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Burning Out

For a lot of young people this is their dream job out of college. It was true in my time and now in my daughter's. I never understood the point of a 95 hour work week even if the money was 2-3 times as good. There is no ROI for the employee even with that. Thankfully J has no desire to enter this hamster wheel. If a person is working for themselves as the founder of their own company, I can understand it can be a labor of love and being always on is part of that process. The separation between personal and professional identity and life could meld. The person is their business so they are infact one and the same. I can see them working 95 hour weeks if they so chose. But for everyone else who is an employee, these level of devotion to the cause makes no sense at all. The compensation and benefits should be based on a 40 hour work week and that per hour number should be where the person needs or wants it to be. The hapless junior banker adjusted for the hours she is working is likely making only a smidge above minimum wage. 

Somehow the allure of such job has been sold so well, that people are not doing the math. They are not taking into account the cost of recovering from the damage inflicted to their physical and mental health by such job and how that would greatly diminish their future earning potential. I remember the words of a wise boss I had very early in my career. She used to remind me that I have to pace myself for a marathon not a sprint so the overzealousness to show results should be tempered with that consideration. Can I produce "miracles" for years and decades or will it be all over in a quarter. Those words stayed with me and I have shared the wisdom with young people I have managed and mentored over the years. Maybe it helped save the sanity of a few - I know it transformed my life. 

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