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Comment by torgian | Hacker News Reader

This is a good article.

I’ve experienced burn out before in my previous career, but never experienced very bad symptoms like the lady in this article did.

Anecdotally, I believe burnout is more likely when you work on a job that only cares about profits, or is not fulfilling in some meaningful way. I personally couldn’t work at most of the software companies out there. Why would I want to work for some ad company, or some company that makes meaningless apps / programs that doesn’t benefit humanity?

Sure, on a knowledge scale, some of that might be rewarding for me. But I wouldn’t last more than six months in a company like that.

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Burnout was experienced by many professions, ie caretakers for wounded during world wars. They did care about their work deeply. Same for these days doctors, they choose the work because they are idealists, they still care about their work but grueling hours, little rest etc still make it happen.

I've never understood how somebody can get burnout in usual for-profit corporation. No feedback loop of 'ok-enough-work-lets-rest-or-have-fun'. But its true many people are desperately lonely or struggle in their personal lives, and structured corporate one might seem tempting.

>Anecdotally, I believe burnout is more likely when you work on a job that only cares about profits, or is not fulfilling in some meaningful way.

I worked in academic medical research for a while and many people seemed burn out. There was basically no profit motive since we were working for research grants and there was pretty strict controls on how that could be divvied up on payroll (can't just get a million dollar grant and give the boss a 300k pay raise). You'd think it would be fulfilling since we were studying disease/working towards treatments that could actually help people. Meanwhile I have friends in finance working in purely profit-driven roles that don't really help the world per se, and they don't seem burnt out at all. I really think a feeling of freedom has a bigger role than anything else. If you feel like it's not a big deal for you to take a vacation or a long lunch or just be away in general, then you'll feel less burnt out than someone who is expected to show up every day and give it their all with no end in sight, even if the goal they're working towards is something altruistic.

> Why would I want to work for some ad company, or some company that makes meaningless apps / programs that doesn’t benefit humanity?

Some people don't have much choice or prefer focusing on their personal life.

I have some experience with both sides of the coin, here's my personal take on it:

I'm currently taking a month off work, after leaving an ad tech company, full of wonderful and brilliant people, one of the few places in the industry where ethics are constantly discussed and have impact on the direction of the business.

The reason I joined was burnout due to several years of crunch, stress, the most common startup scenario, I guess. The company I joined is famous for great work-life balance, their involvement in the XP community and friendly culture.

But, one of the reasons I left was to work on more meaningful or rewarding projects. I became frustrated with the industry as such, the constant invasion on privacy, its impact on the society as a whole.

I'm in a very priviledged position, due to the job market in my area and the experience (I started working at a fairly young age). I can afford to take a month and look around.

Here's the thing, I wouldn't be able to identify and pursue some of my goals if I didn't work in ad tech, pharma or finance. I just wouldn't have enough deep domain knowledge to approach these problems in a constructive manner. The conversations I have now and the work I can even attempt to do can be much more impactful, purely because I just know more than I used to.

> Anecdotally, I believe burnout is more likely when you work on a job that only cares about profits, or is not fulfilling in some meaningful way.

Both apply to me (which I realised recently), but as far as I know the term burnout used to refer mostly to stressful occupations doing social good (nurses, teachers). A similar discourse around tech jobs is a fairly recent phenomenon. I think that stress can make the most meaningful occupations depressing, purely because it prevents us from seeing their value.

I recently quit my job at a web agency. Although some of the projects benefited people in some direct way, most it was all about optimising conversion rates and SEO stuff. Really felt meaningless, so I quit.

> Why would I want to work for some [...] company [...] that doesn’t benefit humanity

I apologise for the editorialised quoting, I hope I stayed true to the original text.

More on-topic: People work at places like that because it could be so much worse. If it doesn't benefit humanity, maybe it also doesn't actively harm it. Of course this does not apply to ad companies, but there are plenty of vacuous shops that produce things that exist a thousand times over in other places and offer absolutely zero societal benefit. It's busywork, but it's better than starving or preying on your fellow man.

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