179. Trapped in the Job: Survival Strategies for Corporate Burnout

The jobs report confirms what many already suspected: employment opportunities are scarce, forcing many professionals to remain in positions they might otherwise leave. We explore practical strategies for surviving and finding happiness when changing jobs isn't an option.

• Understanding the physical and emotional symptoms of burnout
• Setting boundaries by blocking calendar time and using "do not disturb" settings
• Viewing workplace relationships as bank accounts that need regular deposits
• Accepting what can't be changed and adapting your approach accordingly
• Taking control of your schedule by planning strategic vacations during slower periods
• Finding daily micro-joys to create bright spots in challenging workdays
• Considering "quiet quitting" as a legitimate approach to work-life balance
• Questioning societal expectations about work, success, and happiness

Join our Discord community to share your own coping strategies and connect with others navigating similar challenges. If you found value in this episode, please share it with a colleague who might benefit or consider supporting the show through our "buy us a coffee" link.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
we have a light at the end of the tunnel for us.
Yeah, the sooner we get donewith this, the faster we get to
it and you're on mute.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
See you next week fastest podcast episode ever.
Oh, I can't wait.
I can't wait to be done withthis episode, like I don't want
to even start it, but I'm readyto be done with it.
When we finish, clark and I aregetting Boba Tea, boba Tea.

Speaker 1 (00:30):
I am really excited this is a special treat because
I have been drinking just blackcoffee.
I mentioned I relocated, I'm ina new home.
Because of that, my financeshave been tight.
I've been like, okay, let'sstrap everything down, we're not
splurging, we're not doinganything.
Got to make sure all thefinances are in a good spot and
I haven't splurged, yeahactually Don't worry, I got you.

(00:53):
I would prefer if you couldjust pay for me and if you could
also pay for my gas to getthere.
That'd be great yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
Okay, Okay.
So this will be a rewardbecause I am thankful for you
for running the AppreciationSeries, so I think a tangible
physical gift like a boba tea isjustifiably earned by you,
Clark.

Speaker 1 (01:15):
I appreciate those words of affirmation.
I also would appreciate somephysical, some appropriate
physical touch when I see youphysical, some appropriate
physical touch.

Speaker 2 (01:26):
when I see you, I will take these fingers and they
will dart towards those longbrown locks of hair straight
through.

Speaker 1 (01:33):
Oh, that's what I was worried about.
I was just talking like a fistbump, a high five a bro hug.
You just went right for that.

Speaker 2 (01:40):
I got something interesting to share.

Speaker 1 (01:42):
I'm really excited.

Speaker 2 (01:44):
Welcome back to Corporate Strategy Podcast is
given in an email.
I'm Bruce and I'm Clark, and Iwas in Denver this week, yeah,
and when I was there I washitting up some of the local,
because you know I'm a hugeJapanophile otaku weeaboo, as
they call them and there was abunch of little restaurants near
my hotel.
So I was like you know what,instead of just going to one and

(02:07):
having a big meal, I'm going tohit a couple.
I'm going to go get a snack atone, go have some snack-topus,
and then I'm going to go to theother and I'm going to have a
sandow, and then I'm going to goto the other and I, the one I
went to for boba check this out,it wasn't boba tea, it was boba

(02:27):
rice pudding, my dude, let metell you.
So basically, you've had ricepudding before, I'm sure, right?

Speaker 1 (02:34):
Yes, rice pudding.

Speaker 2 (02:35):
The classic rice pudding.
It's rice with some kind ofsweetener and it's pudding.
It's delicious on its own, Niceand easy.
And what this place did wasthey took that concept and they
covered it in fruit mango,strawberry and grapes which are
like three of the best fruits,let's just be real, I agree and
they also sprinkled red bean allthroughout the mix and then had

(03:00):
boba on top.
You have not lived, Like let mejust tell you right here, right
now, you have not lived.
And now I'm just like where isthis in Florida, Because I will
drive hours On this deliciousdish.

Speaker 1 (03:17):
That is interesting.
Is that what you expected?
Like did you go in there andyou're like this is a normal
boba place.
I don't know if there'sanything else.
So you just went in for a bobaand you had the opportunity
because I was I was looking atthe app.
I got finished my film shootsuper early.

Speaker 2 (03:33):
So I was back at the hotel like at three.
I'm like I'm hungry because Ihaven't eaten all day, but like
I don't want to spoil dinner, Istill wanted to do that chicken
sando for dinner, yeah, whichwas like highly rated this other
place.
So I was like okay, let me see.
And like this place isliterally like it's boba tea,
but they also do boba ricedishes and I'm like I have to
try this.
I have to try this.

(03:54):
I wish I could remember what itwas called.
Uh, in case you live in thedenver area and want to check it
out.
But uh, it was.
So I just got the base.
I was like give me your initialstarter.
But they had one that was likematcha flavored.
Oh my gosh.
They had one that was more.
It was taro.
It was like a taro flavoredrice pudding.
Like, oh, I wish I lived nextto that place so I could just

(04:14):
try all of their dishes.
But it's like you know how theacai bowl craze Like why can't
we have the rice boba craze?
I want the rice boba craze.

Speaker 1 (04:26):
I want that.
I mean it's obviously lesshealthy, but uh, oh, it was
delicious.
That is wild.
Yeah, I was gonna go into.
Like what else did they have onthat menu?
Because is it like all boba,just that?
But it's a rice pudding, weirdboba craze, like it is such a
weird fusion.

Speaker 2 (04:39):
They also did like um funny little sandos that were
fruity so you could get like astrawberry sando that has cream
in the middle.
It looked good but I was likeI'm going to do one sweet
because I don't want diabetes.
I'm going to do this boba ricepudding Because boba is my
favorite thing.
I just love the chewy boba youcould put it on any.
If they made a savory boba youcould put on pizza, you better

(05:02):
believe I'd be eating that pizza.

Speaker 1 (05:05):
I'm starting to wonder what it is about the boba
that you like so much.
Is it the texture?
It's the chew.
Is it the chew?
You like the texture?
You like the?

Speaker 2 (05:13):
texture of it.
I love chewy.
I love chewy.
That is my favorite mouthtexture of anything Gummy bears,
octopus, squid, boba If it'schewy.

Speaker 1 (05:26):
I love it.
You remember when we went tothe World Market?
Yes, and we used to get theginger chews.

Speaker 2 (05:35):
You love those things I do, but that's not my
favorite kind of chew.
Yeah, I would put that in thenow or later's category of chew.

Speaker 1 (05:43):
Okay, fair enough.

Speaker 2 (05:44):
It's too hard and sticky.
I don't like when it's sosticky, like it holds your teeth
together.
I want a chew that's almostlike a bounce.
It's like a bounce in yourmouth, right, it's almost
rubbery, but it's not so rubbery.
It's not gum.
You can chew through it and itbreaks apart.
Oh, I love that.
That's my favorite mouthfeel byfar.

Speaker 1 (06:03):
I don't like when it gets stuck in the teeth and like
some gummy stuff gets stuck inthe teeth and it drives me crazy
.
But you're right, like boba,like acai is like the perfect
texture, because it doesn't getstuck in anything.
It's just fun.
It also is just fun.

Speaker 2 (06:23):
It's like an activity and a satisfying drink, or now
rice pudding, all in at one time, which is pretty amazing.
There there are certain kindsof beef jerky that I think also
achieve this kind of really, youknow, like it's there's there's
harder jerkies and there'ssofter jerkies, and it's like
the ones that's right in themiddle where it's got like a
little bit of chump to it, butit's not a chump, it's chump and
it's not a chunk, it's a chumpwith a p, it's just.
You know, that's what I'mlooking for, that's what I'm

(06:45):
looking for in my food.

Speaker 1 (06:47):
It is weird that it's like it's always sweet and not
savory.

Speaker 2 (06:51):
Yeah Well, I mean squid octopus, like that is
really that kind of chew.

Speaker 1 (06:57):
Yeah, that's fair.
I was trying to think of like agood example and that is, I
think, the example.

Speaker 2 (07:02):
That's the closest you're going to get.

Speaker 1 (07:03):
Yeah, okay, how'd you feel after?
Give us the post because you'retraveling, your stomach's all
messed up.
Did you feel okay?

Speaker 2 (07:10):
So my stomach has actually been great recently and
I attribute that to thecombination of doing a lot of
probiotic drinks like kombucha,but also prebiotics like tequila
, which is a legit thing thatworks, and I'm not saying go,
you know, drink your life awayon tequila, but a little bit of
tequila does help actually buildup prebiotics in your system
and it's helped me a ton.

(07:30):
I don't really have the travel,travel trouble, tummy troubles
anymore and I also know what mytriggers are, so like it's, it's
seeds, it's any seeded pepper.
If there's seeds in the pepperI'm gonna get triggered.
So really, every trip I've donelike I've, I've really kind of
had my my stomach things undercontrol.
That's awesome.

(07:51):
I didn't finish the bowl butthat was mostly just because,
like I said, I'm kind of hittingup a bunch of places, yeah, and
by that time I was full.
So it was, it was delicious.
I wish I could have finished it, but it's also a lot like the
thing weighed like four poundsoh yeah, rice is a lot of sugar.

Speaker 1 (08:08):
Yeah, rice puddings are dense and you add all that
stuff on top of it, like I canonly imagine that thing being
like a thick loaf of ricepudding oh, I wish, I wish you
were there.
Oh, you would, I would haveloved it.
I would have been so excited atthose places.
So all right, two things.
I hear tequila makes you crazy.
Is that true?

Speaker 2 (08:28):
I have never experienced.
Well, I don't drink a lot, sowhat I do, I'll make a tequila
old-fashioned.
Oh yeah, that is good, yeah, Ilike that.
I actually buy a very specificbrand.
This was recommended to me bymy friend.

Speaker 1 (08:45):
So I don't know the science behind this, but tequila
is a prebiotic.
Just now, I had no idea thatwas a thing like this.
Is all news to me that thisalcohol can be healthy.

Speaker 2 (08:50):
I'm shocked it.
It well it's.
I mean, it's not healthy butit's good for your gut.
Biome, like I do want to state,alcohol is a poison.
It is toxic.
If if you don't like it, thatis totally on you, and I'm sure
I could replace this prebioticwith another prebiotic.
Unfortunately, it's just theone that I've found works best
for me, which is weird, becauseI've done pills, I've done

(09:13):
kombuchas, I've done prebiotickefirs, like I've done it all
yogurts, you name it.
Nothing has worked as well astequila after dinner and I do
two ounces of tequila in a uh, atumbler glass with a rock and I
mix it with bitters and syrupand it's a tequila old-fashioned
, and I actually use um CasaNoble Reposado, which is like a

(09:35):
brown tequila.
It's delicious.
It kind of has like a peanutbuttery flavor the way that I
mix it together, and it's a goodlittle after dinner drink and
it legit has fixed my dietaryissues.
So that's really interesting.

Speaker 1 (09:49):
If anyone has a non-alcoholic solution.

Speaker 2 (09:52):
please share it, but this is what works for me.

Speaker 1 (09:55):
I'm trying to think what else is like a prebiotic.
I'm sure there's a lot ofoptions out there.
But the second thing I wasgoing to say, the second thing I
was going to say is is this thesolve to the travel stomach
issues?
Just hop on a plane, get alittle shot of tequila and then
are you going to be good, Idon't know, I haven't tried it.

Speaker 2 (10:13):
And here's the thing Like it doesn't have to be every
day, like I can literally doone or two of these a week and
that's enough.
Like it keeps my it keeps mybiome enough in check it,
without getting into the gorydetails.
Like I have IBS, right, likeirritable bowel syndrome.
It is very easy for me to slipinto 15 to 20 minute toilet
experiences if I eat the wrongthing.

(10:35):
Yeah, this specific fix puts mein a state of complete normalcy
which I have not been used tofor like a over a decade.
Right Like I was, like I didn'tknow I could feel this way and
experience this ever again in mylife and this has been the only
thing that's really helped withthat.
So that's awesome.

Speaker 1 (10:54):
Well, good, you have a solution.
That's awesome.
You know we were going to gettogether tonight.
We were going to get ourfamilies together, we were going
to hang out, and since we'renot now, I can tell you partly
part of the reason I wanted tocome over was to make me an
old-fashioned.
Oh yeah, I didn't say that outloud, but I'm telling you now, I
mean like one.

Speaker 2 (11:14):
You should tell me next time so I bring over my
stuff, because I actually havethe uh bitters that I buy from a
farmer's market that are betterthan any butters you can get
from a store Right, and I alsohave syrup that is like very,
very delicious.
It's cinnamon infused vanillasyrup, oh that sounds amazing

(11:35):
Like cancel.

Speaker 1 (11:37):
Let's end the podcast .
Now I'm coming over.
We're just going to make thisjust an afternoon happy hour.
I have whiskey and bourbon, soI was like I am half prepared
for the old fashioned.

Speaker 2 (11:48):
I have the alcohol I have been.
I have been purchasing mostlyJapanese whiskeys for the last
year, since I've kind of fallenin love with the old fashioned,
and recently I bought a bottleof the four walls Irish American
whiskey.
It's a blend of Irish whiskeyand bourbon.

(12:08):
It's created by the guys whomade always sunny in
Philadelphia, so that's reallyyeah that's yeah, it's the four
walls.
Better Brown whiskey.
It is delicious, let me tellyou that's my new favorite.
If I'm going to get it, uh, sogood, it's good.

Speaker 1 (12:21):
Oh good, uh, wow, so good, it's great.
Oh good, yeah, I always getgifted whiskey and bourbon, like
.
So I have two bottles right nowfor, uh, some work-related
stuff.
And then this house and I'mlike, huh, now I have this
whiskey sitting around, but Idon't have any of the materials
to make in old fashion.
So what I do is I make a, uh,kentucky what do they call it?
Oh man, there's a name for this.

(12:43):
It's like a, a Kentucky OldFashioned or Kentucky.
No, it's Kentucky Mule, andwhat it is?
It's whiskey or bourbon, gingerbeer and some wine, and so a
super simple drink, but it'sreally, really good.
It's basically a dark mulewhich is super interesting, and
I love it.

Speaker 2 (12:59):
I get a coffee version of that multiple times a
week and it's delicious versionof that multiple times a week
and it's delicious.

Speaker 1 (13:06):
Yeah, it's coffee plus ginger beer plus lime.
It's so good.
You know, you told me aboutthis one.

Speaker 2 (13:08):
I'm still skeptical, but one day we're gonna go we're
gonna go and you're gonna,you're gonna report back to the
pod how amazing this, thiscoffee mule, is.
Trust I will.

Speaker 1 (13:18):
Oh, I'm excited once you go, mule coffee's never
gonna taste the same so strange,so many weird things you're
saying, putting in your mouth.
But I'm in for it.

Speaker 2 (13:27):
Yeah, I mean, that's what mouths are for putting
weird things in.

Speaker 1 (13:32):
Let's end the podcast now.

Speaker 2 (13:36):
I think we did good.
I think we covered enough today.

Speaker 1 (13:38):
You're on mute, see you next week.

Speaker 2 (13:44):
you ever wonder about the first person that like ate
a chicken?

Speaker 1 (13:50):
just yeah, I was actually.
I was thinking about this theother day.
I'm like somebody got sam noahpoisoning quick, but then, wait,
I knocked it into the fire andI made it charred, and this is
much better.

Speaker 2 (14:05):
I'm gonna put this in my mouth now because, like you
think about fish or bugs and italmost there's, almost like a
natural primal inclination toeat a bug or a fish, right, like
they.
Just they seem like foodcreatures but then you think
about like animal chicken.
It's like I don't.
You know, early man is probablylike why eat?

(14:26):
Why eat this tiny dinosaurcovered in feathers, like
strange, and why eat?

Speaker 1 (14:33):
it raw.
Somebody had to do it, somebodydid it raw, and they probably
did it raw for a while becausethey hadn't really figured out
how to deal with this they atethe beak?
Oh, they definitely.
I mean like, when you reallythink about it, somebody's
eating everything, everything.
Yeah, I mean, is there anythingthat hasn't been eaten?
Is the real question we shouldbe asking each other the

(14:56):
uncharted territory.

Speaker 2 (14:57):
I mean, have you seen the guy, the gannis book of
world records guy, who ate anentire airplane?
Yes, yes, yes.
I have heard, though, that thatmight not be true.
Oh no, like he might have faked, like he definitely, the dude,
has eaten metal and plastic andlike all of the material of an
airplane, but he might not haveeaten the entire thing.

(15:20):
That's, that's where it's beenup for debate, but I don't think
there's any actual conclusiveevidence that that's not true.
It's just one of those thingsthat could be true.
I don't think there's anyterritory that we haven't tried.
When it comes to edibility,yeah, 100%.
We either have eaten it or weknow that we cannot eat it.

Speaker 1 (15:38):
Right, If you think about nowadays, people are smart
enough not to eat the productsand goods that we have around us
.
No one's going to take theheadphones and be like I'm going
to eat this AirPod now.
So like it makes sense.
But the raw material I mean, ifit's a TikTok challenge, yeah,
that's true, that's true.
I mean, people eat Tide Pods,so I mean oh my gosh.
So when you think about it,every raw material has

(16:01):
definitely been consumedconsumed in some way.

Speaker 2 (16:10):
If you think about it in a weird way, like we do eat
metal, right, like vitamins,minerals, metals are part of
those and we do consume, likeyou know, iron is in blood, yeah
, when you're eating, even likecereals.
Cereals have like high iron inthem.
So like we eat stuff that wedon't think that we should eat,
but we do right, even even ifit's trace amounts of the thing.
Like you know, even radiationdoesn't fish like mercury, like

(16:33):
we eat things that are poisonous, alcohol, but it's all about
moderation and knowing what itdoes to the system and how much.

Speaker 1 (16:42):
This makes me think of do you remember that show my
strange addiction, or whatever?

Speaker 2 (16:46):
Yes, there was a lady .
Yes, there was a lady.

Speaker 1 (16:49):
Yes, there was a toilet paper one.
There was another one that youknow, the little like sandwich
knives that they give you atrestaurants where they stab it
through the two sides of thesandwich to get them together.
Yeah, this lady would buy bagsoff the internet oh no,
thousands of them and she wouldsit in front of her TV and she
would eat them Little piece bylittle piece.
She just consumed that plastic.

(17:11):
She must have cancer or is deadnow right.

Speaker 2 (17:14):
I mean she was just preparing for today.
Where it's in our water, it'sin our blood, it's in everything
.
Like she was ahead of the gamereally.

Speaker 1 (17:24):
Maybe she was just like prepping for the next stage
of our bodies evolving.

Speaker 2 (17:28):
Yeah, she was just getting ready for it.
She knew what was coming.

Speaker 1 (17:33):
Okay, weirdest thing that you eat on a regular basis.
That the normal average humanwould think is weird that I eat
on a regular basis.

Speaker 2 (17:41):
I don't eat it on a regular basis, but I do love
anchovies and I know a lot ofpeople hate anchovies.
You do, yeah.

Speaker 1 (17:47):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (17:48):
How do you?
How do you raw garlic's anotherone that I love, oh, okay.

Speaker 1 (17:51):
I've heard a lot about raw garlic being really
good for your immune system.
I love it.
Yeah, you just like take aclose?
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (17:59):
Weird.
But I mean, if you do want thehealth benefits for it, and I
think also there's a little bitof stomach settling you don't
actually chop into the wholeclove, you nibble and chew.
That's a.
That's an important part oflike getting some of the gases
out.
But right garlic, like it getsin your blood.
That's why your breath stinksafterwards.
It's not because it's actuallystinky, which it is interesting.

(18:19):
Yeah, your blood becomes stinkyright, those are weird.

Speaker 1 (18:23):
Anchovies is a weird one.
Do you buy like a little jarand you just like pick them out?

Speaker 2 (18:26):
yeah, or I'll get them on pizza yeah, oh yeah,
pizza makes sense.
That was the one I thought of.
Give me anchovies on there,love it.
I love anything like.
I love intense and saltyflavors.

Speaker 1 (18:35):
Yeah, I'm trying to think of like what else is weird
?
Like regular, like I eat thelittle seaweed flake things.
You know I'm talking about.
You buy little seaweed packs.
I like those, those are goodand that one's weird.
People think that's a weird one.
I love those.
The other ones are so good,yeah.
The other one is like when webuy a, like we buy half a cow or
quarter of a cow, becausethat's how we we do our meat,

(18:57):
because we have a lot of thoseoptions around here with all the
cattle farms and they alwaysgive you like the bits that no
one else eats.
So they give you like the fulllivers or they give you like in
some cases they'll give you likethe tongue and other things and
like I've always wanted to eatthose.
Yeah, yeah, it's really, it'sreally strange and so it kind of

(19:17):
it's psychologically weird.
It never tastes that bad, butit's psychologically weird
because you're like OK, I'mlooking at this thing, I'm
cutting this thing, and I knowit's a tongue, I know it's a
liver, I know it's whatever itis, it's a heart.
Like those are weird things toeat, but they actually never
taste that bad.
Like if you can just close youreyes and eat them, you would

(19:38):
probably be like, oh, yeah, thatwas good.

Speaker 2 (19:39):
And then you're like oh, that's a that's a bold
testicle Weird, I'd eat it.
I'd eat it, I think.
As long as it's cooked andprepared properly, I'll eat it.
Uh, the lines I draw are reallyaround raw foods.
I won't do raw chicken.
I know there are places that doserve raw chicken and that's
like a delicacy, like japan'sbig in the raw chicken, right,

(20:01):
like that's really.
Yeah, there's a restaurant insan francisco, so I will never,
ever eat that.
Yeah, same thing for centuryeggs, like sorry.
Uh meat concept Not going to eatthat Like that's, that's my
line, right, it's like right.
This feels like it could easilydiverge into poison.

(20:21):
Uh, I'm not, I'm not going tomess with that.
So if it's cooked, if it'sprepared and if it's edible,
I'll eat it.
Yeah, what about beef tartare?

Speaker 1 (20:31):
What is beef tartare?
I don't know what that isBasically.
Think of ground beef, literallyjust ground beef, raw.
And then they put a littleseasoning on it.
Yeah, yeah, they put a littleseasoning on it.
They put a little.
I think it's oil.
I, I'm going to be so wrong,someone's going to roast me for
this.
You put a little like oil orlike sauce on it and then you
eat it.

Speaker 2 (20:49):
No, no, no, I will eat medium rare ground beef but
I need flame to have touched allthe sides that have been
exposed to the air.
Yeah Right, like that's my line.
I need, I need flame.
Flame is important.

Speaker 1 (21:07):
Fire.
Somebody discovered raw meat isa bad idea.

Speaker 2 (21:12):
I agree, the rarer it is, the tastier it is.
I completely agree you nuke theflavor, the more heat you add.
But you do need a little heat,just a little bit, the sear, the
whole browning effect.

Speaker 1 (21:25):
Whenever you get that that flavor is so good, and I
mean the sear, the whole, what'sthe effect?
The browning effect, the char,yeah, yeah, whenever you get
that like that flavor is so good, it's so good.
Yeah, oh, it's called theMaillard.
Reaction is what it is when youget the browning Maillard
N-A-I-L-L-A-R-D.
Maillard Sounds French.
I have no idea.
Maillard.
I don't know the etymology ofthat word, but I do know it

(21:49):
creates incredible flavor,that's all I know.
I love it.
Well cool, you want to go getsome boba tea?

Speaker 2 (21:57):
I think we've talked enough about how to survive
corporate On this episode thatwe can Excuse ourselves for some
delicious boba tea.
Actually, clark, I have atimely topic.
This is literally like today.
Today you're gonna be listeningon monday, but like, have you
seen the jobs report?

Speaker 1 (22:13):
breaking news.
No, actually somebody posted itsomewhere, was it in our
discord?

Speaker 2 (22:19):
uh, probably, and it's also just all over the news
everywhere and spoiler alertjobs are down right right, it's
hard to find a job.
And I'm not telling anyoneanything.
They don't know, but now it'sproven with stats, math and
facts.
I thought it'd be good to talkabout sort of a symptom of this

(22:41):
cause, which is when therearen't jobs available or there
aren't good paying jobsavailable, what do people find
themselves doing?
Staying at a job they may notlike because it's secure, it's
comfortable, it's trusted.
Hey, I don't have to worryabout AI taking my job as long
as I stay here.
I'm just going to buckle up andhunker down.
So I figured what we could dois talk through some tips,

(23:10):
because I know you and I we'rehappy, but not everything is is
peaches and boba, as they saythere.
There are things that we haveto swallow to get through our
jobs and like, let's just talkthrough some tips.
I like you it's?

Speaker 1 (23:21):
uh, it's rice pudding and boba.
You were close.
It's rice pudding and boba nowthat's instead of peaches and
boba.
Yeah, you were very close,though I messed it up.

Speaker 2 (23:30):
Let's just start.
Let's start the whole thingover.

Speaker 1 (23:34):
Let's roll back the tape we'll edit that part out
and we'll just insert that clipin and we'll be good perfect,
all right I'm so glad you'regonna do that for me on this
episode.
It's interesting because it's atime of tariffs.
It's a time of potentiallyrevolutionary change in how we
do work, especially knowledgework.

(23:54):
Yes, and I think it'sinteresting that at's like is it
around?
Companies don't know enough,like I'm theorizing on why, but
companies don't know enoughabout what the six months look

(24:15):
like in technology trends, sothey're afraid to make any
significant moves or continue toscale.
Or is it because of tariffs andall the things happening around
the world that it's like justthe economy is not growing, at
least domestically, yep, as bigas it used to be?
Maybe it's a combination ofboth.
I mean, there's a lot of things.

Speaker 2 (24:33):
I like, I think you've you've hit a lot of it,
right.
There are, there are tariffs,there's AI, but then there's
just like the general sort ofstate of things.
Right, like we've.
We've had capitalistcorrespondent correspondent Alex
Estrepo come on here before.
We've talked about late stagecapitalism before.
It is just harder for companiesto be profitable when all
you're chasing is profits andthe first thing that always gets

(24:57):
cut are people.
And you know, I've, I'vedefinitely felt this in my
tenure of work, which is over 15years.
Now 10 year of work, which isover 15 years, now corporate
work, I should say, which isover 15 years.
We're expected to do a lot morein the same or less amount of
time than we were 15 years ago.
Right, like, if I thought aboutthe jobs, if I had my job today

(25:21):
, 15 years ago, the expectationwould be that I'm not producing
as much, that I'm not producingas quickly and it's just going
to require more time, morepeople, more energy, more work.
That is not the expectation.
Do more with less, faster.
Yeah, that is just very true,right.

(25:42):
And so it becomes hard toswallow the pill of.
I'm going to have to stay atthis job for I don't know how
many years now, because of thereare no other jobs like this
available or I can't find them.

Speaker 1 (25:54):
And it's also, you know, I think the expectations
are higher because you knowtechnology is better, you know
we have better tools andresources to do our jobs, and I
think technology being moreinstant and everything being
more instant means we're alwaysavailable.
When back then it's like, well,jim went home for the day, like
let me try his home phone realquick.
And it's like, let me call hishome phone, he's not home.

(26:16):
Guess, we're not talking to Jimuntil Monday, like that's the
way it kind of went.
It's like you didn't haveaccess to any of these things
and so now it's like, yeah, nowI can just shoot you a text and
be like hey, I need you on thiscall in 30 minutes.
And I mean, unfortunately, it'shappened to me this week like
three times where it's like canyou join this call?
I'm really urgent, I need totalk about something like really

(26:36):
like minutes before the meeting.
I'm getting an instantnotification to have to join a
meeting.
Like that's the worst feelingever.
And to your point, like thoseare the.
I think generally and I want tocaveat everything we're about to
say we are so blessed in ourpositions for the work we do
sitting on the computer, doingknowledge work, our hands are

(26:57):
soft, we make good money in techLike everything we're about to
say is so.
You know it's going to soundvery privileged to people who
don't have these types ofbenefits, but it is hard work,
it's draining work, it'smentally like you kind of have
to flip a switch and be readyfor, potentially, your day
shifting 20 different directionsand every 30 minutes you're

(27:19):
changing context, and that'sreally difficult to do and
you're exhausted at the end ofthe day.
Exhausted at the end of the day.
And I don't know about you.
I've been feeling this more andmore lately, where I feel like
I'm not able to be presentoutside of work because my mind
is just racing, like I can'tseem to shut down after the day
is over because so many thingshappen that I'm just now like
decompressing and I'm like ohyeah, I forgot Like I got that

(27:41):
action item and this action item, that meeting that I need to
set up for next week and thisreport that's due tomorrow.
Like it's so difficult to stayon top of everything because of
the expectations, like you'resaying, and so it makes it
really hard to stay happy whenthat's the case.

Speaker 2 (27:57):
I mean it's funny.
For me it's the opposite.
I find it hard to be presentabout work because there's just
so many context changes.
You know I, you and I are verydifferent in this way.
I'm a very emotional, likeemotionally attached person,
right, like I want to put myselfin my work and see the effort
that I've put into it, show somekind of accomplishment, and

(28:20):
when I'm switching 20 differentprojects, it's like it's so much
easier for me to disconnect andbe like I don't care, whatever,
right, because, like, I'm notattached to the work, so I can
shut the laptop, I can walk awayand be like.
You know, if work justdisappeared tomorrow, I wouldn't
even be able to tell you what Idid, because I don't care, yeah
, and like, walk away.
It's.
That's not a good place either,because I'm the kind of person

(28:42):
that needs the, the achievements, the, the wins, to motivate me
to continue to do it, andbecause it's chaos and it's
churn and burn, which is trulywhat I do is churn and burn.
Get stuff done, but don't do itall yourself, don't get it
right, don't make it perfect.
That it puts me in this.
I am burned out by everymeaning of the word.

(29:04):
I am burned out, but I'm stilltrying to accomplish what I need
to accomplish get things doneand not lose my job.

Speaker 1 (29:10):
Yeah, it's funny because I think I've been
feeling burnout.
It's hard to describe whatburnout is until it happens to
you and I wouldn't say I've hadlike severe burnout.
Like I think it's still, I'mstill functional, I'm still
doing things, but is it like mybest work?
Am I satisfied with it?
Do I feel fulfilled doing it?
The answer is no, and you'reprobably feeling similar.

(29:31):
It's like I know what I need todo to be effective enough and
I'm still working hard, but it'slike it's not that passionate
drive towards something that Ireally love doing and it's
draining every day because youkind of close the laptop and
you're like I just don't feelthe satisfaction of work.
And it's probably been a yearfor me.
And I think to your point oflike you know the job report

(29:54):
that came out and you know jobsbeing down.
How do you make the best of yoursituation?
It's a little bit of what youand I were talking before.
It's like I have this kind oftherapy session where I actually
feel like lately I've beenshifting out of burnout and I've
actually been looking forwardto work a little bit more.
And I don't know what thechange in that tide is, because
my role is the same.
The work I do is the same, theteams I work on are the same.

(30:14):
Generally, the projects I'mleading are the same, and so I
don't know if it's just like atime thing where it's like, okay
, you might just be in a funkand like then you're going to
pop out of the funk and likefeel a little bit better about
things, or if it is truly asignificant change in a
situation that either you changeyour mindset or something
happens around you that pushesyou out of that state, cause I

(30:36):
can't explain why.
That's the weird thing.

Speaker 2 (30:39):
When was the last time you went on vacation?

Speaker 1 (30:40):
It was Japan right, I went on a Japan.
It was a work trip, that's true.
So when did you?
I did?
I did go to.
I went to Colorado for a week.
That was my last vacation.
It wasn't that long ago, twomonths ago.

Speaker 2 (30:53):
You when you finished up that vacation, did you have
anxiety and dread building up inyou, like, ah, I don't want
this to end, I don't want tostop this, I don't want to stop
this, I don't want to go back tothat nightmare hellscape that I
call work on Monday.
Was that, you know, present inthe back of your mind?
Oh yeah, I felt that a milliontimes.
You, my friend, are burned out.

Speaker 1 (31:17):
Welcome to love.
That's a great way to look atit.

Speaker 2 (31:20):
But it is right, like you can't even enjoy time away
because there's a present dreadabout, well, this thing that you
know should be very fun andenjoyable and like a relief and
relaxation, is actually somehowcreating anxiety inside of me
because of the fear that I willhave to return and deal with the

(31:41):
fallout of me not being thereor whatever it is.
That's burnout.
You got it.
I've got it too.
I deal with it every single dayand I know that I have it
because it used to be when I goon vacation, I would get excited
to go back to work.
I'm like you know what?
This is great, I'm ready to getback to the office.
Think about like the olden dayswhere you and I worked together.
I was like you know, this isfun, but I can't wait to go and

(32:03):
work with Clark and my friendsand do stuff.
Now it is actually like if Igot hit by a meteor and died at
the very last minute of myvacation, that would be a
pleasant surprise, because atleast I wouldn't have to go back
to work on Monday.
You know, like that's where I'mat, but I'm also there's the

(32:27):
sort of Damocles hovering overmy head that if you don't go
back to work on Monday.
You're going to be homeless insix months and your whole life
will be over and there's nothingyou can do about it.
So welcome burnout.
That's exactly what it is.

Speaker 1 (32:35):
Yeah, and to your point about like the job report
makes it even worse, becauseyou're just like, okay, well,
should I even try to leave andis it worth it to like, look at
other opportunities and you know, feel, and then you just feel
stuck.

Speaker 2 (32:52):
You're like I'm stuck .
There are none.
That's the problem.
Yeah, there are noopportunities.
It's so.
Yeah, it's such a terriblefeeling.
I think I told I got reachedout to by a recruiter and like
it was like it was a joke, right, like higher position than I'm
in right now, half of the pay,yeah, like this is that I'm in
right now, half of the pay.
Yeah, yeah, this is insane.

Speaker 1 (33:08):
Like no, yeah, you realize what you just sent me.

Speaker 2 (33:13):
You want me to work more for less?
Yeah, fantastic.

Speaker 1 (33:18):
Yeah, it's a really sucky feeling and, luckily for
me, like I feel like somehowthose tides are turning.
I can't explain it, I don'tknow why, but like I'm glad for
you, I feel better Like not ahundred percent.
And that's the thing is like Ifeel I feel better, like I'm
more excited to go to work andlike work on stuff, but I know
there's other things about thejob that are still sucky and I'm

(33:40):
like, okay, I think this isjust going to push me back in
the other direction.
And so to your, to the I guessthe whole point that you're
trying to bring up, like how doyou stay happy?
I think it is about what is inyour control, what can you
change?
Your perspective, the peopleyou work with, the way you act,
the way you look at work.
You know, could you changesomething as an experiment to

(34:03):
see if that would make you feelbetter?
And what I mean by that is like,usually, if you're just in the
office and you like hide in youryou hide in your office, hide
behind your desk, hide behindyour computer the whole time,
and you like just log into teamsmeetings, even though they're
meeting like right down theright down the lane from you in
the meeting room, it's likemaybe try going to the meeting
room and like just being closeyour laptop, go to the meeting

(34:23):
room, be fully engaged on thetopic instead of multitasking,
and like that's an experimentthat I think is worth trying to
be like, do I feel better aboutthat, like was that worth it?
Or do I actually feel worsebecause now the existential
dread of coming back to mycomputer and opening up Slack
and seeing 50 messages that Imissed in the meantime, like
that could be worse?
But I think to your point.
It's like if you are in a spotwhere you're feeling this way, I

(34:47):
think you have to try differentthings within your control to
make the best of it, change yourenvironment.
Change your environment.

Speaker 2 (34:54):
It's a good one because I do something similar.
I find that if I don't block mycalendar for time to work on
things that I need to work on,it will get blocked for me for
things that I don't want to do.
And not only do I do that, butI said do not disturb, so I'll
put like hour, hour and a halfon my calendar.
I'm going to go work on thispaper that needs to get done,

(35:14):
this messaging, whatever, and Iwant to turn off notifications
entirely.
I don't care how important theemergency is, one you're to be
able to disconnect anddeprioritize the crap because
there's so much crap.
And one thing I've found is notresponding to every email and

(35:36):
every message actually helps theother person more than it helps
you by responding to them,because it forces whoever's
asking you for the thing to gooff and do something themselves
and giving them an hour, twohours to either deal with it or
not, like that's good, it's agood, it's a good thing to have.

(35:57):
That can actually createproductivity on both sides.

Speaker 1 (36:01):
I think the one thing I'd caveat this with is if
you're early in your career, youjust start a job.
I think it's better to be moreavailable, and one you don't
know your worth.
I think as you get further intoyour career.
You know the value you bring,you know your worth and to your
point it's actually.
It's more important I think wetalked about this on a prior
episode.

(36:22):
It's more important that you'resaying no to more things that
then you saying yes to, becauseyou need to basically prioritize
your time to focus on thehighest value work.
And if you're always available,you're always responding to
everyone.
You're teaching everyone aroundyou that I'm always available,
I'm always going to respond, I'malways going to be there,
rather than being like, hey, ittook me a week to get back to
you, but frankly, it's not apriority and so I'm responding

(36:44):
to you now.
Here's the details I need, Likelet's get this moving, and it's
like you had to wait a weekbecause that's where you fall on
the priority chain.
I'm not being rude, I'm justbeing ruthless with my time.

Speaker 2 (36:54):
Right.
Well, I do think there's.
The advantage of being early inyour career is you're not going
to get asked a thousandquestions in a day by 1800
different people.
Uh, because you're the only onethat knows.
Right, like when you're earlyin your ic, you don't have the
kind of disruptions that aeither you know, an experienced
ic or a manager is going to haveto deal with some.

(37:17):
You're just lucky.
Enjoy that, enjoy that timeperiod, enjoy that time forever.
Eventually you will be the onethey bother.
Right now you are botheringother people.
So, uh, for I would actuallysay, in that case, help the
person you are bothering by.
This is something that one ofmy mentors told me very early on
evaluate is this thing thatyou're going to go ask for help

(37:40):
with going to take longer than15 minutes for you to go do on
your own?
If the answer is yes, go bothera person.
If the answer is yes, go bothera person.
If the answer is no, if youcould actually figure out how to
solve this thing on your ownwithin 15 minutes, do it and
don't ask for help.
Because, like those littledisruptions, those little 15
minute disruptions, that's whatcauses non productivity for
everybody.
So, help a burned out person,follow that rule.

Speaker 1 (38:04):
Yeah, I like that.
So, yeah, it's about.
Maybe that's like.
The next tip is, if you'retrying to make things better
because you just feel like youhave no help anywhere, change
your approach to actually helpothers first and build I talk
about this a lot with my team islike your relationships with
people.
Think of them like bank accounts.

(38:25):
You make withdrawals, you pullmoney out, you ask for things.
You keep on saying, okay, bruce, I need this, bruce, I need
this, bruce, I need this.
And now your account isnegative because you just keep
withdrawing money, right, youkeep on asking for things.
You've got to at some pointgive back and say what is Bruce
struggling with?
You know what is he working on?
How could I help Bruce?
And like, you've got to deposityou know nice acts, things to

(38:47):
the valuable person you'retrying to work with back into it
and maybe that would actuallymake you feel better in your
workplace because you're likeokay, now I know I've got Bruce
as an ally and I've got apositive balance, so next time I
need help, I know he's going tobe willing to help me, because
I've helped him with many, manythings and you also understood a

(39:08):
little bit more about Bruce asa person, therefore making your
work hopefully more fulfillingthat way too.
Yep, I love that one.
It's really good.
I always tell my team I'm likeaudit your request.
If you're always asking someonefor something, be conscious of
that, because at some pointthey're going to tell you no and
they're going to be like stop,leave me alone.
Like you bug me all the time,like you're not providing any
value to me, like stop, youcan't just keep depleting the

(39:29):
account.

Speaker 2 (39:37):
You got to give back into it, you got to think about
it that way.
I love it and it's so true andyou know, in in the scope of
like, creating a survivableenvironment where you're going
to stay here for X number ofyears because of the uncertainty
.
Thinking about, like, thataccount, that relation, what did
you call it?
The?

Speaker 1 (39:48):
bank account, like the relationship bank, your
relationship bank account.

Speaker 2 (39:52):
Yes, invest heavily in that, because you're going to
be stuck.
If you think you're stuck there, all of your coworkers are also
stuck there, so you are all inthe same space together.
It doesn't matter what levelyou're at, the jobs just don't
exist.
So invest in the relationshipbank account with your coworkers
, because they ain't goinganywhere either.

(40:12):
Yeah, and that's what helps me.

Speaker 1 (40:14):
Yeah, and that's especially if you're in the
industry.

Speaker 2 (40:16):
Yeah Right, like, I deal with some very let's just
call them challengingpersonalities on a day-to-day
basis in my job, and somethingthat's really helped me recently
is accept the fact that they'renever going to get any better
and find ways to work with themthat always achieves the result
that I need to get to to achievethat result and this is going

(40:38):
to be a case by case basis foreverybody but the first thing
you can do is have a privateconversation with them, and it's
just as simple as, hey,individual, I want to make sure
that I'm working with youexactly the best way that we can
like, be productive and makethis relationship work.
And, like, you just say that,like, I literally had this
conversation like, hey, how dowe work better together?

(41:00):
I want to improve this.
And one they will be so excitedto tell you exactly what they
want, because, chances are,they're a challenging person.
Um, they're also a selfish,narcissistic person, and they're
more than happy to divulgewhatever the heck they're
thinking and then do whatever itis they want you to do, right,
because, like, even if it's notyour job, you don't want to do

(41:20):
it, you're not comfortable withit.
Well, like, whatever it is,it's not going to change who
they are.
You cannot change them.
You are stuck with them.
So finding that sort of meaculpa between the two of you
that is going to lead to so muchless stress on your end.

Speaker 1 (41:34):
I like that and maybe kind of the moral to that too
is stop trying to fix thingsthat you can't fix.
Yeah, Like people are peopleyou can't change, Like that's.
At some point you have toaccept it and be like okay,
Bruce is Bruce.
I'm never going to be able toget him to act the way I want.

(41:55):
So I'm going to stop trying andI'm just going to accept it and
I'm going to look at thesituation differently and say,
all right, how do I cope withthat?
How do I actually work wellwith that individual?
Or do I just ask them directlyhey, I'm just struggling to know
how do I better help you andkind of change the narrative a
little bit and maybe you'llyou'll find something out that
could change or reframe thesituation so that it is a more

(42:16):
positive place or person to workwith.
I like that, yeah.

Speaker 2 (42:19):
And you know, if you're not comfortable going to
the person directly, findsomeone else who works well with
them that you are comfortablewith Right.
Like hey, I noticed you have areally good relationship with
Janet.
Like what's the trick?
I want to make sure that I'mworking with Janet as well as
you are, and I'm sure they'd behappy to tell you.
Yeah, 100% agree.
There is no foul in trying toimprove workplace relationships

(42:41):
and the way you work with otherpeople.

Speaker 1 (42:44):
I like that.
A quick one that you saidearlier, but I think we should
call it again, is maybe justtake a vacation If you're
feeling really burnt out andyou've got time off.
Like, take the vacation, takean extra day for the weekend and
be like you know what.
I'm just going to start usingmy vacation time.
Maybe it's been too long sinceyou just had a day for yourself
and, honestly, I think it's evenbetter if you have, like kids,

(43:06):
a significant other, whatever itis.
It's like, pick a day when yoursignificant other is at work,
when your kids are at school,and go do something for you.
Go to work, go do something youlike doing.
Just get out of work and go dosomething for yourself.

Speaker 2 (43:22):
I'm going to add one more to that Plan your vacation
around your work.
And this might seem likecounterintuitive, but I notice a
lot of people and it's becausethey have kids, and kids have
summer break, spring, springvacation, but they plan their
vacations around their childrenand what that does is it creates
this huge workplace deficitwhere, like 18 people are

(43:42):
missing in july and august andyou need them.
And then they come back andthey're swamped and like, oh, I
just I can't do it.
Like, right, there's like thewhole freak out of.
Well, you were gone for a weekand a half and the business
continued.
Like, if you really want to takea successful vacation, look at
your quarters, look at when whenis the hard times, when are the

(44:05):
more boring soft times and takeyour vacation during the boring
soft times, right, becauseyou're not going to come back to
a headache or a nightmare or oh, I need you to do this.
I need you to do it before theend of the day, like you know.
I know you were out last week,but, sorry, this needs to get
done.
Like all you're doing is you'rewashing away all of the good

(44:27):
you got from your vacation andcoming back and like the
technical debt has now fallen onyou, right, there are always
going to be times of less, moreboring, just administrative
thing where you can go missingfor a day, a week, two weeks,
and it's not going to have thekind of impact as crunch time,
right, and like maybe you workfor a place that's always crunch
and, if that's the case, justdisappear when you need to

(44:49):
disappear.
You do you, but I feel like,emotionally for me, I usually
plan to take more time offaround the end of the year
December, november, that's whenI cash in everything, because
it's just, it's not as busy,right, like sales slow down in
Q4 of the year, so I candisappear for a week and not
come back to 800 emails andransom notes and all the crap

(45:13):
that I get every day of my lifeand it feels good, I come back
refreshed, I come back better.
It does mean that during theyear I'm dealing with burnout
and stress and all of that more,but I would so much rather do
it this way than to take a weekoff and then come back to a
nightmare and have everythingundone.

Speaker 1 (45:31):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (45:32):
I agree.

Speaker 1 (45:33):
Yeah, it's a great way to think about it.
Yeah, use it, plan it wisely,take you time.
Don't just take time off to bewith your family or whatever.
Like you gotta have you time.
Not that that's not important,by the way you should take time
off to be with your family andeverything.
But I'm saying sometimes youjust need time for you to like
get away, do something that youenjoy, maybe even just be by
yourself for a little bit.
Yeah, that's really important.

Speaker 2 (45:55):
Recharge.
If you've got a three-dayweekend, come up, make it a
four-day.

Speaker 1 (45:59):
Make it four, five, six.
Why stop there?
Why stop there?
Quit your job.
You know it is always fun whenyou get like a three or four-day
weekend.
When you get a four, yeah,three or four-day weekend and
then you take like twoadditional days off and then you
come back.
You have like one day left inthe week.
Yeah, all right guys, it'sFriday.

Speaker 2 (46:17):
So nice, I love that.
I love that.

Speaker 1 (46:20):
What's funny is I tried to.

Speaker 2 (46:21):
I tried to do that this week, right Like, cause I
was in Denver three days thisweek so we had Labor Day off, so
I took Friday off last week andthis was supposed to be a short
week, right Like, fly up onTuesday, fly back on Thursday.
But there was so much chaotic,nightmare fuel that occurred
between Tuesday and Friday itfelt like I worked 10 days in
four.
So it can backfire on you, butgenerally I find extending the

(46:47):
three day weekends into four dayweekends is always a good
strategy.

Speaker 1 (46:51):
Yeah, I like that.
I like that tip I'm trying tothink of like another one to
maybe this one's, this one's,maybe a little, a little spicy.

Speaker 2 (47:02):
Oh, I bring this.
We love the spice.

Speaker 1 (47:06):
Maybe, if you're stuck someplace, find out what's
the most minimal amount of workyou can do to stay employed.

Speaker 2 (47:13):
Quiet, quitting Quiet quit, we are Quiet quit.
I am a huge advocate for quietquitting.
Do the job they hired you forand nothing more, unless you are
financially invested in thesuccess of the company, right,
in my case, I have a lot ofstock.
That stock is very dependent onthe success of the company,

(47:34):
which I have to help ensure.
I cannot quiet quit.
I have to do the opposite ofwhatever quiet quitting is.
I have to.
If someone's failing at theirjob, fill in and do it for them.
Otherwise I don't get paid.
But if, given the luxury, ohbro, I'd be quiet quitting like
eight years ago, I can't wait toquiet quit.

Speaker 1 (47:56):
It's so funny because I think of, like, as a manager,
how I handle performancesituations and like, usually
someone who's struggling getsless responsibility.
They don't get that nextresponsibility, they don't get
more work, they don't get newopportunities.
You don't ask them to do moreimportant things, like you just
be like, okay, I guess we'rejust going to leave them here
doing what they do or takethings off their plate, and then

(48:16):
, if you just do enough,everybody just leaves you alone,
like, okay, they're always justgood enough doing this thing
and it's just less work.

Speaker 2 (48:25):
Yeah Well, I think too, it sets an expectation,
right, jimmy's not going to dothat.
Like, don't give him thatproject, he's not going to do it
.
He's going to do what?
Jimmy was hired to do and that'sfine.
That's what Jimmy was hired todo.
Like, more people need to quietquit.
I do 100% believe that.
I think, especially incorporate, like quiet quitting
is not a bad thing.

(48:46):
That is the thing we wereactually hired to do and because
we had overachievers, theyruined everything and forced us
all into the hustle and grindculture, and thanks is basically
all I have to say to thosefolks.
Now we have to come up with aterm like quiet quitting.
That's just doing your job.

Speaker 1 (49:05):
Oh, that is hilarious .
Yeah, it's true, it's true, andI think I fall into the
category you were just sayingthank you to.
So I'm sorry to everybody, butfor me it'd be so hard to do
that, because I care so muchabout the process of doing work
and I enjoy it for the most part, so I make it worse for
everybody because I just reallyenjoy doing the work.

Speaker 2 (49:23):
Get off this show.
Go Go find another podcast toruin.
Go find another one, go Get outof here.

Speaker 1 (49:29):
I'm out of here, I'm running away Ruin corporate
strategy.

Speaker 2 (49:32):
Run it away, you've ruined corporate strategy.

Speaker 1 (49:36):
Ooh, okay.
What other tips Making it morebearable Surviving this downturn
in the market.

Speaker 2 (49:43):
We talked about treating yourself, but I mean
actually treat yourself, notjust like on vacation days.
This is a big one for me.
We talked about the muleearlier.
I'll check my calendar when Iwake up in the morning to see
like how slamma jamma is my daywith meetings, and if it is
absolute hate myself, then I'mgoing to go get myself a mule

(50:04):
first thing in the morning.
Uh, I'm going to get the the,the coffee, ginger, lemon hybrid
and I'm going to enjoy that forthe next two, three hours and
sip it slowly, because that'sgoing to help me get through my
day without wanting to jumpthrough a window.
Yeah, treat yourself and makesure that whatever it is,
whatever little thing that it isthat helps you find peace and

(50:27):
happiness outside of work,you're doing those things both
during the day and after work,right?
Like?
Don't put more on your platethan you need to in life.
Don't invite that extra crap inif you don't need it and you're
not ready for it.
That's just going to impactyour work happiness.

Speaker 1 (50:44):
Yeah, I love that.
I think a lot of people justget so stuck in routine and they
don't do those little things.
Like you don't have to take atwo week vacation, do something
small.
If you look at your day andyou're just like, okay if I get,
and do something small.
If you look at your day andyou're just like, okay if I get.
And I I like to set goals formyself because I'm like, okay,
if I do these things, I get xreward, like I'll take a, I'll
take a nap or something like inthe middle of the day, just

(51:04):
because I knocked out everythingelse.
So like I'm just gonna go enjoythat nap.
And so you set that target.
It keeps you motivated, ithelps get your stuff done.
And then you're like, all right, it's threeclock, I'm going to
go get boba tea with my buddyBruce and that's my reward.
And I'm excited because I lookat my list.
I look at my list.
I want you to look at it.
How many things are crossed outon that list?

Speaker 2 (51:23):
Why are you writing things on paper?

Speaker 1 (51:26):
My brain was so overloaded when I woke up this
morning.
I'm like I can't put it.
I can't touch my Stay away frommy computer.
I got to write it all down andguess what?
I crushed it all.
And you know what's on thislist?
It says Boba.

Speaker 2 (51:38):
I'm buying you two Boba teas, because now I just
feel bad for you.

Speaker 1 (51:42):
But I did it right.
It's like I set that goal.

Speaker 2 (51:44):
I knew there was light at the end of the tunnel
and it made it more manageableto get through the day because I
knew there was something tolook forward to.
You know, I think like it'sinteresting, there are societal
expectations for us as humanbeings, and like we're at 50
minutes.
But here I'm going to go on aslight tangent Do it.
Engagement rings right, likeengagement rings were created by

(52:08):
the mafia to sell diamonds.
Okay, I didn't know that, butwhat does everyone buy when they
get married?
Why?
This did not exist before itwas created and it was
completely marketed andmanipulated.
Breakfast is the best meal onthe day.
Right, you've been lied to yourentire life.

(52:29):
Breakfast is completelyunnecessary.
It's not the most importantmeal of the day.
That was created by the cornindustry to sell cereal and
sugar uh, to basically combatcane sugar.
I knew that I've been told somuch crap.
You gotta go skiing on vacation.
You gotta you gotta fly tohawaii.
You gotta do a 12-hour flightto hawaii and go to one of the

(52:50):
most expensive places on planetearth, otherwise you're not
having a good vacation.
You have to have kids.
You need to live in afour-bedroom, three-bathroom
house that is not attached toyour neighbor.
Like society loves to tellpeople what good is, and I'm
telling you right now, you needto tell yourself what good is,
what makes you happy.

(53:11):
Do it for me, it's having amule in the morning when I have
a day full of meetings, and itmakes my days better and people
be like.
Well, you know, the reasonmillennials can't own houses is
because they buy expensivecoffee and have avocado toast.
Maybe that's what makes ushappy.
Maybe we were never going tobuy houses and we always.
We knew that this was going tohappen and the economy was never
going to afford it, because youcan't have single income homes

(53:33):
anymore and the coffee was thecope.
That's what helps us getthrough the day.
So shut up, quit putting yourexpectations on me and telling
me how to live my life andtelling me what good and happy
is.
I'm going to find it myself andtruly, this is how I feel good
Reject what society tells youand do what feels good.

Speaker 1 (53:59):
Thanks for listening to Corporate Strategy Podcast.
It could have been email.
I'm Mike Girard.
I mean, I agree with you.
I think a lot of life, as yougo through it and you get older,
you realize stop comparingyourself to others, you're never
going to be happy that way.
Stop looking at what everyoneelse has, stop doing what
everyone else is and likeexpecting to be fulfilled.

(54:20):
It's like find the things youlike and do it unapologetically.
You know I'm going to go dothis thing.
I don't care that whoeverthinks it's weird that I bowl
four times a week, from six to8am, every single morning,
because I love it, I lovebowling, you love bowling, go
bowl, go bowl.
Who cares what people thinkabout it?
It's like if that's whatfulfills you and makes you

(54:45):
excited, like, go do it.
You should find those thingsyou really like and like, go
pursue those things and not feellike you're judged or have to
do the hustle culture orwhatever.
It's like do what you do thatmakes you happy.

Speaker 2 (54:53):
I love that, at or whatever it's like, do what you
do that makes you happy.
I love that.
At the end of the day, the heatdeath of the universe will kill
us all and none of this willmatter.
So enjoy what you can, whileyou can enjoy it Like some boba
tea that's about to go in mymouth.
I'm about to destroy some bobatea, but I think that's it right
.
We have no choice.
We've been going for an hour.
We have no choice.
We're been going for an hour.

(55:14):
We have no choice.
We're stuck at the jobs we'restuck at.
For the time being, things arenot good, but, like Restrepo has
said in the past on thispodcast, everything comes in
waves.
I believe in my heart of hearts, this too shall pass, just like
everything has passed before it, and we will come to a time
where there will be jobs aplenty.

(55:35):
So get through this rough patch.
Do what you come to a timewhere there will be jobs aplenty
.
So get through this rough patch.
Do what you need to do to feelgood.
Fight, burnout, quiet, quit,build the relationships with
others, because they're notgoing anywhere either, and your
day will become more survivable.
If you have tips that we didn'tgo over, I would love to hear
them.
Do you know where you can dothat, clark?

(55:55):
You know where you can give usthose tips?
No, it's actually in ourDiscord, our corporate fam
Discord.
You can get there by going tothe show notes, clicking on our
link, joining the Discord.
It's a great place to have aconversation.
The Corporate Strategy Channelgreat place to tell us how you
are coping in these trying times.
I would love to know what doyou do that we're not doing?

(56:18):
That we can pick up and do andwe'll talk about it on the next
episode of the pod.
Do that.
If you want to support the show, you can do that too.
You can go into the buy us acoffee.
Buy us a coffee, help pay forthe program.
We have ads on here becauseyou're not doing that.
And hey, if you can't supportus financially, you know what
you can do share this with afriend.
Share it with a friend, becausethey have money and you don't.

(56:39):
So get them to listen to theshow and get them to support us
and buy us a coffee.
That's, that's the trade-offright.
You either have one choice oranother give us money or give us
friends that's it.

Speaker 1 (56:50):
Well, also, there is one last thing.
Yeah, it could be death, butanother last thing is we did
start the Is it AI challenge.

Speaker 2 (56:56):
And it's cool Our first one is tied, it's 50-50.

Speaker 1 (56:59):
I did not expect this .
I am so ready.
Let's play, let's play.
I don't know if I want to givethe answer yet.
I kind of want to giveeverybody a few more days
Because we need to break thistie.
Maybe next episode we'll We'llrelease it, because the fact
that it's 50-50 proves my pointthat AI image generation is
getting so good.
You might not even know.

Speaker 2 (57:19):
Can you?
Okay, can you just tell me?
Well, I guess they could hoverover the image and see what I
voted on.
I want to know.
I think I'm right.
I think I'm right.
Can I justify it?
No, I'll wait.
I'll wait, I'll wait, yeah,yeah.

Speaker 1 (57:31):
Tag back in and say, hey, we're going to be
announcing, we need someone tobreak the tie.
I'm going to message everybody,I'm going to tell them somebody
break the tie.
We need to know and we're goingto talk about it on the next
episode.

Speaker 2 (57:42):
We have a lot of fun games in our Discord.
Is it AI?
Is the new one, which?
It's just what you think it is.
It's two pictures.
One is AI, one isn't, althoughdebatable, and we need to figure
out.
If it is AI, what about thecrab one that Aika shared?
Do you think the crab is real?

Speaker 1 (57:58):
I think the crab's real, that picture is so real.

Speaker 2 (58:01):
I think it's real.
It's got to be a real crab.
I agree.
I think Aika found a crab iswhat happened.
I think so.

Speaker 1 (58:07):
I just wanted to share this cool crab.
He's like this will getattention.

Speaker 2 (58:13):
Put it in it, ai, it's got to be, that's got to be
a real crab but ai burgers.
So you can go in there.
You can share your, your aiversus real pictures you can go
to is it me or is it corporate?
Do forward, slash, confess andshare, share true stories that
you didn't want to share withyour name attached to.
Or you can go to what do youmean?
Or you can post a meme aboutsomething we've said or done or
lived on the previous episode.

(58:33):
But lots, lots of fun things todo in the Discord, lots of fun
ways to engage and really justwe want to be your friend.
So join the Discord and hangout with us.
It's a great place to be.

Speaker 1 (58:44):
Love it.
Like.
Share, subscribe.
Share with people around you.
If you want people to be coolerto work with, share this with
them.
They'll probably learn a littlebit.

Speaker 2 (58:53):
We have an individual who's been on the pod before.
We talk with them not just inthe Discord but even in private
messages, and they share the podwith their team and they found
great success with doing this.
So do share us.
Broadly, I think one thing likeneither of us are certified
experts, right, like Clark.

(59:13):
Well, clark, you actually mightbe certified.
I'm just I'm certified brokenhuman being.
None of us are experts, butwe've lived this right, like if
you've made it this far in thepod and you're thinking who are
these losers that feel that theycan tell us what they know
about work?
We're just people that aretrying to make surviving

(59:34):
corporate a better place.
Share this with others becauseyou have to initiate the kind of
behavior you want to see, evenif you disagree with what we say
.
Like there is, the practice ofnothing is going to change if
you don't take the first step tochange it.
So you know, sharing this pod,helping create the culture that
we want to build and I don'tjust use we, as in Clark, as I,

(59:57):
we as in the corporate strategymovement in the fam I think most
of us agree Corporate could bea better place.
Sharing this pod is one way tohelp make that happen.
I love it.

Speaker 1 (01:00:08):
I love you, you too.
Oh, thanks, I'll see you soon,very shortly.

Speaker 2 (01:00:14):
I'll see you real soon for some boba tea and on
that note to the boba, I'm Bruceand I'm Boba Clark.
And you're on, boba Mute.
We'll see you next, boba Week.