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Why I left my tech job to work on chronic pain

(sailhealth.substack.com)
330 points glasscannon | 6 comments | 04 Jul 25 12:50 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source | bottom
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aspbee555 ◴[04 Jul 25 14:13 UTC] No.44464757[source]▶
I felt like I was dying at 35 years old, my body was completely betraying me, exhausted, constant pain, no life as absolutely no energy on days off and still exhausted starting the next week. Even years in the Army never left me feeling like that

I had no idea it was the misery of the IT job that was causing most of my pain and suffering, and it had nothing to do with the job itself, it was the endless insanity of everyone else around me doing exactly what they were informed would cause problems instead of having discussions with people that actually knew how shit worked. I was endlessly picking up everyone elses mess and treated worse than a pile of shit all because people were incapable of having a speck of respect for other people since all their hatred for computers fell on me

I GTFO of the career of misery and took half a decade to finally start feeling better

I have now spent years and countless hours working on software and I greatly enjoy doing this work again and find I get even more done than I used to simply by doing life the way I need to instead of how some backwards/abusive control freak "needs it done"

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jdbsbsndn[dead post] ◴[04 Jul 25 15:30 UTC] No.44465381[source]▶
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1. aspbee555 ◴[04 Jul 25 15:33 UTC] No.44465417{3}[source]▶
the owner instructed everyone not to talk to me, I found out years later

if it was a me problem then they would not have let the then president of the company go for working with me

I was not the one with communication problems but people are really good at blaming me for their own problems

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2. Buttons840 ◴[04 Jul 25 16:06 UTC] No.44465693[source]▶
That is the same problem I had in my most stressful position.

I was working for a consulting company:

The first project I worked on was great, some of the most enjoyable work I've done at a company.

Then the second project came (same company, same client). Things weren't going so well, so I started talking about the problems that everyone was having, and started talking about how we could fix the problems...

... and that's when the real problem revealed itself. The project manager on the client-side was secretly trying to replace my consulting company with another consulting company (where he had friends). However, my consulting company had ties with higher management at the client company, and my consulting company didn't want to abandon the work, because they wanted the money, of course.

In the end, it was revealed that our team of programmers was surrounded on all sides by people that didn't care about solving the same problem, they only cared about the political games.

It was extremely stressful. I got shingles, and was diagnosed with celiac disease in the same week. It's hard to say for sure, but I think the celiac disease was activated by the stress--I still have it to this day obviously.

My advice to others:

(1) Identify the problem (2) Communicate with the people that are needed to fix the problem (3) Work towards fixing the problem

If at any point communication breaks down, or you realize management is not trying to solve the same problems you are trying to solve, then you need to GTFO.

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3. paulryanrogers ◴[04 Jul 25 16:26 UTC] No.44465850[source]▶
And vaccinate your kids against chicken pox. Don't intentionally expose them repeatedly. Get yourself vaccinated for shingles, if it's not too late.
4. nradov ◴[04 Jul 25 20:07 UTC] No.44467478[source]▶
As a consultant there's no point in being so personally involved in the project outcome that you let it impact your health. Follow management orders, do the best work you can, and let the chips fall where they may. Whether the project succeeds or fails, you'll get paid either way and eventually you'll get reassigned to another client.
5. aspbee555 ◴[04 Jul 25 20:24 UTC] No.44467597[source]▶
overall I felt my biggest mistake was believing that I would be fired/let go if there was ever a problem with my work

I never realized there was such malicious people out there incapable of basic professional respect and tell me to f-off

6. chairmansteve ◴[04 Jul 25 22:00 UTC] No.44468194[source]▶
"the owner instructed everyone not to talk to me, I found out years later".

The guy was a sociopathic narcissist. I have been in similar situations a couple of times, thankfully not for too long.

The way I knew it wasn't a me problem, was that they later turned on other people in even more damaging and toxic ways. Also I have had a long career in many different environments where I was very appreciated.

I think they felt threatened by me first because I was quietly confident and independent minded. Not sure though.

If you come into an environment with a narcissistic and charismatic leader but you are an independent thinker, watch out...,