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Comment by ldjkfkdsjnv | Hacker News Reader

Yeah I feel the same way. I work a stressful job that pays really well. If I leave, its unlikely I can land a job that pays the same. I just dont have the energy for leetcode. I am considering taking FMLA time off, which can be three months of unpaid time off. Just need a note from the doctor. I think three months is about enough to cure mildly bad burnout.

Of course work will not be happy with me, but I have to lookout for myself. They have to honor my position upon return, the question being that my future on the team would be compromised.

A more sinister idea is to take FMLA and leetcode full time for three months, then land a new role. Its kind of unethical, but life is so short.

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Have you tried talking about this with your manager? Jumping straight to FMLA is making a lot of assumptions about the company and what they might be willing to do to retain you.

As an example: my SO was dealing with a lot of stress due to health reasons and tried to use FMLA. Her company let her do the paperwork, but ultimately let her take off 3 weeks of paid leave that didn’t count against her PTO. That gave her some room to breathe, but she started crashing again a few months later and tried to hand in her resignation. Welp. Her company is now giving her 6 months of paid leave with no hard obligation to return to work, just a request to be courteous and let them know if she’s not coming back so they can stop paying her.

If the first time that your manager is hearing about your situation is also your request to start taking FMLA immediately or else resign, your manager isn't going to be able to do much for you (and probably won't want to either, given the tough situation you will be putting them in on short notice.)

IMO our industry should really start considering sabbaticals as the next standardized perk. I think they would do a lot to prevent burnout and retain top performers.

+1 to sabbaticals. We had to end someone's employment and rehire them because HR wouldn't consider unpaid leave.

You said: "because HR wouldn't consider unpaid leave" I heard: because [support function] didn't listen to business.

Whether the support function is IT support, IT Security, HR they should not be allowed to simply say "No.".

If business wants to do a thing, then they should be saying "Well, this is how we can achieve that, the benefits and costs are these..."

IMO sabbaticals should totally not be introduced.

I know they sound awesome. But why do some companies introduce them? What are you suggesting introducing them for? To combat burnout. I.e. hopefully shortly before someone really burns out or most probably after they burned out already and need recovery they can go on a sabbatical.

How about not doing 80 hour weeks in the first place? How about not using arbitrary deadlines and throwing a fit over minor delays or changes to the plan? How about not doing all the crazy preventable things and pawing it off on other people.

I know, might be too much to ask so to speak but I really wish that more people would just not take this abuse instead of asking for a sabbatical to recover from the abuse.

Anyway, my $0.02.

I worked at a big technology company earlier this century which had sabbaticals at the 5 year mark. It ended the program because too many people would quit at the end of the sabbatical.

>too many people would quit at the end of the sabbatical

Not surprised. I assume that during the sabbatical, without the burden of the constant rat race, employees had time to reflect on what was bothering them about their job and practice interviewing without the daily work stress, allowing them to secure better jobs later.

I know a lot of people who hate their current job but the daily grind is so stressful, they don't have the energy to practice and interview at other places during the work week so they're more or less stuck in a place they hate.

I'm suggesting them as a way to give people longer breaks from work than can be afforded on 3-5 weeks of annual PTO, as a way for a business to retain talent that would otherwise leave.

Offering sabbaticals and maintaining good work life balance are not mutually exclusive. We should be able to have both.

I quit my job in February in part because my employer would not offer me a sabbatical. Had they offered me a sabbatical, I would likely be returning to work around now. The business would benefit from my seniority and established relationships within the company. Instead I'm out here finding new ways of making money and supporting myself - which is good for me perhaps, but not good for the business that I left.

Are you sure you can't reach out to your network and get in the side-door of a company without leetcoding? If you have advocates on the inside sometimes you can skip all the rigamarole.

Not quite, there are roles I could get. But I am mostly referring to FAANG/Some unicorns in terms of matching comp. None of which will give me the benefit of the doubt, despite my experience. But again, I am quite burned out, so in some ways its in their favor to put me through a rigorous interview process.

Leetcode often filters out burned out employees

> But I am mostly referring to FAANG/Some unicorns in terms of matching comp. None of which will give me the benefit of the doubt, despite my experience.

Then do something else! There is a world beyond unicorns and FAANG companies.

How much money is that worth to you?

I own a house with a very comfortable mortgage payment less than a twenty minute drive or a 40 minute train ride from downtown Boston. I work from home on interesting problems and I have a great dog.

So not a whole lot.

There are better ways to live than sucking down cash to be miserable. You can't take it with you.

Not if you want that level of comp

(Sorry if you were already aware and are saying more along the lines of "money isn't everything", but I wanted to make the point)

Agreed. If you're burned out, consider moving to a lower cost of living area (assuming SFBA or similar is your current situation) and take a lower paying job. The stress of FAANG/startupville doesn't make sense for a lot of people.

This is good advice for a lot of people but a lot of us have a family and cant get passed the idea of uprooting them for ourselves. I am absolutely fried but I cant pull my kids out of school and my wife away from her family. So I just trudge on to the bitter end.

Tell your manager you’re burned out and concerned for your mental health and you might just be allowed to take a paid leave, on which you can leetcode or catch up on TV. I know several people who did this and even one who quit immediately on return.

You might be eligible for paid short-term disability leave with the doctor's note.

Also, interviewing and quitting after leave isn't unethical. Do it, take care of yourself.

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