{"id":63,"date":"2023-03-13T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-03-13T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/burnout-why-reaching-financial-independence-is-the-best-thing-for-your-work\/"},"modified":"2025-08-29T20:15:26","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T20:15:26","slug":"burnout-why-reaching-financial-independence-is-the-best-thing-for-your-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/burnout-why-reaching-financial-independence-is-the-best-thing-for-your-work\/","title":{"rendered":"Fighting Burnout with Money"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The most popular talking point that sucked me into the financial independence (FI) movement in late 2017 was the idea of getting off the hamster wheel. \u201cGet out of the rat race! Get off the hamster wheel!\u201d (Apparently we\u2019re all analogous to small rodents.)<\/p>\n

My brain didn\u2019t hesitate to make the jump from \u201cworking all day every day\u201d to \u201cnever working again\u201d\u2014at no point in my deep dive (which spanned multiple months, many podcasts, a few books, and far too many rants to people who didn\u2019t care) did I stop to ask whether or not my goal was extreme, or if there were a less <\/em>extreme middle ground, or if there were aspects of work I enjoyed.<\/p>\n

FI\/RE just sounded appealing as I traipsed back and forth between work and home every day in the dark that winter, spending all my time inside a building with fluorescent lights.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

Burnout (and subsequent guilt about the burnout)<\/h2>\n

After only a year, I began to feel symptoms of (what I learned later was) burnout. According to WebMD<\/span><\/a>, burnout is the condition in which, after extended periods of feeling \u201cswamped,\u201d you\u2019re unable to escape feelings of general overwhelm<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t understand why I felt this way. I found myself struggling to stay focused, needing frequent breaks, feeling tired all the time, and having emotional flare-ups over work stuff. <\/p>\n

It sounds whiney, I know\u2014working a \u201cfake email job\u201d in a climate-controlled office would hardly register as \u201cwork\u201d to my meatpacking ancestors who probably stood knee-deep in questionable fluids for 12 hours each day, but something felt inescapably meaningless about the barrages of email threads, Powerpoint decks, and back-to-back 30-minute \u201ctouch bases.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
>
\n \u201c<\/span>It became clear to me early in my career that it wasn\u2019t enough to just work hard\u2014I had to look like I was working hard.\u201d<\/span>\n <\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n
\n

On one of my first work trips, an older colleague told me, \u201cYou have to remember that perception is reality. Even if you\u2019re doing a great job, if someone sees you at your desk scrolling on your phone, leaving early, or coming in late, they\u2019re going to think you\u2019re not working hard. People talk.\u201d <\/p>\n

You\u2019d think working from home for three years would\u2019ve helped to alleviate this (and in some ways, it did!), but the Wall Street Journal<\/span><\/a> pointed out that the reason<\/em> we were all working from home (and how) meant these feelings intensified. <\/p>\n

The expectations at work didn\u2019t slow or cease because we were taking calls from our living rooms. The pressure to prove<\/em> we were still working hard in the face of furloughs escalated, and new \u201cproductivity\u201d software emerged to fill the gap: Microsoft Teams, the proliferation of Slack and Zoom, and other chat apps that meant you were now accessible at all hours of the day and night. Ironically, this somehow replaced actual<\/em> productivity with a sort of endless toiling<\/span><\/a>; LARPing your job<\/span><\/a> as opposed to actually doing it.<\/p>\n

It became clear to me early in my career that it wasn\u2019t enough to just<\/em> work hard\u2014I had to look<\/em> like I was working hard. Work meant two things: Actually performing, and performatively performing. The latter was more exhausting than the former.<\/p>\n

The crazy part? <\/p>\n

All things considered, I had a great job. <\/em>I had (what I thought was) my dream job, so I couldn\u2019t pinpoint the source of my existential dread.<\/p>\n

I vastly underestimated how mentally draining\u2014yet somehow bizarrely un-stimulating\u2014it would be to work 9\u20135 in a big corporate setting. <\/p>\n

And nothing makes burnout worse than feeling guilty about <\/em>feeling burnt out. My guilt (\u201cI should just be grateful I have a job at all!\u201d) intensified as more time passed.<\/p>\n

I had been so excited to begin my career that I couldn\u2019t understand why (only a few years in!) I was already feeling disillusioned. I was a sitting duck for financial independence propaganda.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

None of this would\u2019ve mattered if my livelihood hadn\u2019t literally depended on it<\/h2>\n

In retrospect, it\u2019s clear the exhaustion was a byproduct of my personal safety and security being wholly tied up in not just<\/em> the job, but also in others\u2019 perceptions of me.<\/p>\n

The constant maintenance of perception (or occasional bouts of apathy) wouldn\u2019t matter so much if our livelihoods didn\u2019t feel like they depended on those perceptions. <\/p>\n

You could make the case that none of this stuff would\u2019ve actually been materially detrimental to my career or impacted whether or not I received a paycheck\u2014but tell that to a neurotic 22-year-old with no money who doesn\u2019t know any better and just signed her first 12-month lease. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s no wonder the financial independence movement became so attractive to me, because it promised both freedom and reprieve from all of this posturing. <\/p>\n

There\u2019s just one rather obvious<\/em> problem: It can take a really long time to achieve. So long, in fact, that many young people throw in the towel before they begin\u2014ironically enough, the polar opposite approach to \u201cgunning for financial freedom\u201d is \u201cconceding in the first inning that you\u2019ll never reach it and just spending everything you make<\/span><\/a> while the going\u2019s good.\u201d<\/p>\n

As writer <\/strong>Kayti Christian<\/strong><\/span><\/a> points out, it\u2019s pretty challenging to get off the hamster wheel when the hamster wheel pays your bills<\/strong>, but the fundamental mistake is allowing those bills to swell larger and larger, rendering the hamster wheel that much more necessary. <\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
>
\n \u201c<\/span>We move through life differently when we\u2019ve self-insured our own safety and security.\u201d<\/span>\n <\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n
\n

Most of us do not freely choose to engage in behaviors that lead to burnout, we engage precisely because we feel we have no other choice.<\/em> <\/p>\n

It feels as though we can\u2019t<\/em> turn our back on the late-night email or the unread message, because what if that person gets angry and then what if someone else finds out you\u2019re not responsive and then what if next quarter you don\u2019t get promoted and then what if you can\u2019t afford your mortgage and what if, what if, what if\u2014<\/em><\/p>\n

Our security is so intrinsically tied to our jobs that disengaging when feeling burnt out doesn\u2019t seem like a safe or responsible option. If we lose our jobs, we don\u2019t just lose our income: We lose our healthcare<\/span><\/a>. We lose our retirement plan (or rather, the ability to contribute to one). We lose our identity, in some cases. <\/p>\n

Sometimes, it\u2019s hard to deny that true safety and security in the US often looks a whole hell of a lot like just having a bunch of money.<\/p>\n

When we talk about this in the context of financial independence, we usually mean the ability to do something extreme\u2014like quit a job. But my perspective on true<\/em> independence has evolved: It\u2019s not about disengaging completely, forever. True independence is more impactful than that. It enables you to move about your work and life in a way that isn\u2019t rooted in fear<\/em> of it all crashing down. <\/p>\n

We move through life differently when we\u2019ve self-insured our own safety and security<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t need this\u201d is a life-changing perspective with which to approach your career. It allows you the ability to change paths at any time\u2014and money<\/em> grants you access to that gated area of invincibility behind the velvet rope more directly than just about anything else. <\/p>\n

This is the moat that money can build around you.<\/strong> It\u2019s permission to separate your work\u2014your livelihood\u2014from your most fundamental needs, and behave accordingly. Saying what you actually think, taking time off when you actually need it, and doing what you actually want to do. <\/p>\n

This is why I pursue financial independence. Not because I think next week (or even next year) my moat will be wide enough, but because it never<\/em> will be if I don\u2019t keep digging. <\/p>\n

Money is power\u2014and it\u2019s the kind of power you can seize for yourself with enough saving and investing. Nobody in upper management has to give it to you. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The most popular talking point that sucked me into the financial independence (FI) movement in late 2017 was the idea of getting off the hamster wheel. \u201cGet out of the rat race! Get off the hamster wheel!\u201d (Apparently we\u2019re all analogous to small rodents.) 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