A tired mind

In late autumn in Beijing, the ginkgo leaves were a vibrant yellow. Li Xiaoyu was walking through the sparkling clean halls of the science park, checking in at the front desk of Xincheng Technology, when she heard a heated argument behind her.

"I told you I had to be online today! You're telling me I can't do it?"

"Director Wang, this schedule is simply unrealistic. We've already been working overtime for three weeks straight..."

"I don't want any excuses! Either get it done or get out!"

Li Xiaoyu turned around and saw a young man in a plaid shirt, head bowed, facing the scolding of a middle-aged manager in a suit and tie. The young man clenched his hands, his knuckles white.

When passion is quantified into KPI and dreams are simplified into slogans, the soul begins to protest silently.

"Excuse me for making you laugh." HR Director Zhang Rui rushed over, an awkward expression on her delicately made-up face. "The project has been stressful lately, and the team is pretty tense."

She led Li Xiaoyu toward the open office area. The air was thick with the scent of caffeine and anxiety. Dozens of young people chanted in unison: "Strive! Fight! Push your limits!" At the podium, a man calling himself "Wolf Coach" shouted at the top of his lungs, "Tell me, who are you?"

"Wolf!" the audience responded mechanically.

Li Xiaoyu noticed that at the edge of the excited crowd, a young boy was staring down at the tip of his shoes - it was the young man who had just been scolded at the door.

"That's our new engineer, Xiao Wang," Zhang Rui said in a low voice. "He's quite talented, but he hasn't been doing well lately." She sighed. "Secretary Li, to be honest, we're in urgent need of professional psychological support. Last week, our best project manager suddenly... broke down during the morning meeting."

"collapse?"

"In front of the whole team, he threw his laptop to the ground and started crying, saying, 'I can't take it anymore.'" Zhang Rui's voice trailed off. "He was taken to the hospital and diagnosed with an acute anxiety attack. This is the third one this year."

In the subsequent in-depth interview, Li Xiaoyu heard more stories.

"What I dread most every day is the DingTalk notification sound," said a woman who has been working for two years, lifting her bangs to reveal the dense acne on her forehead. "Look, stress acne. Now I even have to take my phone into the bathroom when I shower, for fear of missing any messages."

"Last week, I worked overtime for four consecutive days. When I got home and saw my cat, my first reaction was to assign it tasks," a young man said with a wry smile. "Then I suddenly realized that I didn't know how to live anymore."

The person who impressed Li Xiaoyu the most was Xiao Wang. During their private conversation, he kept his eyelids down:

"Teacher Li, I might have that... 'empty heart syndrome,'" he said softly. "I got into the best university, landed in the hottest industry, and earn a salary that would make my parents proud. But every day when I wake up, I stare at the ceiling and it takes me ten minutes to find a reason to get out of bed."

"Why did you choose programming in the first place?"

The boy was silent for a long time, then began to tell a story: "In high school, I secretly wrote a little game and let the girl I had a crush on play it. The day she finished it, she smiled and said to me, 'You're amazing!' That was the last time I felt the warmth of code." He forced a laugh that was uglier than tears. "Now, code is just a tool to realize requirements, and I'm just a tool to achieve my KPIs."

When external standards of success completely replace internal driving forces, no matter how brilliant the achievements are, they cannot fill the emptiness in the soul.

Li Xiaoyu returned to the foundation to hold a seminar with the findings from her field research. The data was shocking:

Across 20 tech companies surveyed, 85% of employees reported feeling "often burned out";

62% admitted to having "lost passion for work";

Nearly 40% of people believe that "their work is meaningless."

"This isn't just job burnout," Li Xiaoyu explained at the meeting. "It's existential fatigue—people aren't complaining about the hard work, but questioning why it's so hard."

"We've tried many things," Zhang Wei said, flipping through the materials. "We've tried more team-building activities, offered gym memberships, added afternoon tea...but the results have been limited."

"Because we're using more external stimuli to treat a disease caused by external stimuli," Li Xiaoyu pointed out. "It's like giving chili peppers to someone with a fever; it only makes the situation worse."

Based on this understanding, Li Xiaoyu's team began designing a new "organizational health" consulting service. However, the promotion process was difficult.

"Optimizing organizational culture?" Director Wang of Xincheng Technology—the manager Li Xiaoyu had met at the door—just laughed during the meeting. "Secretary Li, we're a startup, not a charity. Employees can leave if they're unhappy. There's a long line of people waiting to get in!"

Another former vice president, a former investor, was even more blunt: "Psychological services? Sure, give everyone a copy of 'The Power of a Positive Mindset' and read it together during weekend team building. But hiring a consultant? No need."

The turning point came late one night.

Li Xiaoyu received an urgent call from Zhang Rui: "Secretary Li, I'm sorry to bother you so late... Xiao Wang... fainted in the office."

When Li Xiaoyu arrived at the hospital, she saw Xiao Wang lying on a bed, pale and hooked to an IV drip. The doctor diagnosed him with fainting caused by excessive fatigue.

"He's been working an average of 16 hours a day this month," Zhang Rui's voice trembled. "This afternoon, he submitted code with a small bug, and Director Wang asked him to review it in front of the entire team... He was standing when he collapsed."

At this moment, an unexpected person appeared - Mr. Chen, the founder of Xincheng Technology. This entrepreneur, known for his "iron fist", was dressed in casual clothes and had obviously arrived in a hurry.

Outside the ward, Mr. Chen stared at the unconscious Xiao Wang for a long time and suddenly said, "He reminds me of myself 20 years ago."

In the hospital corridor, Mr. Chen recounted his story: "That year, my business venture failed. I stayed up seven straight nights in my rented apartment revising the plan, and finally collapsed in front of my computer. When I woke up, I saw my wife sitting by my bed, crying. She said, 'If you're gone, what good is all this success?'"

He took a deep breath. "But now, it seems like I've become the one forcing young people to make the same mistakes."

True transformation often begins with the moment when human nature is illuminated.

The next day, CEO Chen, despite the opposition, decided to test Li Xiaoyu's "Organizational Health" initiative. The first measure was "Quiet Wednesdays"—no meetings after 4 p.m. every Wednesday, no group messaging in the work group, and an encouragement for employees to leave on time.

This decision was met with strong opposition from management. Director Wang stormed into Mr. Chen's office and asked, "Are you going to force everyone to lie down? Where will our competitiveness come from?"

The first "Quiet Wednesday" was unusually quiet at the company. By 4 p.m., no one was actually in meetings, and the work groups had fallen silent. Some employees sat bewilderedly at their workstations, as if awaiting the next instruction.

After being discharged from the hospital, Xiao Wang returned to work. He left work on time that day and went to the cinema to see a movie he hadn't seen in a long time. In his follow-up review, he wrote: "When the movie ended, it was still daylight, and I suddenly felt like crying. I never knew the time before sunset was so long and so beautiful."

However, change is never smooth sailing.

Two weeks into the trial, the sales department lost a key project due to "lack of timely communication." Director Wang confronted them directly at the weekly meeting: "What did I say? Warm and affectionate gestures can't save the company!"

To make matters worse, some employees in the technical department actually used their early leave time to interview with other companies. Opposition grew louder and louder, and even the mid-level managers who had initially supported the pilot program began to waver.

"Secretary Li, this pressure..." Zhang Rui found Li Xiaoyu worriedly.

Just when the plan was on the verge of failure, Xiao Wang did something that no one expected.

He published a lengthy article on the company's internal forum titled "Confessions of a 'Hollow-Hearted' Patient," detailing his journey from idealistic to physically and mentally exhausted, and the changes that "Quiet Wednesdays" brought him:

That afternoon, I not only watched a movie but also went to the bookstore to read some philosophy books I hadn't touched in a while. In Thus Spoke Zarathustra, I came across a line: 'We must possess our own chaos in order to give birth to dancing stars.' I suddenly understood that the reason we suffer isn't because we don't work hard enough, but because we've been deprived of the right to give birth to 'dancing stars'—that right is called thinking, called living, called being ourselves...'

This article caused a huge stir within the company. More and more employees began to speak out:

"I used Quiet Wednesdays to learn how to cook, and now I don't have to rely on takeout anymore."

"I took my daughter to the park and she said it was the happiest day of her semester."

"I wrote a small program that I've always wanted to write. Although it has nothing to do with KPIs, it made me feel the joy of programming again."

What was most surprising was that the data one month later silenced all the opponents: although individual projects were affected, the company's overall number of innovation proposals increased by 50%, code quality improved significantly, and the voluntary turnover rate of employees decreased by 30%.

"This..." Director Wang looked at the report and fell into deep thought.

At the project summary meeting, Mr. Chen said, "I used to think that business management was all about keeping the clockwork tight. Now I understand that a truly excellent company is one where everyone can find their own rhythm."

On the way back, Li Xiaoyu received a message from Zhang Wei: Xiao Wang took the initiative to apply to transfer to an innovation project team. Although the salary was a little lower, "I wake up every day knowing what problems I have to solve today, and that feeling is back."

As night falls, the city lights up brightly. Li Xiaoyu looks out the window at the still-lit office buildings, aware that change has only just begun. But at least, the lights in one building have learned to gently dim at the right time, allowing weary souls to rest.

Because struggle isn't about burning out, but rather about continuously shining and radiating light in the pursuit of meaning. When the warmth of work returns to humanity, a weary soul will eventually find the strength to start again.

When struggle loses its heat, all that remains are the ashes after burning.