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Positive Psychology is a growing area of interest for many professionals. Its focus is on improving a person’s wellbeing and their sense of personal happiness.
It started as a focus of development in the field of psychology by Dr. Martin Seligman. He made a call to arms to help arm people with the skills to live a more positive life, and for professionals in the field to help people move away from a focus on what’s going wrong to a focus on what’s going well.
A decade ago, a book called Death March was listed as a bestseller. The book described how insane hours of programming led to health issues:
“Death March is a type of project in which the employees need to overwork for unsustainable number of hours. The project starts feeling like an actual death march as the superiors force their employees to keep on working against their better judgment. The projects had so many parameters that the only way to succeed was by coding more than 16 hours a day, seven days a week—with no break until the project is finished.”
Some years later, another story went viral from a spouse of a programmer who worked at Rockstar games. She said the company expected the developers to work 12 hours a day, six days a week, damaging the programmers’ health.
The opening scene from the 1993 Michael Douglas film Falling Down (above) could very well have been shot yesterday. No, I'm not talking about the 90s buzz cut or the short sleeve collared shirt, but I am talking about its spot on depiction of the hell that is gridlock.
Traffic is at a standstill, the weather is sweltering, and Michael Douglas just can't even -- to the point where he actually abandons his vehicle under an overpass to alleviate the stress of it all. And let's be honest, we've all dreamt about doing the exact same thing at one time or another.
According to the Mayo Clinic, job burnout is "a state of physical or emotional exhaustion that also involves a sense of reduced accomplishment and loss of personal identity."
The reasons for this unfortunately common condition are varied, though it generally arises out of the inevitable despair that accompanies a spectacularly terrible career choice.
I have nothing more to add. This pretty much sums it up.
Photo credit by Unsplash/Lionello DelPiccolo
Let's be real: We could all use some time away from the office. Even if it's just a business trip to middle-of-nowhere Kansas – I can say that because I’m from KS; don’t @ me – a change of scenery is one of the best things there is for the soul.
IPhoto credit Unsplash/Anthony Mapp
Anyone who sits at a computer for long stretches of time knows how absolutely draining it can be. And it turns out, there’s a biological reason for that: According to Dr. Steven Feinsilver, the director of sleep medicine at Lenox Hill Hospital, using your brain takes a lot of work.