Corporate Chat Tools Are Just Anxiety Generators
By Ken Hollow, unwilling hostage of the green dot Slack. Teams. Discord. Whatever flavor of chat tool your company forces upon you, they’re all the…
Category
Burnout Diaries
Behind the scenes of managing a mythical influencer without magical insurance. Read at your own risk. May contain keyboard smashing, existential dread, and unsolicited venting.
Burnout Diaries
Burnout Diaries
Office Birthdays Are Just Cupcake-Based Hostage Situations
By Ken Hollow, reluctant attendee of frosting purgatory There are few things more cursed in corporate life than the office birthday celebration. Not because anyone…
Burnout Diaries
Performance Improvement Plans Are Just HR Fanfiction
By Ken Hollow, reluctant protagonist in HR’s tragic novella Performance Improvement Plans — or PIPs, if you want to make them sound like a snack…
Burnout Diaries
Project Deadlines Are Just Fictional Dates
By Ken Hollow, unwilling time traveler through calendar chaos Project deadlines are fictional. They’re not based on reality, resources, or reason. They’re dates picked out…
Burnout Diaries
Expense Reports Are Just Bureaucratic Fanfiction
By Ken Hollow, unwilling author of receipt novels Expense reports are the worst kind of creative writing: bureaucratic fanfiction. You take mundane events — a…
Burnout Diaries
KPIs for Life: How Management Wants to Quantify Your Soul
By Ken Hollow, unwilling data point in HR’s experiment Corporate obsession with Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) has reached a new low: they’re no longer content…
Burnout Diaries
Return-to-Office Is Just Nostalgia for Micromanagement
By Ken Hollow, reluctant commuter in pajama pants The great promise of remote work was freedom: no commute, no awkward breakroom small talk, no boss…
Burnout Diaries
OKRs Are Just New Year’s Resolutions With Graphs
By Ken Hollow, reluctant goal-setter and spreadsheet victim Every January, normal people lie to themselves with New Year’s resolutions: “I’ll run every day. I’ll stop…
Burnout Diaries
Office Jargon Is Just a Fantasy Language Pack
By Ken Hollow, reluctant translator of corporate Elvish Corporate jargon is less communication and more spellcasting. Nobody actually knows what half of it means, but…
Burnout Diaries
Corporate Security Training Is Just a Phishing Simulator
By Ken Hollow, unwilling trainee in email paranoia Corporate security training is the modern workplace’s favorite pastime. Not because it works, but because it wastes…