Thread by @Delafina777

This is a really great piece of writing on 3500-year-old advice on avoiding burnout.

It also gets at something really key, which is self-care isn't enough. There's a reason corporations love promoting self-care for their employees (thread)

https://twitter.com/rabbimarkiz/status/1357754556894044166

Employers LOVE to encourage self-care precisely because it's SELF-care. It's telling you that if your emotional reserves are drained, you can just... refill them yourself. No outside help needed. Have a bath bomb, a meditation kit: that'll refill your tank.

When I was at Microsoft, our overworked and burnt-out team got an influx of people to help us get the game across the finish line.

Those people had been assigned from another team that had been crunching for 3 years and finally shipped their game.

So we--tired, burnt-out, empty and used up--got people to help us who were... tired, burnt-out, empty and used up.

And one day I was talking to the EP, who was worried a lot of people were about to quit.

And I said hey, I don't understand. These people just finished THREE YEARS of crunch. Why is Microsoft just moving them to another game in crunch? Why aren't they getting three months of vacation and a bonus so they can spend it in Hawaii or something?

He gave me that "oh, sweet summer child" look, and explained that Microsoft was well aware that when people are burnt out and hating their jobs, and you give them time off, they spend that time off thinking about how much better NOT being at work is than being at work.

So then they tend to come back to work just long enough to find a different job.

And of course, there's a terrible sort of logic to that, if you don't care about the people.

And yeah, there was a lot of that logic and people who worked there and talk about "Microsoft PTSD" are sometimes 100% serious and sometimes speaking hyperbolically but only just.

I still haven't fully recovered from my Microsoft burnout. And no self-care did anything to help with it. But ironically, I also had one of the best burnout-reducing experiences of my life at Microsoft.

It was over the holidays, and my doctor was in Hawaii, and I got what felt like strep throat.

So I called up the employee healthcare line, and spoke to a nurse, and was like, "should I go to urgent care, or...?"

And he was like nope, stay home, we'll send you a doctor.

I was like, you'll what?

Just stay home, we'll send you a doctor. And sure enough, about 45 minutes later, a doctor knocks on the door of my apartment. White coat, black doctor bag, everything.

She spent a leisurely hour or so with me talking about what I should do and eat and look out for over the next week, did a strep test, set up a lab on my counter to test it (medical care AND a show!) and called in a prescription for me. The pharmacy sent someone with the meds.

And that was the only time in my life I've ever felt *rich.*

Like, I was aware growing up that we were upper-middle-class and fortunate to be so, and I'm aware now that I make good money.

I don't mean "aware of financial privilege."

I mean RICH.

Like, I felt, having that experience, like, "oh, this is what it's like to be so rich that you have an *entirely different medical care system* that just dispenses with all of the frustration and inconvenience of American medical care."

I was making, I think, about $80k, which in Seattle is still "living paycheck-to-paycheck" money unless you've found a really cheap living situation and don't have student loans.

So I *wasn't* rich, to be clear. But for a few hours, I felt like I was.

And I went back to work, when I recovered, charged up and ready to work and cheerful.

Because even though I knew that the company had ulterior motives for providing me with that sort of healthcare, and that I was still just an interchangeable cog in a wheel to them...

that was what I knew intellectually.

what I knew *emotionally* was that when I was miserable and exhausted and sick and vulnerable, my employer took care of me. They did something that felt *lavish.* And no part of it was on me, other than just asking for help.

It wasn't "self-care." It was *being cared for.*

And as many horrible experiences as I had working there, *every time* I'm really sick, I think "maybe I should go back."

Of course, they nerfed that program so

But in any case, that was something that wasn't even addressing burnout directly, but still helped with it more than anything else the company did.

And it's part of why I roll my eyes so hard my contacts pop out every time companies talk about self-care, or act like providing some sort of self-care kit or whatever (hell, even if it's time off) is the same as the company providing *care* for its employees.

Because what you need when you're burnt out isn't self-care.

It's *care.* You need *help.* You've drained your own resources, and having the same entity that used them tell you to go take care of yourself is just... really gaslight-y.

The thing most burnt-out people need is LESS WORK. They need help. They need additional headcount on their team, or better management, or something that takes some of the burden off them.

They don't need a fucking bath bomb. Even time off isn't actually *addressing the problem."

If you want to address burnout, something about the way you work needs to *change.*

And in most companies, that's not something you can do for yourself. It's not self-care. You need resources from *outside yourself.*

And Rabbi Markiz's post is the first time that I've seen someone address that "self-care" is actually *part* of the burnout cycle, not a solution to it.

Moses's father-in-law gets that, and is like, "dude, you need OUTSIDE HELP."

Like 3500 years ago, people understood that the resources to deal with burnout have to be *external.* You can't do it yourself.