(The Information) Earlier this year, identity software company Okta gave its employees a presentation on burnout. An invited speaker explained the warning signs and distributed a 43-question inventory to determine an employee’s individual risk for a “stress-induced breakdown.” Amanda Giannelli, an engineer at the company, already knew she was wiped—she was balancing her workload with a baby at home—but the inventory made it clear. A score above 300 was considered a high predictor for burnout; Giannelli scored 439.
Giannelli had taken the job at Okta in June 2021 to improve her work-life balance. She’d had a higher title at her previous job at Redwood, an enterprise software company, but stepped down to a more junior role at Okta to “reduce responsibility a little bit so I could enjoy my job again.” Still, settling into a new reality, where her Okta boss and her baby claim the same mental and physical space, has been an adjustment. “I understood why I was struggling before,” she said, “but I’m still not quite finding the balance.”
Read more here.