How I Love My Job was born

Once upon a time, I actually loved my job.

It had everything I liked: digging into data, making strategic decisions, writing, designing, solving problems, talking to people. The kind of role where you learn a lot, meet great coworkers, and feel proud after a long day. It was demanding, sure, but in a good “this is challenging and exciting” kind of way.

Something changed

Then, somewhere along the way things got weird.

Maybe it was the pandemic.
Maybe the market changed.
Maybe it was AI. (Everyone blames AI now. Who am I to argue?)

What I know is that the office slowly started to feel less like a team and more like a survival game. Targets got bigger, teams got smaller, and suddenly everyone was wearing five different hats and still falling behind.

Like many people, I tried to convince myself it was normal. Just one more task, just one more hour of overtime, just one more "quick question" that turned into a 45-minute tutorial.

The breaking point

But when I found myself dealing with things like constant stress, terrible sleep, waking up thinking about work before the day even started, and when my first reaction to every new message was “what the hell do you want, Mark?” (which was deeply unfair because Mark was actually a wonderful human being), I realized things had to change.
So eventually I did something terrifying, but it felt right:

I quit.

The leaving party game

For my leaving party, I made a stupid little game for my coworkers. Nothing fancy, just sarcastic sentences about my office frustrations written on pieces of paper that players could use to attack each other's Sanity Points.

People laughed, but more interestingly, they recognized themselves in the cards. Everyone had their own story about that one coworker, confusing meetings, mysterious priorities... That’s when I realized I wasn’t the only one going through it.

Why this game exists

Sometimes work gets ridiculous, sometimes companies make strange decisions, sometimes good jobs slowly turn into stressful ones, and sometimes the healthiest thing you can do is laugh about it with the people who understand.
So after that night, I kept working on the game. Some cards changed, many stayed, and the rules evolved completely to make it faster, funnier, and more chaotic in the best way possible.

Where it is now

Eventually, that silly leaving party game became I Love My Job.

Today it’s a real card game and ironically, building it brought me back to the kind of work environment I like: challenging, creative, and fun.
I still wear a lot of hats now (you’ll meet the whole “team” below), but this time I don't mind.

And if this game can help people laugh about the absurd side of work life for a while, then it’s doing exactly what it was meant to do.