Self
How to Escape The Grasp Of Career Burnout
Finding a new job is one answer, but not the only.
I pulled into the headquarters for Home Shopping Network. It was a towering corporate building with reflective windows and an HSN logo as its crown. In front, was a wide still pond with several alligators floating leisurely. Some dark and cynical part of my brain wondered if underperformers were thrown in.
In the waiting room, five TVs softly played different shopping channels, forming a strange and quiet montage of ridiculous products and quirky actors evangelizing them. A mousey and grandmotherly woman greeted me and sat behind the counter typing as I waited for my interviewer.
I was looking for a new finance job after working too hard for too long, for too little money. The first 70+ hour week I’d put in felt like a big accomplishment. But as these bender weeks bled into each other, it stopped being another cute chapter of hustle culture.
Home Shopping Network wasn’t the answer and I learned that quickly. A woman came to escort me to the interview room and, as the elevator opened to the fourth floor, I saw a wide and dense grid of cubicles that looked like the aftermath of a paper storm. They were abandoned, with cables dangling out of walls, computers seemingly ripped from…
