The best career advice I could give anyone is to deprioritize work, and try to center your life around things that make you happy.

Deprioritizing work can mean many things

- take PTO & mental health days
- say no more often
- get a hobby
- form a union so you can demand better benefits, so you can do more of
- or look for another job/career that pays more and will give you more time for yourself

Every career move I've made for the past 8 years was not about "moving up the ladder". Fuck the ladder.

It was about this: how can I do more of the things I want outside of work?

It only took 1.5 years of non-profit office work for me to know that moving up the ladder wasn't for me.

My first career change resulted in a drastic drop in pay, but it was worth it because I was doing something I wanted, something an office job would have never gotten me

But even if you don't change your job/career today, or ever, there's still a lot that can be gained if you start putting yourself first.

How is work getting in the way of you taking care of yourself? How is it preventing you from living your best life?

What is something you can do today to reclaim your health, your time, your ability to control your life, from your job?

Maybe you need to have a conversation w/ your manager. Maybe you need to update your resume and start applying for another job.

(Perhaps you're thinking, maybe we need to abolish capitalism. You're right. I'm just thinking of short term solutions right now.)

Related - this talk I did last year about why you shouldn't "love" or prioritize your job over everything else.

There's a lot of career advice going around that's like "don't forget to kiss your employer's ring before you go out to lunch".

Career advice has a place because we all have to work to survive, but also, fuck these jobs. You only live one life. Don't center it around work.