I once worked so hard for a startup, I lost a tooth

Don't ever sacrifice your health for work

I love what I do. I love dedicating myself to work. I am always willing to put in extra hours because I genuinely enjoy working. The only problem is when it becomes an expectation.

I was a Software Architect at a FinTech company when this happened. I let myself get taken advantage of. The expectation became 60-80 hour weeks. Not only that, but my Slack went off with some urgent message every 15 minutes.

After a while, a pain developed in one of my molars. I kept both requesting time for a dentist’s appointment which was denied or setting one up and. then having to cancel it at the last minute for something urgent that came up. Quite simply, I was overworked and too busy. The pain didn’t seem too bad, although it was getting worse.

Eventually, the work got to me and I burnt out. I quit.

First thing I did was setup a dentist appointment. They didn’t have to look very closely and said the tooth was dead and needed a root canal. They also said I should have done it a while ago and I’d probably lose the tooth.

So in August of 2019, I had my first root canal. Not very pleasant.

Then in late March of 2020, right at the very height of early Covid paranoia, the root canal failed in the most heinously painful way imaginable. My girlfriend called around furiously trying to find an emergency dentist open and willing to work. We found one and I had the strangest emergency appointment imaginable to have my tooth removed.

All because a startup overworked me.

If you look at my LinkedIN, it’s the one that rhymes with Slave.