In this manifesto-style video, John Briggs shares a personal story about a former team member, "Kent," who was driven to burnout after repeatedly inheriting the workload of departing colleagues, ultimately leaving the accounting profession despite strong performance. Briggs uses Kent’s experience to illustrate a broader crisis: 68% of accountants quit within five years, and the overwork culture extends to lawyers, engineers, and other professionals across the United States, where CEOs average 55 hours/week and many employees exceed 40 hours/week. He argues that this unsustainable model is driven by profit‑first, shareholder‑focused mindsets that neglect employee well‑being. Briggs highlights the economic cost of turnover—6–9 months of a salary per replacement—as both a financial and human toll. To combat burnout, he proposes the "3.3 Rule": work in blocks of up to three hours followed by a 30% recovery period, a practice he claims is backed by scientific research to be presented in future videos. He offers a four‑page PDF detailing the rule’s science, urges viewers to share the message, and invites feedback on whether corporate work structures can evolve to prevent chronic overwork.
Chapters
What's up? Normally on videos I answer questions. Today I don't have a question. What I have is a call for change. Call it a manifesto to the overworked. I was sitting there in my office one day and one of my favorite team members came in and he said, John, I can't do it anymore. I just, I can't be an accountant. This is too much. You see, I had seen I saved this team member. Let's call him Kent. I saved Kent from the accounting industry. He was working at a previous firm where he did such a good job that as team members left that firm, they gave Kent that leaving team member's workload, and they just expected Kent to get it done. Well, that happened not once, not twice, but 3 times to him. So by the time he left that firm, Kent was doing the workload of 3 people making the same pay as when they originally hired him, working way more hours. Now, accounting, tax season, a lot of firms work extra hours during tax season. Not only was he working way more than that, he was also working all those hours all year because, again, he's doing the workload of 3 different people. So he joined our firm where Kent averaged with us as a firm 42 hours a week during tax season. Unfortunately, he had already been burnt out so much that even working 40 hours a week during tax season was just too much stress for him. The industry had destroyed him. And this broke my heart because Kent did really good work. He was really enjoyable to be around. Perfect fit for our culture, really great with clients, polite but firm with his understanding. He did a really good job. So the industry lost a valuable resource. Why? Because they pushed him to the limits and we weren't enough to resuscitate him. In the accounting industry, 68% of accountants leave the industry. In their first 5 years. This isn't like they switched jobs, they— to a different firm. They switched professions. And keep in mind, most accountants had at a minimum 4-year degree, but a good percentage of them spent the extra years of college to get a master's degree so they could get their CPA. So they spent more time getting an education than they spent in the actual industry. Why? Because the work model that firms are putting on accountants is despicable, deplorable, unconscionable. And so I didn't want to have a firm like that. So I wanted to find ways to improve that. And as I started sharing this message with others, they're like, look, that's not an accounting problem. That's a US problem. That's a shareholder-focused-only-on-returns problem, which don't get me wrong, I'm all about profit, but there's a balance. So I heard stories from lawyers, accountants, obviously engineers, computer programmers, you name it, there's a problem. People are overworked. In the world, in the US today, CEOs average 55 hours a week, and employees average 47 hours a week, where more than 40% of them are actually hitting about 50 hours. So I wanted a solution, and frankly, it was selfish. I didn't want to put myself in a position where I got burnt out, and I also wanted a firm where my team members didn't get burnt out. Yeah, I want to bless their lives, and that gives me a lot of satisfaction, but from a selfish standpoint, Replacing a team member is a lot of work. You get someone trained and they're doing a job that you want them to do, man, I'd rather keep them in that position than them getting burnt out and leaving and having to find a replacement and then go through all that headache of retraining again. Replacing employees is very expensive. If they're a salary team member, it's like 6 to 9 months of that person's salary in cost. Is what studies show. So I wanted to avoid that. It made my business more profitable, it saved me time, and it blessed the lives of the team member. So the solution I came up with is the 3.3 rule. This rule is simply stated: you work up to 3 hours at a time followed by a 30% recovery period. Work up to 3 hours at a time Followed by a 30% recovery period. There is science, of course, and we will share that in coming videos. So if you know anyone that's been overworked or burnt out, share with them this video. My simple rule of the 3.3 is simple enough that anyone can implement it right away. It helps avoid burnout. And again, we're going to go into a lot of details over the course of time. Because this is a lifelong, long mission for me. If you want more information on the 3.3 Rule, please download our PDF. It's a 4-pager. We go over the science, some of the things related to it. We want to help the world avoid burnout, and this is our attempt to call the world to change. As always, if you found value in this message, please like, comment, Subscribe, share with others. I want to know your thoughts on this. I've definitely been spending the last few years really ingrained in getting this message out to the world, and I'd love to know your thoughts on, is it even possible to overcome burnout? Can enough people make a change where corporations will change the work structure to give us the ability to not have to work unconscionable overtime hours? Um, let's see how the world handles this message.
