The Pandemic Shook Our Relationship to Work

Ever struggled to do your laundry, re-register your car, or make time to go to the dentist? It might make you feel like you’re terrible at “adulting,” but it turns out that’s actually more normal than you think and there might be a pretty solid explanation: burnout. Anne Helen Peterson, author of Can’t Even: How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation, joins Matt in this episode to talk about the costs of living in an achievement-obsessed culture, how monetizing what you love can get in the way of building a life, and the systemic issues that have perpetuated a system of workaholism. We also hear personal burnout experiences from members of the Yes Theory community. And through these accounts, we realize - we’re all struggling to find a sense of balance in our lives. Generationally, we have no safety net. Job security feels like an illusion and pension-style retirement packages are a relic of the past. And the alternative offer of personal freedom - to work wherever, whenever - comes with a lot of costs to health and happiness. We are tethered to our devices, and feel like insufficient human beings when we aren’t being productive.  Though we’ve been trained to believe we need to do more to be more, maybe it’s actually the other way around. But how do we start altering the system and building lives that we don’t feel the need to escape from? That’s what we’re getting into in this episode. To learn more on the topic of generational burnout, check out Anne’s book. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices