Indre Lauciene: Clinical Case of Your Ordinary (Un)happy IT Specialist

In this talk, Indra presents the challenges faced by newcomers, particularly in the tech sector, when relocating to Vilnius. She discusses the phenomenon of burnout experienced during remote work, exacerbated by the lack of physical cues to signify the end of the workday, leading to extended working hours. Using the case study of an imaginary IT specialist named Sam, she illustrates how relocation to Vilnius has positively affected work-life balance for many individuals, decreasing their stress levels and feelings of isolation. The presentation emphasizes the importance of acknowledging burnout as a significant issue and discusses various strategies for overcoming it, such as accessing integration support, language courses, and community involvement in Vilnius.

[Music] ladies and Gentlemen please welcome our next speaker andrain presenting the topic clinical case of your ordinary unhappy ID specialist hello everyone I see only half of you I don't know if it's a good or bad thing um my name is Indra I will stand in some places uh I'm a bit you know impaired in night so it doesn't matter where I stand you will be able

to see everything um I'm coming from international house vness and for those who knows what it is probably now is the question what the hell she's doing here today cuz my specialties and my professional life is as far away from it as possible my knowledge about it starts and ends with power button so uh very strange combination here but uh what international house vness is it's a

One-Stop shop in villus for everyone who's coming as a newcomer Foreigner in our city and wants to work live or just study here so we are the helping hand which we are providing for everyone who comes and in one place we are providing Services a nice bureaucratic governmental services for everyone who needs it so you come in with questions you come out with Solutions also we work

with integration and a small tiny tiny bit with integration um sorry attraction as well so we are the ones who sees who comes and who lives in villus and um today I would like also to introduce later with my imaginary friend here Sam who's going to help me to tell you a story what we see every single day people who are coming to in to villus for

different reasons and how they became better in Villas why because they eliminate the biggest problem we are facing in our professional lives today and I'm talking about burnout burnout is a very fancy phrase I'm sure everyone has heard it especially since Co why Co was um an amazing scene where we all experienced working remotely so fastly and uh somehow understood that we cannot uh just stay at

home uh at work and we can work from home and it's so fun and we can work from everywhere but actually studies shows that during this remote work uh the most affected people by it are the ones who are the most motivated who want to work the most and who want to work good why uh I'm not sure if you uh already uh experienced it but when

you work from from Office usually lunch comes and a huge bunch of people are migrating outside for lunch so your mind tells you that come on it's time to eat probably or go smoke or go for a coffee then the time of your work day finishes also the migration outside of your workplace shows that probably it's time to time to go home and from my very personal

experience I know that if you work from home and not from Office there's no migration to lunch there's no migration after work so I start and I finish through the hours which are not comparable with my working hours and that leads to the mentioned phrase burned out so now I will ask a bit of help from you can you like pick up your phones and scan the

code and answer a couple of questions for me why because I really want to know if this as far as I see huge bunch here is uh quite similar to the one we already know and seen so the first question is very simple I hope it's simple if not check your passport uh where are you from nice I see that that there are some from Kona so

it's almost the different country yes okay villus okay so a lot of different countries and I love that you also consider vness a country I also do it's a different like here for ahuh okay another question from us would be uh have you experienced work related stress or burnout yourself and I don't mean the stage you collapse like at work or on a stage or somewhere but

that you feel not rested that you have lack of sleep or you sleep but you don't feel rested after it okay so numbers are not very good actually it means that uh you feel stress and that's not very strange for me okay moving on uh a next question and I hope that you do not sit next to your boss but uh how often do you work overtime

nice and from probably this who are answering that never I'm assuming part of them are from Lithuania I just hoping it is okay and uh the next question it's just an open question which is very much important to me cuz I'm related to finding out what can help you to reach your best life in Lithuanian in villus for sure or wine if you prefer it but I

like it okay there are several which I'm not able to help you with or maybe just not while it's my working hours but um okay lots of money I like the answer so I see that the answers are very different and some of them um are from one part or another but it all comes down to be able to manage your personal life while working and reaching

for career so mainly it's family hobbies and what can you do on your free time or do you have a free time overall thank you very much um moving back to the presentation now and this is my imaginary friend and no don't worry I have him only with my presentations um this is the ordinary Sam as we call it the specialist from it sector who moved to

villus and we see our ordinary Sam almost every single day within our work and uh what written here are the main characteristics about it about him and I feel that uh you can connect with him cuz I've seen similar answers so this ordinary Sam who moved to villus more or less a bit over 30 years old so still youngish and um he likes to be uh outdoorsy

he loves uh to participate in some sports activities of course he loves to travel and read because that's like the main thing to do nowadays but what's very important to me usually and we actually did this survey before me coming here and we asked our colleagues uh from it sector and our ordinary Sams uh do they feel burnout after locating and the answer mainly and I mean

mainly was no no so it means that um now they experience less stress and it comes to being more uh resilient to being burned out also what I like the best uh that uh our Sam is really working overtime I'm hoping he still get is getting paid for those one to three hours per month but it means that it's very much due to you know projects assignments

Etc so it's uh life is life it's not possible probably to have like zero overtime all the all the but he's actually not U working that much and uh we had an open question uh close to this one and it was about relocating to villas and experiencing work life balance here and the answer uh from all those people was that they feel it more here and even

gave us answers why I will tell you a bit more uh more a bit later so Sam was in a good not a good situation before moving here why uh he was looking for better alternative to his life cuz I mentioned he worked long hours he was not clear where to go and what to do because the Alternatives were very much blurry for him he felt like

he lacked support uh if Sam was somebody who worked not in his home country it is very much likely that he felt social isolation and I will mention that again a bit later also sometimes especially those who come and not work in their Homeland and uh work some in some other countries and they are from not European Union countries they might have stress related to their legal

status so he saw it as a first part of clinical case and how do we treat the disease and burnout for me in my personal opinion is a disease sometimes it's just psychological quite often it's physical as well so what is the first step is just admitting that it is a problem and what kind of problem it is then you can move out to another stage of

treating it so Sam knew that he has a problem he knew that this is not a way of living so he wanted to do something it he wanted to relocate to move and change his entire environment not just a job within his City but he was afraid um and there are a lot of um myths and uh even some stress related to moving and I fully understand

it and most of these stress comes from some heartbreaks he was not sure if he will match with the local language and he will be able to integrate because he doesn't know language in some in most of the countries he wants to move then he understood that there will be some cultural adjustments and he wasn't sure if he will be able to adapt and uh you know

to integrate into a local community fast then um and this is universal local bureaucracy and this is the funniest part because every single country has it because bureaucracy is like Universal thing but it's different how those countries deals with bureaucracy do they have any mechanism how to help newcomers to tackle the Whole Net of bureaucratic issues and then also Sam knew that if he's relocating with his

significant other or some furry or not so furry friend um there might be also some questions he needed to tackle before trying to move uh just to mention uh the local barrier is very Universal and I'm not speaking from the point of somebody who's coming from vus and that just only Lithuanian language is an issue yes we are in baltics and Baltic countries tend to have quite

difficult languages old languages and to learn them I don't envy anyone who tries to do it uh some lithuanians try to learn Lithuanian language for all their life and still not maybe succeed fully but um this was a question and um our recommendation from professionals who tend to work with integration every single day at least some phrases or some sentences would help Sam or would help anyone

else could tries to relocate uh just integrate faster and to be received more openly and friendly what can help you as well and it doesn't matter where you move of course if you move to vness it's easier uh that there are some language courses and those could be a huge help for you so if you want to relocate or if you want to change your environment this

could be an amazing opportunity cuz for example in our city we have several options of um um free of charge courses as well as paid courses it all depends on your wishes Etc it also differs from the level of language course so you can go to have a uh Co cup of coffee somewhere and just speak on very uh small and like first level and just uh

learn how to say Hello Goodbye Etc or you can learn from the ground up and build your language um knowledge so much also we put it here translation apps uh again I'm very far away from it sector so these tools are not not that uh common for me but uh you can use them to help in your daily life and work life as well cultural adjustments very

important it can answer you questions like why does my neighbor neighbor don't say a good morning for me in the morning in elevator or why do lithuanians smile so much no not so much only sometimes when they're in the mood or if it's summer and sun is shining also you know why I have to be very much strict to how I stand in the line etc etc

so understanding those small ni and neck of social behavior and rules can help you everywhere and it's not even if you're locating if you're traveling for a longer period of time it will also be an issue you will need to understand if you're like shaking a hand or like keep keep a distance so uh this would show that you respect those people so I would suggest you

to Google it a bit and learn learn those aspects before going also if you do not know our main holidays you could be very much confused and won't understand if it's very much important that we like to um drink non-alcoholic drinks during our Midsummer festival and dance around fire and why we look crazy no it's not because it's all a celebration so and the last thing would

be that uh in every single place you go there are local communities so you can try to find those and you can try to get integrated that's what we suggested our Sam and that's what he did but he came to us as we mentioned as I mentioned before for because of bureaucracy and um this is not a common tip and uh I'm not sure if you will

need it if you're not relocating because you know your system in your country very well I suppose but uh if you do um like I said it's very Universal so if it's Universal you can find it in every single country just differs how those countries deal with it and what I mean that it's quite hard to pick up and you know change the whole network the whole

system so it became easier for countries to navigate it through um creating One-Stop shops or Consultants or other support systems how to navigate this this bureaucracy for us in Lithuania it's international house vness for example also we work there with another issue if you need two degrees to translate uh some information what does it mean even though you know the language in in which it's written then

it's a problem so we tend to do it every single day just translate our documents to the human language so it's not only you know homos bureaucratic anymore but it's language people who try to read it understand as well other stuff uh which is very much important for everyone who tries to uh navigate their life relocate and find the good life work balance wherever they are going

is those options written here and I'm not making them up it's actually from different surveys of people who who does it or done it at least once like I I mean moved and uh this is you need to understand what kind of educational system Health Care System you have in the country and um spoiler alert in vness we have a a really good one and it's rated

very high uh almost a maximum also if you're moving never forget that might be that you're not moving alone and what's on the rise is different spouse programs and we saw even several communities uh which were created in our city because and that going to sound very sexis but men came and they came with their wives and those wives didn't know what to do so they were

not integrating they felt left alone and sad so the whole family was not okay and this is a good way to help your significant other to feel welcomed in the city as well so there are a lot of communities and possibilities for them to integrate with you together so vus is a beautiful city and I'm not just saying that because I live in Villers actually I'm not

from it um but um we have solutions to these problems already understood that you might be uh heading towards burnout and you will acknowledge and uh speak about this problem loudly and you want to turn from it or you already have it and you don't want to have it anymore the second stage with all the things I listen listed to you is try to find a way

out as fast as possible sometimes it's changing a job sometimes it's changing a city or even a country so I mentioned a lot of solutions and they mentioned vill Solutions and if you will be thinking that there might be um like an idea that you would want to come to villus for example we will be able to help you there's uh yeah your amazing life in vness

begins now wait you look concerned oh forget Googling come to international house vness instead our Specialists are true vness experts they'll help you with every aspect of your new life in our beautiful Capital need more practical knowledge join our informative workshops and community events it's a shortcut to becoming a local we also have a mentorship program where you can get a local buddy to help you integrate

laas are there any volunteers befriend the artistic and vibrant fness hey a little secret you won't be able to get enough of it so don't be shy get in touch and ask us anything your amazing life in vilnus begins now now um huh just a second technical issues as always uh as I mentioned um before uh burnout topic is very much personal for me I was working

even before covid a bit most of my time not in Lithuania in another countries several different countries and there was a time when I understood that I'm collapsing and I mean not only mentally but physically as well and it was quite a period of time for me to understand why and what's wrong with me and I felt that I'm the weakling here and it all ended up

in emergency room um all good I'm standing here so alive and well but what I did I uh I spoke to myself first uh I listed out all the reasons why I'm doing this and I was working the job I loved I didn't felt like I was working I would go out to my work every single mon Monday with happy face and it's not about that burning

out can happen to everyone and can happen while you are working your dream job and it happened to me so what I did I tried to find a way being very much happy without uh this problem without feeling like I will collapse in my workplace so what I did I moved fully full time back to vness and um here I found that um environment can be very

much supportive so sometimes we feel like um we are burning out we feel alone we don't not want to ask for help and we feel like if I will say that I'm feeling tired and I cannot move today because I worked so much yesterday that somebody else will think that that's your problem and that not true so don't uh be afraid to say it out loud to

ask for help even to tell your boss respectfully sorry I'm tired and if you will see that this continues and this is an issue and it doesn't stop you need to change your lifestyle somehow today we are very much talking about careers and moving up the ladder and moving very fastpaced in our career life and you are nothing if you're not a manager until you're 30 etc

etc etc but that might lead to a lot of issues mental health and even physical health so what I love about living and working now here and being able to say out loud to my colleagues and to my team that sorry guys today I'm really tired or that we need to slow down a bit vness is a perfect City for both type of people for those who

just want to live work earn uh be happy travel read drink wine or beer and just exist and that's okay and it's perfect for another type of people who want to climb up you know the career pathway and to create a career uh because and this is very interesting actually uh there was a study and it was counting how long it would take for you to climb

up the ladder if you would be working in London or Paris or Brussels I am and I'm talking from spe specialist level to the decision maker and uh from to management level it's from 5 to seven years if you work hard in villus that amount of time is usually from 2 to 2 and a half years so it means that uh there is a higher possibility that

if you work you will climb up and you can even try it and do it without burning out without feeling disconnected and without uh you know uh looking for a way to go to the doctor as well so now by the end of this presentation I would love to say that our ordinary Sam moved he feels stress he feels fine he feels that he can go to

the forest after work and disconnect from everything and he feels like he can have hobbies and free time and friends and time for his family and his for a friend uh so now he's immune to burn out because he can find it like the first sign of it and then he can treat it before he gets to the St stage of feeling unwell and that's how he's

staying healthy and happy so thank you and I'm hoping that uh uh for those who listen to me and felt burned out uh they will uh think about it and for those who doesn't feel burnt out I'm happy for you and I'm the last thing between you and lunch so now we are moving to questions uh and I try to answer them if possible thank you Indra

Round of Applause great talk uh I think it's important to worry about mental health because developers usually forget forget about that um do you have any questions from the audience that you want to ask now I see that there are a few um how many it specials are locating to villus per year um it depends from the year um and probably uh 2021 and 2022 wouldn't be

a good num year to mention numbers CU we had so many of them coming from our neighboring country and uh they increased the number not naturally actually so usually we have around 4,000 people new people coming to vness every single year and uh as far as we know more or less about 20% of them are connected to it sector yes and another for me yes definitely and

the only place in Lithuania to have no burnout as well um yeah those integrational programs um usually they have something very much in common because we all see similar Target groups so as I mentioned spouses um sometimes uh just targeting uh specialist from and professionals from different sectors uh overall but um usually Target groups are the same but the approach can be different and the approach is

different why because we all are different from with our characters and uh just history and culture so um maybe somewhere up up in the north there's a knitting uh like some kind of gathering for IT specialist I'm not sure we do not have one in Lithuania yet but uh there might be different ways to approach the same problem if you are from different reasons and I saw

some different approaches for example in Spain and in Portugal CU just the character of the country is different and that might be also an issue you need to re remember then you move and if you move to another country that sometimes those activities are created while keeping in mind um mentality of the country and maybe not mentality of you who's coming to the country so trying to

find as much information as you can or go to I don't know some kind of Center like for example international house vness and try to find answers to the question what could be the best option for you and where can you see yourself if it's knitting or Outdoors activities or just uh you know drinking a local wine if they have one so gather mhm well those uh

social connections uh also again um informational centers or your good friend Google can be very much helpful here um for example we have a program uh friend and this is a mentorship program where the local mentors either they are lithuanians or foreigners who came and already live in the city for quite some time and you come and you're a newcomer so you try to integrate and it's

very hard at first and it's understandable so you can become a Mente so you get a mentor uh like a friend who can show you around in the city have a cup of coffee with you even maybe introduce you to some other people so you feel more welcomed you feel better and uh you feel that that they welcome you in your city so I know that there

are several similar a bit different programs through all the world um so I would suggest you to find something any kind of mentorship any kind of connection with locals just to have a cup of coffee to go and volunteer somewhere or to go to some festivals and just integrate in the local community would be a good uh answer of not having enough social connections of course we

do nonu citizens probably is the biggest group not the biggest group but uh the biggest work we have to do do for them to help to integrate and not because they're somehow very stranger and closed off people no because they have different um and I would call it problems while integrating and most of them are related to migration and my presentation was more or less based that

you all of you or most of you are from European Union so you do not have uh those uh issues uh you need to tackle but for nonu Citizens it's quite hard to enter and again Lithuania is not the only one it's the same in in all European union and it's more hard to move within European Union on work-based uh reasons so yes of course a lot

of work from us goes to this particular group every single day uh especially after uh then the war escalated in Ukraine and we had a lot of ukrainians coming to stay to work and live in Lithuania so also a challenge for us to tackle I think we we did it I think we did quite good but um it's a bit different and then for sure I would

recommend you to find any kind of governmental uh based Heth help for you uh because to to answer all those questions on migration employment uh housing Etc by yourself will be a very long way okay so this was the last question that's it for the questions thank you indre round of applause