Career Burnout after 16 Years in the Tech Industry
More Layoffs, More Overwork, More BS, and how you can avoid it
“I’m always tired and I just don’t know what to do anymore when it comes to my job…”
It was another early morning. I didn’t sleep well the night before. A couple months ago I was diagnosed with Severe Sleep Apnea, most likely from me being severely Overweight. It was always hard for me to get the Deep Sleep I needed to recharge and I could never use that loud CPAP machine successfully, it kept me awake more than it helped me sleep.
On top of all that, my 4 year old had trouble sleeping again last night as well, so I was up regardless. None of that mattered though. My alarm was going to go off at 7:30 am regardless. I needed to get ready to make my hour-long commute in traffic, driving my little Honda Civic heading downtown to my IT Job that I was just so tired with. My boss indirectly told me he was going to retire in like 15 years, which was code for “There is no progression or promotion available to you until then at our little 300 Person Company”. The Salary was good though, and the Health Insurance was decent for my family as well, so I stayed, for 3 more years, gaining weight, becoming numb to it all and very jaded towards my futile efforts of ever believing that I could get out of these Golden Handcuffs I kept placing myself in…
I’ve always loved helping people, I always learned stuff way faster than others, and it was only natural for people to come to me for support. They would help come to me for help with Computers, Technology, Writing, and even just with understanding new concepts in general.
Eventually, this habit led to me becoming a People Pleaser, and it eventually became my whole personality.
“Give a Man a Fish, Feed him for a Day. Teach a Man to Fish, Feed him for a Lifetime”
Throughout my career, it was just me fishing my brains out to provide fish for every company and customer I worked for, no one was learning to fish (or Fix their own simple Tech Problems so I could focus on bigger, more complicated and more interesting Issues).
I tried teaching the repeat offenders, they never learned. They couldn’t understand the logic behind troubleshooting. That's why every company on the planet has an IT Department or at least an IT Guy, people don’t want to solve their own Tech Problems, that work seems beneath them. Boomers are especially susceptible to outsourcing their tech problems because they never grew up with computers in the first place and since Boomers make up most of the management class in today, we deal with them because they’re our bosses and its what we do.
I was just looking for validation, something we all do. At some point though, that need for validation turned into my HUGE problem with Burnout. I gave too much of myself, gave up too many of my own needs and desires that I didn’t have anything else to give back to my own soul. I was just so sleep deprived, joy deprived, and I just felt so isolated and lonely, even from my own IT Team. My manager didn’t know how to help me, and even if he did, he was too busy keeping the servers alive while being understaffed. It started me on a dark path, I became extremely cynical about my job, even though it paid rather well.
The Burnout reached its peak when I got called into a 1:1 feedback session with my Boss. Leadership did a feedback survey for our IT Department. I had received several negative, severely incriminating complaints about my attitude and professionalism amidst my coworkers.
That 1:1 session hit me like a ton of bricks. I had always thought I was the reliable one, the caregiver, the “service with a smile” exemplary, the customer service king. I always prided myself that I was easy to get along with. It was at that moment I realized something had to change, and it wasn’t my attitude.
Overwork is so ubiquitous now in our culture. We’re told by our Bosses and Influencers that trying hard enough will help us overcome any problem.
That just isn’t true. It’s really what got us here in the first place. I’m living proof of that.
Hustle and Grind Platitudes will not cure the Burnout Crisis we are quickly hurling towards. After a short time, I ended up quitting that job and I became a stay at home dad. It was my “Great Reset”. I was trying to reset my decades-long struggle with who I was and how I could recover the joy I hadn’t felt for my career in quite some time. I’m still on that journey now, and when you stop and look, you’ll realize how many people are still struggling out there like I was. They are all giving up too much of themselves for a job that really doesn’t matter and that doesn’t care for them.
Like the quote from the Movie “Up in the Air”:
“How much did they pay YOU to give up on your Dreams?
<Insert your current Salary Here>”
Many of the stigmas around IT people come from the experiences we have with supporting repeat “fish gorging” offenders. They say “Doing something the same way and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity”, I call it just another day at the Corporate Office.
Do our jobs as IT Support become the definition of insanity then? Does the Salary we accept become our hush money to just keep quiet and continue supporting those who can’t figure out their own computer support issues?
I know there are people out there that love what they do, but change in our careers and our interests need to evolve over time if we’re to be healthy and grow.
If you are feeling it’s time to make a change or if you’re struggling like I was, I would love to chat with you and see if I could help you reach that goal.