Said It Here

Why am I having a breakdown over work?

The basic goal of working to make a living has become impossible, wiping out the motivation to keep a job. Employees are treated as disposable, spoken down to by managers, and given zero control over their own time. This constant disrespect turns daily work into a source of deep resentment and early-morning mental breakdowns.

Overview
People affected4 accounts across 2 forums
Workarounds found6 items attempted
Community agreement14 total upvotes

What the numbers show

Counted from the threads quoted below. How we count

  • This comes up 138.5× more often in r/careerguidance than across the site as a whole.

What people tried

Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.

6 items+ Contribute

Found another way around this?

Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.

  1. 1
    Job hopping between various retail, delivery, and service roles
    Did this help you?
  2. 2
    Attempting to turn a personal hobby into a career to escape standard jobs
    Did this help you?
  3. 3
    Fantasizing about AI taking over the workforce as an excuse to stop participating in the system
    Did this help you?
  4. 4
    Implementing a strict after-hours handoff for the emergency line.
    Did this help you?
  5. 5
    Turning the work phone on Do Not Disturb for the weekend.
    Did this help you?
  6. 6
    Getting out to nature and spending time on neglected non-work activities.
    Did this help you?
Tried another approach not listed above?+ Share your workaround ↑

In their words

Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.

r/PropertyManagement1 person · November 2026

“Finally had my first breakdown about work at a record breaking 9:00am and 1.5 years in.”source ↗

“I didn’t know how good I had it in conventional housing… and that’s saying something.”source ↗

proven_correct · r/PropertyManagement · 8 upvotes
r/careerguidance3 people · November 2026

“I’ve worked full-time since I was 18, and honestly, my working life has just gone to shit.”source ↗

“I’m tired of being spoken to like a piece of shit by managers, tired of feeling disposable, and tired of having so little control over my own time.”source ↗

Small_Connection_586 · r/careerguidance · 3 upvotes

“I completely understand the resentment. I am 33, I felt much the same way when I was young.”source ↗

JD-990 · r/careerguidance · 2 upvotes

“the reason people work is to make a living which has become impossible. that was the terms for motivated workers and its no longer true”source ↗

Samiamnot98 · r/careerguidance · 1 upvotes

Where this came up

r/careerguidancer/PropertyManagementburnoutmental health

People with this problem also raised