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I have two issues with this comment. First of all, the OP just described very serious signs of burnout and stress, but the top comment (this one as of this writing) isn't helpful - you are using the OP's raw discussion of their current emotional state to condemn a faceless portion of society for their privilege to not have to work blue collar jobs. You nitpicked the fact that the OP admitted wishful ideation about jobs and inadvertently invalidated that perspective. That's really not productive.

Less importantly, I agree construction sites are likely not a good candidate for the grass is greener perspective, but you're seriously overstating the difficulty of grocery store work. It's not abject misery the way you describe it. When I was younger I too worked in jobs like retail, restaurant and grocery stores. No, it wasn't as fun and liberating an environment as tech, but it was absolutely a more simple environment to work in. There was far less responsibility, and the stakes are lower when the job is basically just a throwaway one and not impactful for your career. The worst that happens in that context is you fail to sell as many TVs as your manager wanted, or you bring out the wrong food to a table, or you misscan an item as a cashier.

My point here is that I believe the OP is having ideation about jobs that seem less complex, not necessarily less difficult. This goes hand in hand with burnout - those jobs are not as fulfilling, but the OP would not have nearly as much responsibility, and the responsibility of running a successful startup on the verge of acquisition that he doesn't enjoy is clearly causing him a lot of anxiety. What the OP needs is an empathic perspective, not a lecture about how the grass isn't always greener.

While retail work was a very simple work environment as you state, I found it to be an experience in misery. it may be simple but dealing day to day with the coworkers and managers in those environment was pure hell. If my only option in life was to work retail, factory, or construction I would kill myself today before going back to that type of work.

Have you ever had an assistant manager in her mid 30s shout at you the generic company values off of the company propaganda posters in a closed door meeting because you weren't quite living the company line? I have....

i dont get it. i worked in factory during summer. while it gets boring, you dont have stress, and after you have finished your work you go home and dont think about your work.

i probably could not work it long time, but if you are stressing in that line of work its you not the job.

Obviously it's a subjective experience. If you are able to work in those types of jobs without hating that every second you spend there is a second doing menial low pay tasks; that it is a second of your life that's been wasted on meaningless shit work that you'll never get back then good for you. A substantial amount of people aren't like you.

Honestly, I hate to say this but your perspective here sounds more like outright arrogance than anything inherent to the job. You speak about these jobs as if they're utterly beneath you and inflicting misery on your time. I'll reiterate: I have done most of the jobs you mention, and while I certainly didn't feel personally fulfilled by them or buy into the company mission, I didn't spend my time in abject misery - I made the most of it and found that my coworkers could actually be fun, even if they weren't bound for tech or a similarly intellectually exciting field.

I personally don't believe there's anything inherent to any job that makes it meaningful or not meaningful; you admit that your opinion is subjective but then provide a backhanded compliment about the parent being able to enjoy "meaningless shit work"...it doesn't sound like you've conceded that it's subjective there. With a few poignant exceptions, you can choose whether or not to derive meaning and enjoyment from a job, even if you recognize that it's not what you ultimately want to do.

I spent about a decade in retail-ish jobs (started young). They are substantially easier to deal with when you know you have something else waiting for you. The difference between a lifer and a just-passing-through youngster is hard to overstate.

> They treat you like a bad kid, you get humiliated 24h/7 by who ever is higher in the "hierarchy".

That is not unheard of even in programming gigs. I've seen it around me, coming from bad management. I've been exposed to it but I've been good enough (at least compared my workplace) and managed gathering enough respect from both my coworkers and my superiors that I've been shielded from it. But it happens, they feel you're new, they feel they have an ounce of authority above you and they go crazy with every mistake(and mistakes happen).

You're describing a poor work environment which can occur in tech, especially in startup. There's also thousands upon thousands of blue collar work that don't have a poor work environment.

I felt much better after a day of unloading trucks in a wearhouse than I do now coming home from a day of sitting in an office chair programming. Sitting all day is terrible for your body and it's exausting to boot. One of the biggest shocks of my entire life was the first day I got home from my first programming gig and being more tired than coming home from the job I was working a week before (food service) (1)

(1) https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/23/stand-up-wh...

And yet you still choose to be a programmer rather than a cargo handler? It's not just the physical toll as to why unskilled labour jobs suck.

I only choose to be a programmer because of the pay. I don't intend to program forever, only until I can afford not to.

Isn't it a general human tendency, to assume that whatever other people do must be trivial while my own job is really challenging and can only be done by sophisticated people like myself.

It is, but people also admire other jobs and assume they are incapable of doing them.

Regardless, the OP wasn't wishing to own a construction company or manage a grocery store. He was wishing to do individual contributor work in a field that uses his body more. It is not arrogant to want that. OP may find after some months that they are ready to go back to tech, and it seems that would be a good outcome since the burnout would have abated.

Factories don't have to be nasty. I have one, with 6 automated machines and 10 people. We have fun, try to make the automated machines build everything. It can be demanding at times, but so are startups.

Programming welding robots, laser cutters , CNC milling machines and making whatever you can dream up is pretty fun. I was in Las Vegas last week walking through the fancy hotels and casinos admiring all the laser cut steel they use in architecture now. It was fun to tell my wife that I could make the giant metal cards at the ARIA poker room, exactly the same on the new machines I just got. She was quite impressed. We are planning our backyard remodel using all the machines at work. Should be quite spectacular when complete.

Man, I loved working construction. Admittedly, I was young and strong, and my body could handle the workload. That stuff will flat out use you up over decades of strain.

But working outside, with my hands, making something tangible I could see at the end of the day? Fuck yeah man. It was deeply satisfying.

Unfortunately, I had the aptitude and training to do more demanding, less fun, arguably more important work, so no more ladders and hammers for me.