June 30, 2021

"If you are unhappy, or if you frequently say you are 'exhausted,' if maybe you cry at work a little more often than you personally think is reasonable..."

"... if you wake up in the morning and consider dying instead of going to work, you CLEARLY owe it to yourselves to do something else. Will making a change maybe make you poor or scared? SURE. Could the change be bad? ABSOLUTELY. But the alternative — staying put, degrading like an old yogurt — is to become a worse person. You can’t solve your own burnout, you can only change the system or your situation. And while it seems like becoming a worse person is a pretty common choice, do you really want to be common?"

That's Choire Sicha (at Substack), where I went because it was linked at "Ex-New York Times Styles editor says he suffered from burnout, wished for death" (NY Post). Sicha had been the NYT Styles editor for 4 years. 

I don't know if Substack offered him better money or what really happened. He says he likened himself to  old yogurt. He thought of dying. And who are we to say he didn't?

4 comments:

Ann Althouse said...

Mr. Weebs writes:

My God, this was so me for way too many years. I never found the strength, fortitude or wherewithal to do anything about it. Gaslighting, constant lies, stealing/embezzling and on and on. I was too scared and on and on with excuses to do anything. It will change, (no it won’t), it will get better, (no it didn’t), the owner will wake up, (he wound up making excuses for it). Then they offer me this sweetheart deal of promises that I thought was salvation and was for a period but it was only the prelude to letting me go. So now I’m unemployed and over 65 with a myriad of health issues that add up to a big health problem. Is my life better? My life is different with new concerns and worries after a year of lockdowns and reduced fiscal capability. My depression has phase shifted. It is very difficult but so much better than being around sociopathic tendencies. Sick people make you sicker.

Ann Althouse said...

Temujin writes:

"He says he likened himself to old yogurt."

Old Yogurt? https://spaceballs.fandom.com/wiki/Yogurt?file=Yogurt.jpg

Mel Brooks turned 95 two days ago. One of our greatest funny men.

Ann Althouse said...

lordsomber wrote:

I looked to see if you have a "first world problems" tag, but I didn't see one.
Perhaps it is time for one.

I wouldn't necessarily skip over reading a "first world problems" post -- one can usually tell it is such before the second sentence. It'd just be a way to view the multitude of such posts over the years.

Ann Althouse said...

Joe writes:

That seems like pretty damned good advice.

This part: 'You can’t solve your own burnout, you can only change the system or your situation.'

...reminds me of Scott Adams' 'Systems not results' which he actually referenced today.