There has been a series of large layoffs in tech recently: Meta, Twitter, Stripe, Lyft, Shopify, NetFlix, Snap, and many others. There are also larger trends and a confluence of challenging and stressful circumstances that have contributed to burnout and have also peaked in the past few years:
- pandemic, quarantine, and isolation
- disillusionment with big tech overall
- too much time working from home plus staying home to limit pandemic exposure
- War
- Politics
- Relentlessly negative news and media
If you were laid off from your tech job, we're sorry you have to experience that and wish you the best in responding to that unexpected change. Job changes and feelings of burnout are circumstances we feel can often benefit from taking a retreat to process, heal, and re-energize. We think working on one's own creative work without external pressures and deadlines can be a cure for burnout. One of our driving motivators here is seeing creative people flourish and do their best work.
Louie Bacaj expressed this in a tweet recently:
There is no better feeling than being able to:
— Louie Bacaj (@LBacaj) November 23, 2022
– work on what you want to work on
– chase what you want to chase
– write what you want to write
– build what you want to build
I’m thankful that the majority of my time this year was spent that way.
ThePrimeagen on Youtube posted this fantastic short video. The script is completely aligned with our values here at FRC.
- "Side projects can prevent and even cure burnout"
- The importance of intrinsic motivation. Following your own excitement and curiosity. "Do it because you want to do it".
- The power of sabbatical
- Skill building by cranking out projects
- "Find that joy again"
- "It's 2023 - take the time. Invest in your creativity. Invest in passion. Invest in desire."
We love to see this more reflective content on a youtube channel that's normally very technical stuff about vim and coding.
In the tweet below, Gergely Oroz links to companies that are hiring now.
BREAKING: companies are hiring software engineers and engineering managers.
— Gergely Orosz (@GergelyOrosz) November 18, 2022
More than 750 of them! Thanks to everyone who contributed to this list. See the full one here:https://t.co/4cHeharzeH
(Using the 'breaking' part to highlight some good news for a change!) pic.twitter.com/3pc0LPdPHx
If you are curious about a retreat or might be interested, we want to directly factor your personal situation into our 2023 schedule of retreats. If you take 2 minutes to fill out this short survey, it will help us match our plans to the needs of our community.
Fill Out Retreat Program Survey