Becoming an EQ Shop to Stop the New Burnout Wave

Isn’t life quieter when I’m not "in your ear" moaning about the lack of Agile and the lack of care about the roaring HumanDebt like I used to do THREE times a week a few months ago but barely once every few weeks nowadays? You’re welcome :)

Is this blessed (semi) silence from my part caused by how the world of business and technology has magically gotten better and there’s less to moan about? Hells to the no. Pull up a chair and grab a drink, please.

Bear with me, I know you probably can’t see it from the insides of the belly of the beast. I also know that  if you’re outside of the belly, you look this in the eye every day and try hard to ignore it because being in denial is a necessary survival technique. But we can all feel it.

This closeness and heaviness that the business world acquired of late. Possibly post-pandemic, possibly there before. This visible Human Debt in every corner. The information flows that stop. The unwillingness to share, to recommend, to give ideas, respect or credit. The lack of genuine curiosity and energy for betterment or even “normalment”.

Every interaction feeling like a chore mired with danger. Every project fraught with intense emotional tolls. Every next step, either blocked or so much harder than it used to be. Everyone far too terrified to lose either a job or a contract, to speak up. Everyone, always and deeply exhausted and closed off. I know that loads of wonderfully open deals and collabs are built as I type this and there’s loads of good stuff and explosive growth happening (if some of questionable value in its insta-AI-all character) but despite all that, I put it to all of us that the business world today overall is nothing like it was 20 years ago and it feels to me, as a casual and often horrified observer, that little was retained of the things that were good then in our overall demeanor and vibe.