Category: Burnout Diaries

By Ken Hollow, trapped in an infinite feedback loop of buzzwords If I die young, bury me in an Outlook calendar invite. Cause of death: “Just circling back.” My tombstone will read: “Per my last email.” Corporate jargon has many crimes, but none so insidious as the eternal loop of circling back, touching base, looping…

By Ken Hollow, survivor of 4,000 Slack pings and counting I have seen the face of hell, and it is a recurring calendar invite labeled “Quick Sync.” There is no such thing as a quick sync. There is only the slow death of my soul as six people talk in circles for 45 minutes, then…

By Ken Hollow, unwilling financier of the attention economy Here’s what I wanted from social media: to post a picture, scream into the void, maybe share a meme that will haunt me for five years. Here’s what I did not want: to be coerced into setting up a digital wallet every time I try to…

By Ken Hollow, unpaid trend chaser, reluctant doomscroller Let me tell you a secret: I don’t hate TikTok. I respect it. It’s the apex predator of apps. It knows what it is — fast, weird, addictive, chaotic. It has distilled human attention into 60-second vials of dopamine. That’s impressive, in a horrifying, “we’re all doomed”…

By Ken Hollow, unwilling caretaker of expired social logins Remember Threads? Of course you don’t. And if you do, it’s only because the app is still haunting your home screen like an ex you forgot to delete from your contacts. The icon’s just sitting there, silently judging you for not “engaging in meaningful conversations” while…

By Ken Hollow, professional overthinker and part-time emoji decoder Feedback is supposed to be constructive. Helpful. Collaborative. Instead, it’s often delivered in the most emotionally ambiguous format possible: the single “LOL.” When a client replies “LOL” to something I’ve sent, my brain doesn’t hear laughter. My brain hears: 🔹 The Problem With Digital Tone Tone…

By Ken Hollow, professional tab juggler and part-time actual worker Every freelancer has their own productivity kryptonite. For some, it’s TikTok. For others, it’s the sudden urge to reorganize the spice rack. For me? It’s the client group chat. Slack. WhatsApp. Facebook Messenger. One client even insists on using Telegram “for the vibes.” They call…

By Ken Hollow, part-time diplomat, full-time liar-for-hire Here’s the first rule of freelancing: every client needs to feel like they are your one and only. The Beyoncé of your roster. The sun around which your entire creative orbit revolves. And here’s the second rule: that is a complete and utter fabrication. In reality, you are…

By Ken Hollow, freelance chameleon and reluctant trend hopper Every Monday, I check my analytics like a responsible content creator who pretends to enjoy numbers. And every Monday, the platforms collectively decide I am no longer the person I was last week. Last week? Oh, I was a motivational lifestyle guru. The week before that?…

By Ken Hollow, freelance prisoner of pastel purgatory The text came in at 8:14 a.m., right when I was pretending to do my morning routine and not just staring at my phone in bed. “Hey, it’s just a quick edit.” From Nana Vix. Those six words are the freelance equivalent of “We need to talk.”…