“What's one thing that happened to you that made you realize you'd had enough, or made you spiral or snap. Something done by a teacher? A family member? A coworker? Some thing that made you realize that you were too good for them? Or you needed to cut things off?”
1.
I was running a day-long software training course that I'd run dozens of times before. At one point, I was writing on the whiteboard, and I suddenly could hear myself talking - and I realised that I'd been pretty much doing the whole day on auto-pilot. I decided I had to move on and get a new challenge.
2.
My best friend died suddenly in December of 2023. I have not felt like life is worth living since then.
3.
Our company went on a "cost cutting and right-sizing" kick because they had underbid a contract and had to radically cut costs to have any hope of making a profit on the job.
They let a bunch of people go, then instituted pay cuts for those who remained. More work, less pay.
That was it for me.