A couple months ago I slipped on some water. I could tell you that I managed to catch all my weight with my right hand, so that I didn’t even get a bruise on any other part of my body.
Or I could tell you — that the over-achievement of my right arm and hand led to breaking my wrist.
Which has turned out to be more of a pain, in every possible definition of the word, than I thought it would be. Of course, I’m right handed. So this post, typed with one hand, will be short.
Related to the subject of this blog, I’ve been gathering information about education, job prospects, and entrepreneurship. This episode of the podcast Start Up, by Gimlet Media, shows an interesting connection between them. In this episode, the ADULT employees talk about the effects of their late hours and stress are having on their health and personal lives.
Their schedule sounds remarkably like high-achieving high school TEENS I know.
Here are some things that resonated with me:
- It’s difficult to make medical appointments for my teens because they’re terrified of missing class.
- One of the changes the company decided to make was to put breaks in their schedule. Sound like school? Think again. My kids get summer projects and assignments to do over winter break and other vacations.
- The lack of time to socialize.
- Gimlet is operating under a perceived sense of urgency, a “now or you’ll never get another chance” type of urgency. It feels remarkably like the current high school and and college submission experience.
- And after all that, what’s the point of this stress? Because as one of them points out, it’s not like medical school where if you mess up some one dies — right now. Yes, the students will have lots of responsibility in the future, but you can’t stay in continual crisis mode.
Note: There is language in this podcast I wish they would bleep out. Just wanted you to know before you listen.
StartUp Podcast, Gimlet Media, Episode #12, Burnout