Office Ping-Pong (Is it Really Burnout?) This is my second reference to office ping-pong and maybe you are asking yourself “is this some new version of the traditional table tennis game?” In one word, the answer is no. Office ping-pong is that moment in time, or maybe even an entire day, in which everyone person you come in contact with wants something from you, every phone call, every email, and every face-to-face meeting requires an immediate response from you. You try to do ten things at once and you have to be conscious of what you are doing. You are running into a concrete wall at mach 1 and you can’t stop. You just keep moving forward because you know you have to get the ball over the net and win the game. You are highly productive during the ping-pong session, or so you think. But what details are you missing in your attempt to keep your eye on the ball? Did you forget your kids at school? Leave the dog outside and you are leaving for a three day business trip? Miscalculate a column of numbers that means millions of dollars in lost revenue for your company? You have highly developed organizational skills, but in all the excitement that comes with this frenetic energy, did you throw something away that you needed in a misguided attempt to clear your desk? Or did you put something into a folder that won’t be rediscovered until three years from now. Not much use to you then. Garbage. By the time you finally slow down, you are so jazzed that you can’t. And you had only one cup of coffee! And nothing to eat! This leads me to believe that the combination of caffeine, adrenaline, and an empty stomach can drive us to great professional heights and deep emotional lows. Your opponent just scored a point. The ball bounces past you. You are weak and exhausted. You stare at your desk in a daze and wonder where the time went. It is 1:00 in the afternoon and you’ve been in the game for five hours. Bed sounds good, but you still have three hours left. You know you need to eat lunch, but the adrenaline high that kept you going all morning is telling you “you don’t need food, your stomach is full”. Ahhh, endorphins. You take lunch anyway, but it is a less than satisfying experience. You eat too quickly and get heartburn. You did not relax. You spent your time thinking about what you should have done differently in one situation or another. You wonder if when you get back to your desk it will be more of the same. Or not. You can’t find the ball. You can’t get it started? Or finished? The rest of the day is a bust. You might as well go home, but your office does not believe in “flex time”. You’ve done eight hours of work in five, but you still have to hit the clock. And it is likely that you did more work in those five hours than 50% of the people that work in your office. So what’s the trade-off, professional success or personal suicide? Do you thrive on the excitement of the game or is the pressure too much to bear? When do you say “I have had enough”? You are too young to retire, but too old to change professions. Do you want to? You need a break but you just got back from vacation! You can still win the match but at what cost? Are you willing to pay it? Is there a compromise or do you become complacent and maintain the status quo? Finally, it’s time to go home. As you walk to your car you begin to relax. It feels good to be outside, the smell of the river, the warm breeze against your face, the sound of the fountain. You stop to smell the flowers and you get stung in the ass by a bee. It’s always something isn’t it?