Source of toxicity/burnout

I think I have an hypothesis of what’s the root cause of the toxicity at workplaces. Especially startups, but this theory should be extended to big companies as well.

Step 1: Putin starts the war

Step 2: Inflation increases, to combat it federal reserve of USA increases interest rates

Step 3: the capital in the funding eco system(vcs) gets diminished, because they don’t have access to low interest money.

Step 4: company ceos start to do layoffs, starts putting pressure on teams to reduce the audit findings, release things quickly etc

Because you need to make money to survive

Step 5: directors (tech and product) start putting pressure on Engineering managers

Step 6: Engineering managers and product owners start putting pressure on us(normies), where our estimates get challenged, work will be micro managed or hyper optimized to the point you feel like you are not respected nor you opinion.

You start to think whether it’s really worth staying here or you need to find a different job.

Then you find that no one’s really hiring or the ones that are hiring are lowballing you.

You cannot really quit, because you have monthly EMIs and don’t really have a runway.

You become disengaged with work, and start doing the bare minimum to stay float.

At this point, the pressure you have been getting increases because the expectations are high, but you don’t care anymore

Now you are burned out, and you really start thinking if you chose the right career.