic.
We are so dysfunctional it hurts.

(1) Hard Work Isn't Enough
Results need to be seen. Advocate for yourself - quite efforts get ignored.

(2) Loyalty Won't Pay The Bills
Companies are loyal to profits, not people. Look out for yourself first.

(3) Your Job Title Is Temporary
Focus on building skills, not clinging to labels. Titles do not define your value.

(4) Your boss isn't always right
Leaders make mistakes too. Challenge respectfully when it matters.

(5) Networking is Non-Negotiable
Your skills are important, but connections will open the doors.

(6) Burnout is not a Badger of Honor
Work smarter, not harder. Protect your energy - it's your greatest resource.

(7) Comfort Zones Ki-l Growth
If you are not uncomfortable, you are not growing.

(8) Feedback is a Gift
Even the harshest feedback can teach you something valuable. Seek it out.

(9) You Are Always Replaceable
Focus on making an impact, not being irreplaceable. IMpact builds a legacy.

(10) Perfection Slows You Down
Aim for progress, not perfection. Done is better than Perfect.

(11) Career Progress Is Not Linear
Side steps, failures, and pivots often lead to the biggest wins.

(12) No One Will Hand You Success
Take ownership. Push for opportunities. No one is going to care more about your career than you.

Author's Footnote - The 12 Truths listed below are not just for engineering but apply to all jobs. In addition, I would add the following advice. Be honest, respectful, humble, and guard your reputation and integrity to establish yourself as someone who can be trusted and has credibility.

So many coworkers left this year, yet nothing changes in our workload. We’re running ourselves ragged trying to cover gaps that can’t be filled. No hiring, no reshuffling, just pressure. I honestly don’t see how we keep this going much longer.

I'm so tired of this cr-p.

I thought saying yes to everything would keep me safe from layoffs, and now I’m drowning in twice the workload. Cutting back feels impossible without risking everything, and I’m just exhausted. Not sure any of this even helped, so take it from me, know your limits before it’s too late.

You put in extra effort thinking it will lead somewhere, and instead they just pile on more tasks. No new title, no raise, nothing. Now I'm wondering why I ever went above and beyond.

Long Time Employee. Got moved to the MTL role.

I was constantly asked what I need for support. I don't have the ability to articulate what I needed when we are so damn low paying, and nobody wants to do our jobs. The beverage portfolio is so many skus and our teams hate the job. Go into a Walmart at 5AM and look at how much more work Pep Merchandisers have than all the other companies in the store. The Coke guy gets 5 pallets and 80% of it is red silver or green. my 5 pallets take me team three times as long. Our teams get burnt out because the work is terrible then I end up doing the labor. I am going to work with heavy machinery make a 50% pay raise and not manage people. BYE!!!!

Hey senior leaders, we have the most complexity and slightly above average pay.

I left without any sense of guilt, because I knew I needed a job that didn’t consume my evenings and weekends. At first, I worried about letting my team down, but honestly, no one wins when you’re burned out and running on fumes. Moving to a role with a healthier balance has reminded me how much better life feels when work isn’t draining every ounce of energy you have.

I would’ve left Oracle in a heartbeat. The stress is eating me alive. I think I’ve reached the point where all of this is just getting to me way too much.

What’s been your experience with the job search lately? I’ve been looking for months, and honestly, I’m open to creative ideas and stepping well outside my comfort zone. I won’t go into praising or bashing Ford. I’m just personally burned out after years here that led nowhere. On top of that, I’m flat-out bored with my job. Maybe it’s not the best timing for a change, but I need one badly.