Hacker News Reader

Comment by firecall | Hacker News Reader

I've been through it. Burn out, Depression. Quit a job, six months off.

I see people doing that as taking control. We are the strong ones. We are the ones who reject the vile life that is corporate cubicles.

People who seem to be able to tolerate it have in reality just given up. They are reduced to accepting the grey cubicle and unchanging life that is working in an office.

Sure, there are some shining lights and people that thrive. But the majority of people in offices are beaten down and just trying to stay anonymous and survive.

A nervous breakdown is going on the offensive! It's screaming no more! It's taking back your life in a burst of energy that leaves you exhausted and takes time to recover from. But when you do recover, and you will, you come out better and wiser than before.

I guard my mental health like the Crown Jewels now and really try not to do anything I don't want to do!

View on HN

Yes! So much yes to this. Depression, anxiety, burnout, these are all messages from your subconscious that you need change, radical, drastic change. You need to stand up and shout to the world and to your subconscious that you won't take this shit anymore.

There are a (probably) minority of people with genuine brain chemistry imbalances, genetic or otherwise, that cause depression. But for the vast, vast majority of people being fed pills and trying to ignore their problems, your mental health issues are signs of issues you need to deal with, unresolved traumas, unfulfilling work, love, family, or social situations, political problems that you can't accept but you won't engage with, and so on.

> the vile life that is corporate cubicles

I’m sorry, but this triggered me. Have you tried an open office? I long for my cubicles.

At least then I had like 4 square meters to myself. Both my space and my privacy have been degraded more and more.

Hi!

Actually I lumped in cubicles with open offices as being the same thing.

I've worked in both!

I'll try to be careful with my words here:

So I found no difference in my actual happiness or well being such.

I do agree that having a 'home' in an office is important - and a cubicle you can call your own and decorate is something...

Totally agree that open plan noisy offices are a nightmare!

Hot-desking is another level of hell again!

All things considered I dont have poisitve views of any office situation based on my now >25years of experience! (damn, has it been that long...)

But I appreciate that some people do.

So thats just me :-)

These days I get to work from my home office with my wife and it's great! :-)

Coming from this direction, especially for deep work, I think the corporate choices of offices have failed so spectacularly that the current Immovable Wall of people who refuse to go off remote is one sign of inevitable fallout from chronic, multi-generational mistreatment. I count myself as one of them.

Having thrown off multiple jobs that tried to reduce me to mindless peon, I find that the attempt to force me into their paradigm is explosive and will only explode more in the future. Via me, or the countless others who see, agree, and comment on this and other threads like it. Revolutions don't have to be noisy :)

Well, yes, I have to agree there. Cubicles are only nice by comparison with an open office.

The best office I’ve had was one where we had a real room for every 4 people or so (and 20+sqm per room).

I had my own office once but then they got a "specialist" in instead of getting an extra office building that squeezed in more bodies per square feet ever thought possible - like sardines in a can.

I HATED curry days at the canteen.

Then Covid came along and could work from home but then I should have known better when they installed MS Teams and we had longer useless meetings now with fading cheapskate Bob that uses his Nokia headphones as a headset with his barking dog as background noise.

Ah well, at least you can tune Bob out during the meeting and go on with your day.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com