#burnout

1. High performers are cut because their salary is higher due to performing (though not true at Oracle)
2. The Peter Principle is on full display, where managers with threatened egos are intimidated by high performers
3. There is a lack of visibility up the chain (which is mainly filled with psychopaths) regarding the actual output of employees
4. Incompetent brown-nosers survive versus those raising valid concerns and producing

The division I work with is filled with VPs, Directors, and Managers who have contributed zero for over a decade and frankly should not be called engineers or leaders. The Dunning-Kruger effect is displayed daily where they expose their own incompetence. Those who are technically apt and care about their teams are gone, be it in leadership or as individual contributors. The incompetent not only survive but fail up—just reading the recent LinkedIn updates on promotions triggered me to write this rant.
I had a manager who cared and protected us from this insanity. That manager was let go, and we are going full speed into a wall trying to deal with ridiculous asks and unreasonable deadlines from the tyrant managers we now report to. When we raised burnout concerns, they were ignored, and we were told to just keep working harder and meet deadlines. In contacting those who left, I know the job market is terrible, but meeting them, they all look healthier and happier. My health is suffering, and my doctor said I need to reduce stress before something dire happens.
End of rant, end of caring about work. I am checking out. Frankly, I don't give a damn about this job anymore. I will start my job search and see how long it takes before they get rid of me. Who knows, maybe doing nothing will get me promoted!

Do you feel you're suffering from burnout – having too much work, too much pressure and too many demands?

Or boreout – having too little meaningful work to keep you occupied, with whatever hours you do provide to the company being spent on irrelevant tasks that add little or no value to either DXC or its clients?

Or do you feel it's all about right and except that's you'd probably like more salary working at DXC isn't so bad after all?

Why are you ki-ling yourself trying to meet expectations that keep changing? They'll run you into the ground and then let you walk away without a dime.

I've spent months picking up extra work while my team keeps losing people, and this latest layoff has finally pushed me over the edge. I don't see a reason to keep giving everything to leaders who won't support the people doing the work.

Record profits. Billions in buybacks. Wall Street applause.
And on the ground? A culture running entirely on fear, silence, and institutional burnout.

Question a flawed strategic decision, push back on an impossible deadline, or bring real operational truth to the table, and you are immediately marked as a problem. Upward mobility isn’t tied to engineering rigor or delivery; it’s reserved for yes-men and political preservation.

The Leadership Disconnect: Middle managers and Directors have virtually zero autonomy—they exist merely to absorb blowback from the top and pass down unreasonable demands. Meanwhile, executive layers operate with zero accountability, handing down aggressive mandates and public criticism while remaining completely insulated from the ground reality.

HR Is Not Your Ally: Don't let the glossy "culture of care" slides fool you. Going to HR with a genuine grievance doesn't solve the issue—it puts a spotlight on you as an inconvenience to be managed out. The unspoken rule is clear: keep your head down and stay silent.

Human Cost of Record Margins: When restructuring hits, loyalty means nothing. Thousands of people who sacrificed weekends and gave years of their lives to keep legacy platforms alive are cut loose with the bare legal minimum severance—all so executive bonuses stay padded and margin targets look pristine on paper.

The outside sees a global payments powerhouse. The inside is an engine running on intimidation, fear, anxiety, and disposable talent. From Vira, all the way to Yanilsa, Luba and other SVPS, the work is exhausting, it’s demoralizing, and people deserve to know the reality before walking through those doors. these are the most toxic people I've ever worked with.

I came in wanting to do good work and bring new ideas, but the environment has worn me down. If you're already feeling the same way, think carefully about whether staying is worth it.

I see the ecosystem is depleting and strained.

Cross-training has become an excuse for poor staffing decisions. Rather than hiring enough people to adequately cover the workload, management continually adds responsibilities to existing employees and calls it versatility. The result is an overwhelmed workforce, diluted attention, increased errors, burnout, and an unhealthy work environment.

You cannot keep adding roles, responsibilities, and expectations without adding resources. Employees are not an unlimited staffing solution, and expecting them to function as multiple positions simultaneously is not good management. It's cost-cutting at the expense of the people doing the work.

interesting seeing more nvidia employees (and former employees) nowadays are speaking up online about the culture. long hours, zero work life balance, managers yelling at people are a default - add to that favoritism and a constant atmosphere of fear. the golden handcuffs come with a lot of BS as well. some teams are ok but i think the toxicity is pretty widespread. most of the mgmt responds to burnout by shifting the blame to the worker and 'efficiency' sh-t, use AI, get organized, su-k it up, etc. ok, now we are sitting on trillions, JH is a demi-god, the competition is several light years behind us and they are still acting like pricks - does any of that success actually translate into being a decent/human place to work?? that's the rant for today.

Honestly so sick of this. Working all hours, smashing it every time, and no one even notices. Get glowing "coaching" reviews and then I'm still sat here waiting to get binned off for no reason. Living day by day, hour by hour, waiting for the axe to fall. Proper done in

From waking up to make this commute to sit in an office on zoom calls to talk to my team thousands of miles away. This isn’t sustainable.

AT&T vs. Starlink is shaping up to be a Blockbuster vs. Netflix moment, and we’re going to watch it happen in real time with a front-row seat. Get your popcorn ready!

While the competition evolves, AT&T leadership is busy tracking badge swipes and forcing employees into the office five days a week for absolutely no good reason. Now everyone is burned out, checked out, and increasingly indifferent to what happens to this company. Just 8 and skate and collect your paycheck. That’s the culture Stink has created.

The market is changing, the technology is changing, the competition is changing. Apparently, the only thing AT&T leadership wants to change is where its employees sit, seemingly hoping they’ll become miserable enough to quit on their own.

AT&T “leadership” is a fu--ing joke.

I was laid off after a pretty long career at the company. I just want to share my experience. I was pretty burnt out, and after the initial shock and anger of being tricked into attending a meeting that turned out to be something completely different, I felt relief. I took advantage of the severance to actually address the burnout so that I wouldn't get into this situation ever again.

There was a lot of anxiety about what I was going to do long term, there were a lot of weeks where I wasn't sure what was going to do. Spent a lot of time applying for jobs, interviewing, and all the things that you're supposed to do. It was not fun, but honestly it really beat going back into the situation I was in before at the company.

I came out the other side a lot better, it su-ks while it was going on, but I'm glad I'm out

Today will be a hard day in more than one aspect. I don't think I'll be able to focus on work at all. Despite that, I'm still hoping it's over and done with by the end of the day. I'm tired of waiting. Both my mental and physical health could really use some clarity, whichever way it goes for me.

The priorities keep changing, the managers are overwhelmed, and basic work is harder than it needs to be. A one percent raise doesn't make that worth putting up with.

QCOM does culprit practice of hiring young graduate for low wages ; squeeze them by giving heavy work load eventually ruining their health. Once burnt out layoff the work force for hiring next batch of victims . QCOM performance rating are manipulated and should be challenged . So any one planning to accept QCOM offer should mitigate that company will make heavy amount of wear and tear to employee health so should ask for heavy renumeration.

LET ME TELL YOU SOMETHING! NO JOB IS WORTH LOSING YOURSELF OVER! 💯 Stop letting a company make you feel like they’re your only option! You deserve better than being worked like you’re in a sweat shop. Know your worth, protect your peace, and don’t be afraid to walk away! There IS something better out there, so NEVER settle for less than you deserve! 👏💯

To fellow coworkers, don't be so loyal you change the equation for Oracle for free. You can only pick two and not the other. Good, Fast, Cheap. Oracle very clearly picks fast and cheap and they expect you to work extra to add the Good. You get what you pay for Oracle. Coworkers don't give them extra so they don't have to slow down or pay people more.

Webex, outlook, meeting and now orchestrating multiple agents . It’s very hard to get anything done . Miss the old days

The true rate of unemployment in high tech is significantly higher than what is officially published and yet US companies continue to outsource jobs to Europe, Canada and other countries because the wages are lower overseas. At the same time companies like Cisco have been over-hiring for years resulting in duplication of efforts and cut-throat culture.
Many industry insiders and economists agree that the current operational model in high tech is hitting a wall. The combination of intense burn-out, hyper-fragmented workflows, and layers of middle management has created environments that are both culturally exhausting for workers and financially inefficient for businesses.

All workers are trapped in a cycle of 10-hr workdays and lost wekends today. Job security now demands constant exhaustion because the competition is relentless. Workers are pushed to the brink just to afford basic survival - housing, food, and bills. This isn't the job market of a generation ago; today, we aren't just competing with a global labor pool, we are competing with AI that operates in minutes. The human cost of this is brutal... Waking up exhausted after hrs of sleep has become the new normal because devices have taken over our lives. We built this hi tech cage ourselves, and with AI poised to take over countless more human jobs the future looks incredibly grim. Oh, well.

You're exhausted from years of surviving. There's a difference. Get out if you can.

I was recently laid off from Deloitte after working there for 6 yrs. The whole thing ended in a 10-minute call with some partner I barely knew and someone from HR. Six years of working hard, staying late, and putting the company before almost everything else... and they got rid of me in 10 minutes.

I went through six busy seasons, worked thousands of hours of overtime, and spent most of my 20s sitting in front of a computer trying to meet deadlines. I missed birthdays, family dinners, and trips with friends because there was always something urgent that needed to be finished. I kept telling myself things would get better after the next busy season, but they never did.

There was always another deadline, another client asking for something, and another late night at work.

What makes this even worse is how much my health suffered during those years. I was always stressed, barely getting enough sleep, drinking too much coffee, and eating whatever I could find because I didn't have time for a proper meal. I stopped going to the gym and hardly had time for anything outside work. I remember opening my laptop late at night because something needed to be done before morning. I thought if I worked hard and showed the company I was dedicated, it would mean something. Now I realize I was just another employee they could remove whenever they wanted. I've also been reading comments from other people who worked at Deloitte, EY, KPMG, and PwC, and so many have similar stories. Some spent years working crazy hours and still ended up losing their jobs. One person said they were laid off after coming back from maternity leave, and another said they had a great performance rating and still got cut. It really makes you wonder what all that hard work is for.

The strange thing is that even though losing my job was a shock, part of me actually feels relieved. For the first time in six years, I don't have to worry about utilization numbers, client deadlines, or checking emails in the middle of the night. I'm sad that it ended this way, but I'm also tired of living like that. I gave Deloitte some of the best years of my life, and I can't get that time back. I'm done with the Big 4 and don't plan on going back. I want a normal job where I can finish my work, go home, spend time with family, and not feel guilty about taking a day off. Losing a job after six years is difficult, but losing your health and personal life because of work is even worse. I just wish I had figured that out sooner...

There are only so many hours in a day, and my workload stopped being realistic a long time ago. I'm covering responsibilities that used to belong to multiple people, so some deadlines are inevitably going to slip. I'm not going to pretend otherwise by working myself into the ground. If everything needs to be done faster, the staffing needs to match the workload.

I wake up with a raging headache, already stressing over Monday. This place has a hold of me even on weekends. And please don't tell me I should just leave. I know that. I've been trying to for over a year. The jobs are simply not there.

I was working with a wonderful colleague who has been such an asset to our organization today. Over many months I’ve seen her go from the can do kid, to overwhelmed and burning out. She like many of us feel like we are backed up to a wall…if not me than who will do it…and if I don’t get it done…I fail, I let the team down. - the problem is not the players on the field. It’s the coach, the GM, and the owner. - they allow slackers and id--ts on the team, call d-mb plays, then expect the skilled players will win the game for them. - and our customers are like the id--ts who pay to go to a Jets games. BD is a lot like the NY Jets. If you have skills, if you want to win, take your game elsewhere.

Has Five9 turned into a burnout factory to just burn through good people with no thought about maintaining our ability to complete our mission...

I know, I'm still employed, getting a paycheck and health insurance so that's a great thing, but working at O is such a drag now, I just can't stand it. New boss(es), new tasks, a ton of work, the same old "come on guys, we can do it" pep talk even though everyone is completely demoralized. It just su-ks - I almost wish they would put me out of my misery so I can just retire.

that's the post

They keep asking me to do more significant projects, while telling me how my last work output was poor.

The CEO has aged 10 years in just 18 months. Reminding us that the psychopath, is the person 2 levels up. Don’t allow them to break you.

We can do this, despite being under paid and a complete disregard for gratitude.

Our team is doing activity tracking and we are averaging 7+ hours a day but apparently that’s not enough and we need to be at 8+. So subtract our lunch time, bathroom runs, taking a water break or just a minute where we are not clicking away and we need to be at the office 9+ hours to meet this number. WF is not a tech company and they do not pay us enough for this type of treatment. No wonder people hate it here

I'm this close to divorce because I've become a miserable person to be around, and I'm well aware of that. Not being able to find anything comparable is not helping. I hate my life and I hate this place for what it turned me into.

I'm tired of not being to enjoy my weekends because I don't know if the following week my livelihood will be taken away from me. I'm tired of always having to think about work because something is always coming. I'm just so tired of this all. I want to work to live, not live to work.

So the plan was not to consolidate teams after cuts, it was to half them and then have those who're still here pick up all the work. I've been ki-ling myself at work since the last layoff and I'm about done. Sc--w whoever thought this would be a sustainable model.

I have a few observations and feelings on this and in no particular order…

1. Compliance actually feels higher than I thought it would be. I am in MMK so I can only speak to that location, but many people are clearly showing up & ki-ling time by going on walks around the buildings, spending long durations in the cafe, playing games, talking to co-workers, then leaving after putting in however many hours of “in-person”. The productivity despite being in-office can’t possibly be any higher than remote. Fidelity’s gonna stick with it regardless though and pretend like collaboration is up. It’s purely pretend and very obvious at ground floor if they act like this had any positive benefit in the slightest.

2. Piggy backing off the first point, most people seem to do their badge-ins, and the office is full. Nobody is happy about it obviously, and it causes the energy to be miserable. RTO has been the only topic of conversation since the start and it’s clear that people are burnt out. Even if you try to enter the office in a good mood, it quickly gets suffocated away. There’s no choice but to interact with other people who also don’t want to be there, and the feeling multiplies.

3. The FLIK workers are slammed every day. They were already full-time before everyone else came back and so it’s clear they have their own set of frustrations over needing to double their output every day. Some are handling it well and others are not. The ones who aren’t, while I definitely don’t blame them and even feel kinda bad from the collateral damage, it adds another layer to the frustration and discontent with being overcrowded and surrounded by unhappy people in the office.

4. Depending on the time you arrive in the morning, the LAZ parking attendants tend to point to obvious places and don’t add any benefit whatsoever, mostly just funny/useless observation.

5. Like I said earlier, I am in MMK. I’ve heard so much about how nice the new seaport office is and how much money Fidelity invested into it. I’ve only been at the company for less than a decade, but those who have been here since the 90s and early 2000s attest that there have been next to no improvements or changes to MMK. It’s absurd how dated the office is, and I for one am quite jealous over the blatant neglect of locations outside of headquarters.

I (naively or not) hold out hope that eventually we move to something like 3 or 4 days a week expectation instead of 5, but I can’t see that happening with the current people making the decisions. Also, the rumor of someone stealing FLIK food doesn’t shock me given the state of affairs & economy.

This deserved a thread of its own, the OP is @a6+1m3dc6nye.

If there aren't enough people to do the work anymore, that doesn't mean you have to become two employees. Do your job at a sustainable pace and let management deal with the newly created, layoffs-related staffing problem.

We are only 3 weeks into this ridiculous RTO policy and I am completely burnt out. Anyone else feeling the same? I don’t know how I’m going to manage this indefinitely. I have no energy once I leave that place, my household chores are going untouched, and I barely have the energy to cook dinner for myself. Surely this isn’t the American dream?…

My main focus right now is looking for another job. That's where most of my energy is going to. For work, I do what I have to, and that's it. Nothing extra, nothing outside of my original job description, nothing beyond working hours... I'm just done with that cr-p.

I'm now done even trying. I'll do what can be done with the time and resources I have. being fired is preferable to the pressure of trying to stay on top of things when they keep adding new things to my already full plate all the time.

Are more people are just going through the motions at work ? Any motivations ?

Just wanted to discuss anon workers thinking no hate