CHAPTER 5: WORK While John's social life was blooming, his life at work was the polar opposite. He works at an office for an insurance company, and while the pay is good, the workload is overwhelming. Each morning, he checks his work email to find 50 new requests that have to be immediately dealt with. If he doesn't quickly dispatch and process the emails before lunch, he will get caught behind schedule and most likely have to work overtime. It's extremely stressful and more so when his boss is watching him over his shoulder. John's boss has to be strict with all the employees. One mistake and it could cost the company a small fortune. Not only will the employee be disciplined harshly, but the boss will be too. Insurance is a difficult business to work in. It is not for the weak. Meetings, documents, and regulations are all of the utmost importance, and you cannot afford to miss or forget anything. You could be fired for it! "How am I going to make it to retirement?" John asks himself at least once a week. And he's lucky if this question only comes up once that week. Stress and anxiety are pushing him to his limits. It's only a matter of time before he breaks. What would life have been like if he had chosen a different college degree? What if he went into computer science? Would he have enjoyed programming more? What if he pushed himself harder while playing for the college baseball team? Would he have made it to the professional level? What if he had made it as a pro-gamer back in high school and got to play video games for a living? It would have been a dream come true. Life didn't turn out that way for John, unfortunately. He might be stuck with a job he hates, but at least he has hope things will change. Many of his co-workers seem to lack that same hope. Depression and anxiety are common in his workplace, but there are a handful of colleagues who are fun to talk to and crack jokes with to lighten the mood. They make it just a little easier to get through each day. That makes all the difference. There are others, though, who seem to be absolutely crushed by the harshness of life and are now just shells of their former selves. Those people scare John more than any boss ever has. But when will things change? How will they change? The only thing that is certain is that something must change.