it's the *official* official launch of Off-Call a podcast I've been working on this year!

paigerduty

we have 3 goals with every episode:

to make you genuinely laugh at least 2x

to teach you something unexpected and new about operations and on-call

to inspire you to strike up a conversation with a colleague outside your org/domain

here's a short post about why I started it and all the places you can read, listen or watch it https://okt.to/bCBuUY

https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/113/370/107/107/979/319/original/716ead9a6eaf3e4c.jpeg

paigerduty

for context in the blog post I mentioned building a paper model of the Titanic during my burnout break and needed you all to see its magnificence

craque the knife 🏳️‍🌈

@paigerduty So what do you consider a "burnout break"?

For me, this is something like ... a year or more. I think I'm actually still in one.

Someone we know told me this week he can feel it when burnout is coming and he'll take a long weekend without telling anyone as a way to treat it.

Can people do that? My burnout feels so much more large and meta than a non-announced long weekend vacation can contain.

paigerduty

@dtauvdiodr

I think it depends on the person and severity of the burnout

for me in this instance after I read a passage like "in some cases the 'cure' for burnout is to entirely change professions" and I realized it was an option to just not return to engineering a HUGE weight was lifted. Not being on overworked, understaffed, misunderstood operations teams has made my day to day loads better.

4ish months was certainly not enough (same with long weekends)

paigerduty

@dtauvdiodr it really sucked to leave eng since I'd spent several years taking the long path to even get in the door but I just don't trust any company to be responsible when it comes to staffing on-call and operations work ‍️

I agree though long weekends aren't enough since so much of it (for me) was tied to agency at work which isn't something you as an individual can affect (effect??)

craque the knife 🏳️‍🌈

@paigerduty "Agency at work" feels to me like it should be on a hierarchy of needs. Thanks for underlining that.

I have never felt as much "out-of-my-control" as I do now, because of losing agency. And it happens in such indirect ways, I have a hard time pointing to reasons. But I definitely know how it feels, especially when I am told to "respect" someone's authority.

Honestly I don't know what the answer is for me. I've been doing Ops for 25 years - half my lifetime - and I am worn down. I am not sure I have found another solution BUT changing careers, but I also don't know what or where I could.

Jenniferplusplus

@dtauvdiodr @paigerduty
Yikes. "respect (my, I assume) authority", said out loud, with words