#burnout

I've seen it happen to three good people in the last couple of years. They asked questions, pushed back, or challenged a decision and within weeks, they saw repercussions. Their workload doubled, they became subject to constant criticism, and any support they had before simply vanished. They didn't get fired but they just got worn down until they quit. That's the BP way, I guess.

I keep asking myself if I actually like this job anymore. The answer keeps changing and not in a good direction. The work itself is fine, but everything around it is draining. I can't remember the last time I felt excited to start the day.

So many folks at Nike don't complain, don't cause trouble, just do their work consistently and on time, and they get rewarded by being buried in even more work. Management sees your quiet competence as capacity for more. I speak from experience. Since I started complaining and saying no to more work, my life has improved significantly.

CTX is the worst. I don’t know anyone, other than a handful of a$$ kissers that don’t do any real work, that are happy. One of you leaders with some b@lls needs to step up and make some positive changes before all of the good people are gone or too burnt out to care.

This is more or less just to vent, but I’m tired of the “do more with less” attitude here. I know I’m not the only one whose team has been expected to take on more work with less resources, make sense of vague information from leadership, all with no title changes or pay increases.
I’m categorized as a “high performer”, but I’m burning out and losing my will to care. I’m actively looking for a new job, but it’s a struggle to look for something on top of my workload. I don’t know if anyone else feels the same.

Is anyone else dealing with tone deaf leadership? Everyone has an opinion, but trying to gaslight people into thinking this is good for all is absolute bullsh-t. Taking the VSP isn't best for everyone. Even those of us dealing with burn out who feel ready to move on can’t just jump ship if our financial footing is unstable. Some of these so called leaders need to stop telling us how to feel about our livelihoods. I guess it's easy for someone pulling in mid to high six figures to believe that taking the VSP is an easy win.

The workload keeps growing, and the support keeps shrinking. I haven't seen a single meaningful change that would improve things in years. How are we supposed to keep working when we're all literally burning the candle at both ends?

I’m part of the first group and my PL seemed very stressed out about that. said they wished I was staying longer.

my thing is I am done. my PL has piled on more work for me while allowing pi-s poor performance from others (and I have been doing their jobs for the last three years).

I have listened to my PL give every excuse under the sun as to why others can’t do better, including the fact that I can do the work faster and with high accuracy… so?

I know this is not a unique circumstance and high performers are usually given more work while others continue to coast. I’m beyond burnt out and exhausted.

I’m so anxious about them prolonging my departure instead of putting responsibilities where they belong, back to the people whose job it is. my actual responsibilities can easily be distributed, the work I do is not that complex.

the difference with my colleagues covering my work is I won’t be here. I covered theirs while they whined and complained about every. little. thing. they sat and got paid. I did it all. I’m done.

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/10/01/ghost-growth-is-frustrating-and-burning-out-workers-says-new-report.html

I've watched so many experienced people leave this place in the last year. The replacements don't know the job and don't seem to want to learn. Meanwhile, management acts like the veterans are the problem. We're the ones carrying the weight, but we're the ones being blamed. It's exhausting.

Just wondering how long you have spent or plan to spend in your current role? I have been with the company almost 20 years and in my position for a good portion of that time. I used to really like it. The last few years, not my immediate director, but the next level up has become extremely controlling. It is to the point that I don’t even know what decisions I can make or not without vetting it through both levels. It’s incredibly frustrating and has led to burnout for me. Theres always a chance for turnover I guess, but I am also considering moving to a different group. It has been quite a while since I have tried something new.

After back-to-back meetings about the same things we had meetings about last week and a passive-aggressive ping from a director who can't articulate what he wants, yesterday I was tempted to google "fast food hiring near me." I'm honestly at the point where the simplicity of flipping burgers seems superior to this mess.

There's no reward for hard work at Oracle anymore. The raises are terrible, nobody gets recognized, whether you're the best or just getting by, it's all the same. So I keep asking myself why I should even try. The answer I keep coming back to is that I probably shouldn't. Just do what's required and move on. It's not worth the stress.

Ask around and you'll hear real frustration. With Gunjan/leadership, with direction, with a culture that's betting worse, high workloads, burnout.... But turnover is basically nothing. People stay for years, sometimes decades.

That's a weird combo. Usually when people are this unhappy, they leave. So what's actually keeping everyone here?

My guesses:

Golden handcuffs. Pension, benefits, tenure perks that are hard to walk away from
Grass isn't greener thinking. Assuming other places have the same problems anyway
Complaining isn't the same as job hunting. Sometimes it's just how people vent
Not a lot of comparable roles nearby to jump to

Anyone who's been here a while, what's actually kept you?

So many people are quitting from burnout. Leadership doesn't care because they don't have to pay severance. They think they're winning.

I'm curious for those who have already left, what was it that finally pushed you over the edge? Was there a specific moment, a particular incident, something that just made you say enough? Hearing about other people's experiences might give me the push I need.

I'm so drained from working here that it's started affecting my health. For the first time in my life, I'm on blood pressure medication. I've been trying to find a new job, but nothing seems to be working out.

You can see it everywhere. People have completely stopped trying. Management doesn't care about us, so we don't care about our jobs anymore.

Whenever someone leaves the team, the first question is never "how do we replace this person?" It's "who can take over their responsibilities?" Before long, their entire workload gets spread across everyone else, and we're expected to keep everything running like nothing happened. The problem is that this keeps happening over and over, and the team is already exhausted. People are working longer hours just to keep up, but there doesn't seem to be any urgency from management to address the staffing issue. I honestly don't know what the breaking point is supposed to be before someone realizes we need more people if we're to keep going.

I've been working long enough to know that every job comes with pressure. What I've never experienced before is feeling this mentally exhausted all the time. The workload just keeps growing, the expectations never ease up, and it feels like everyone is running on empty. I've reached the point where I'm looking for something else because I can't imagine doing this much longer.

I like what I do, and I've always tried to give it my best. Lately, though, it feels like every time you prove you can handle something, you're rewarded with even more work and even higher expectations. At some point, even the people who care start wondering why they're trying so hard.

I was expected once again to take on tasks I've never been trained for, on top of everything else I already have to do. I said no. I told them if that's a problem, they can fire me because I'm done caring. My manager wasn't thrilled, but I'm still employed for now, so I guess they needed me more than they let on.

I've given everything to this place for years and now I'm just done. I'm doing the bare minimum, hoping they'll notice and cut me loose in the next round.

If you care about your mental health, stay far away. They'll tell you they care about employees, but it's all talk. You're just a number to them and they treat you as such.

Everyone is burned out. Not just from the work, but from the endless layoff anxiety. Management doesn't care. They'd love it if we all just left.

You work your butt off every single day and what do you get as a reward? More work. No promotion, no raise, just more piled on your plate. Why bother?

They cut the people, but they don't cut the work. So the rest of us are left trying to do the same amount with fewer hands. We're now all stretched way too thin and I can feel people burning out. I'm honestly worried that some of the remaining team members will decide it's not worth it and leave, and then those of us left will be in an even worse situation.

Too much to do and never enough time now. Once all these changes happen I can’t even imagine this scenario.

And the quarterly bonus… I’m not getting one… So much work done… So disappointing!!!
I’m sure I’m not the only one not getting one..
So disappointing when you’re looking forward to it and it’s not there!!!

The rain didn't just fall in Houston; it came down like a personal insult, slicking the concrete of the Chevron headquarters with a greasy, iridescent sheen. Down in the lobby, the brass logo gleamed dull and indifferent under the fluorescent hum, a twin-peaked mountain of corporate ambition that felt more like a tombstone to the folks still trapped inside.

​Through the smoked glass of the executive suites, the silhouette of Chevron's big-money boss, Mike Wirth, cast a long, cold shadow. From up there, the employees on the ground didn't look like people. They looked like numbers on a spreadsheet that needed to be pruned.

​They call it "efficiency." They call it "optimization." But out here on the wet pavement, we know the real name for it. It's a slow-burn squeeze.

​The playbook was simple, pulled straight from the dusty drawer of every corporate hatchet man who ever wore a tailored suit. You don't fire people—not when you have to pay severance. You just make the air too thin to breathe. You mandate five days a week in the office, watch the commute times choke the life out of them, and strip away the little things until the desk feels like a cage. You let the pressure cook until they pack their cardboard boxes and walk out the door of their own free will.

​It was working. But the cost wasn't on the balance sheet.

​Walk the halls after 5:00 PM, and you could feel the exhaustion like a physical weight, thick enough to cut with a rusted butter kn--e. The coffee in the breakroom tasted like battery acid and broken promises. Morale hadn't just hit rock bottom; it had started digging.

​People who used to swap weekend plans in the hallways now just traded hollow, thousand-yard stares. Every meeting was a funeral march. Every email was a landmine. The whispers in the elevators weren't about projects or pipelines anymore—they were about escape routes.

​"How many years do you have left?"
"Is anyone hiring?"
"I can't take another reorganization."

​It was a complete mess. A beautifully manicured, multi-billion-dollar disaster.
​Up on the top floor, Wirth and his circle probably looked out at the rain-slicked city and smiled, counting the pennies saved on departed salaries. They thought they were clearing the decks. But down in the engine room, the people keeping the lights on were running on empty, their spirits washed down the storm drains along with the rest of the city's grit.

​The oil keeps pumping, and the dividends keep flowing. But in the dark, rainy night of Chevron’s soul, the tank is running bone dry.

Every day more work gets added and there's never enough time. If I'm going to be this burned out, I might as well find a place that pays better.

Is anyone else struggling every day not to just walk away?

I'm at my breaking point. We're constantly losing people, never getting replacements, and the work just keeps coming. It's starting to feel hopeless that things are ever going to improve.

I’m just gonna call it what it is.

When I was a SWE at Fannie Mae, the amount of bloat was crazy. Like actually insane. Half the work was straight-up BS. I’d get assigned something that was supposed to take two weeks and knock it out in a day. Then the rest of the sprint was just fake blockers, pointless meetings, status updates, and people yapping to make it look like something important was happening.

A lot of folks were basically professional calendar fillers. Sitting in meetings, dragging out stories, throwing around buzzwords, acting like everything was “blocked” or “high priority” when really nobody was doing much.

Fannie Mae does not need 15,000 employees. Let’s be real, a lot of us were payroll phantoms. Just collecting checks, moving tickets around, and playing corporate make-believe while a small group of people actually carried the work.

The amount of corporate theater in that place was wild.

Anyone else fed up? No parameters or structure to our roles so we’ve been worked to the bone for the last few years and dealt with incredibly pushy and unprofessional attitudes and leaders in the name of “candor”. Movement is tough with limited internal and external mobility. Silicon Valley bro expectations like we work for Amazon or Meta on a Target salary and mediocre raises that barely cover the cost of living increases.

Producing 10x what we did even two years ago is the expectation with no recognition or belief in you from your leader to show for it. Just “feed it into AI”, constantly.

The bar for success is constantly moving so you can never, ever keep up. Exhibiting behaviors well above your level and still not being seen or heard for them. And don’t get me started on the steamrolling.

I’m not one to be so negative. I loved this company coming into it years and years ago. And I know many of us work our a**es off. I critique it because I know it can be better. But in its current state, our output will never enough in many areas where expectations rapidly shift and the loudest dominating, borderline bullying voices are rewarded. Such a shame because I know incredible people and leaders here.

I'm constantly asked to train new hires, but I have way too much on my own plate to be doing that. It's not part of my job and I can't keep up with my own work when I'm spending time explaining things to people who should have been better trained before they started. And the new hires are just as frustrated because they're not really being trained properly. They're just expected to pick things up as they go. This is entirely management's fault and they need to do something about it.

A company built on innovation cannot thrive without top talent. High turnover, burnout, and disengagement will erode creativity, slow new product pipelines, and weaken competitiveness—ultimately damaging long-term growth, reputation, and shareholder value.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

I usually love this time of year, but I couldn't get into it this weekend. The constant stress of this job has just su-ked all the happiness out of me.

Is anyone else struggling to find any drive to keep going here?

A few days off used to be enough to reset, but now it's not even close. I don't think any amount of time away would make me actually want to come back here.

It's amazing how quickly things can change. I used to genuinely love my job. I was excited to do it, and I felt good about what I was doing. Now I spend most of my time thinking about how to get out. I just want a way out.