I was already under so much stress from work that I had part of my intestines bind up for a week, the doctors couldn't figure out what was wrong with me so they decided to give me predinsone... I felt sick so I went home on a Saturday, after 'only' hitting 50 hours for the week. My boss called to yell at me and tell me to come back to work, the next thing I clearly remember was being in a hospital.
I still had to work for that POS for 2 years after that happened. For a long time I blamed myself, until a year and half later when my mother was within an inch of life in the hospital and I wanted to leave early and see her, he said "Didn't I already give you a day off for that?"
As for what kind of person that is? Narccists. And they can be very damaging to their employees if they aren't rooted out from management quickly.
I worked for several people like this in high school. In fact all of the people I worked for in high school were like this. One example being having to clean hot outdoor bathrooms in mid July heat with a mean case of mono and a temperature of 103. Never mind being “allowed” to call in sick. It took many, many years to realize that work wasn’t supposed to be this way.
After being what I consider a very talented member of our industry for 15 years and having no career advancement whatsoever, I’ve been asking myself over the past couple years whether these experiences are to blame. Getting reamed out all the time seems to have had a lasting impact on my ability to take ownership, do the kinds of things you need to do to get ahead, etc.
> Getting reamed out all the time seems to have had a lasting impact on my ability to take ownership, do the kinds of things you need to do to get ahead, etc.
My work experiences during these years were about following strict orders and getting reamed at / yelled it for deviating, trying to improve things, etc.
"And they can be very damaging to their employees if they aren't rooted out from management quickly."
But they can be very useful to burn through people to get shit done and raise profits short term. A timemachine would be interesting, to compare different times and see whether narcism is deep rooted in our genetics, or if it is our culture that promotes them .
A deliberate strategy of employee burnout and high turnover isn't necessarily only viable in the short term, especially if the work is menial such that there's little time invested in onboarding.
I had a fairly similar physical reaction to overwork, interestingly. Thankfully an ER tech took a bit of extra time to ask me if my stress levels had changed recently. This led to rapid re-evaluation of my life choices, and me quitting shortly afterwards.
I was already under so much stress from work that I had part of my intestines bind up for a week, the doctors couldn't figure out what was wrong with me so they decided to give me predinsone... I felt sick so I went home on a Saturday, after 'only' hitting 50 hours for the week. My boss called to yell at me and tell me to come back to work, the next thing I clearly remember was being in a hospital.
I still had to work for that POS for 2 years after that happened. For a long time I blamed myself, until a year and half later when my mother was within an inch of life in the hospital and I wanted to leave early and see her, he said "Didn't I already give you a day off for that?"
As for what kind of person that is? Narccists. And they can be very damaging to their employees if they aren't rooted out from management quickly.