Burn, Baby Burn

Why dealing with cybersecurity’s culture of burnout and overwork is key to the industry’s survival.

Dan Ward couldn’t recognize himself anymore. A few months after he took over as the director of information security at a small company, his job started to eat him alive.

With a seemingly endless amount of work and little organizational support, Ward, who was in his late 20s at the time, says the toxic work environment began to poison his body and mind. Suddenly, he had chest pains, heartburn, and eventually, extreme mood swings and mental instability. “Over time, my mental state eroded,” Ward recalls. “I became a person that I could have never imagined myself being.”

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