A Whole Generation Needs A Break

It's not every day you come across such an honest and vulnerable account of what really goes on when someone leaves the high-tech world - not to mention all the feelings involved in becoming officially unemployed after so many years of intense productivity.

The following article describes the roller-coaster of emotions involved in shifting between our default 'work is everything' mode, and this transition we need to go through toward understanding that there is more to life - and more to us actually - than the cool high-tech life we designed for ourselves. As great as it often feels, we all need to understand what's going on beneath the hood - what I've been saying all along.

Whole Generation Needs A Break CTech by Calcalist

Here is an incredible share from someone who left his high-tech job after 20 years:

"Ariel Grayzas resigned from a prestigious position in the high-tech about a year ago, because he could no longer take it. Since then he has been at home, looking for a purpose in life other than work, shifting between the need to relax and anxiety for his generation, which was conditioned to keep running forever and not stop even for a moment to catch its breath." CTech by Calcalist

Here are some of the highlights - really brilliant insights you don't see every day about the transition we're going through:

Work is Everything -

• Mentally we are stuck in the middle: between our parent's generation , who instilled in us an ethos that work is everything; and our children's generation, who already understand that work can only be a means and not an end.
• For years I defined myself through the things I do. It's not by chance. Not only our parents taught us that work is our life, the whole world around us is shaped this way.

Work is Our Only Source of Development -

• We also learned to look for our life challenges through work. After all, this is where we spend most of our waking hours.
• Without noticing, work becomes such an integral part of your life that you have no idea how to define yourself without it.

Discovering A New "Occupation" -

• More than needing to find a way to fill the free time, you mainly need to find a new meaning for yourself.
• Nevertheless, the transition to unemployment was difficult, perhaps this is due to the habit/trend of working non-stop. It turns out that it is very difficult to do nothing.

I especially appreciated his insightful conclusion where he talks about us focusing on all the wrong things, instead of the serious burnout in our most prestigious sector. At one point he even shares that a 30 year old woman who's only been working there for two years needs to take a break -

"I could afford a long break in the middle of life, but most Israelis cannot afford it. No one in our leadership thinks this is a problem that needs treatment, even though we are all tired, irritable, exhausted and angry. At some point this pressure cooker will explode and everyone will talk about the security, economic, social situation, but no one will talk about the fact that we are simply completely worn out."

What People Really Want

If we learn to create more balance between work and pleasure, we'll discover that we have time and energy for far more emotionally rewarding activities. Which is what everyone is really looking for these days. The problem is that we're trying to revive all the traditional ways we used to fill ourselves - just all amped up more than before - instead of understanding that we've changed, and now we need to discover new ways of filling ourselves.

Anything beyond what is truly necessary is redundant, which is why it's usually draining, unpleasant, and detrimental to the company's success in the long run.

In short, we'll all benefit from finding the right balance between our work when we're "on" and our free time. It's no secret anymore that having a healthy balance between work and leisure is the key to leading a good life. There is so much going on around this topic at the moment - leaders see it one way and employees see it a different way. But the truth is that this is something that each person must determine for themselves based on one principle: to only work as much as necessary to get our job done in the most optimal manner. Anything beyond what is truly necessary is redundant, which is why it's usually draining, unpleasant, and detrimental to the company's success in the long run.