I am curious whether anyone can relate to this, dreams of doing this, or has actually done this.

Leaving employment

I left the world of employment because I realised the work itself was not the thing crushing me. The work was fine. It was the environment around the work that was destroying my soul.

The open-plan offices. The forced small talk. The business hierarchy. The performative busyness. The corporate language. The meetings about meetings. The false promises of promotions and pay rises used to squeeze more productivity out of people. The constant pressure to be visible, available, pleasant, aligned, responsive, and grateful for the privilege of slowly dissolving under fluorescent lighting.

At some point, I realised I was spending an enormous amount of energy just existing in the environment rather than doing better work. You are monitored constantly. You might as well wear a collar.

Working from home changed everything

Working from home during COVID made it obvious. My already strong productivity (which was typically 120-130% of my daily targets) actually got stronger. I was not disengaged. I was not lacking discipline. I simply worked better when I had autonomy.

When the collar was loosened, I could move dangerously fast. I could focus, think clearly, and structure my day around actual output instead of appearances. I could work without the background theatre of pretending that collaboration means sitting near people who are also trying not to be interrupted.

The autonomy problem

As an employee, so much of your life is quietly handed over. Your time, location, priorities, schedule, energy, tone, and even your personality are shaped by someone else’s organisation. You become a calendar slot, a Teams status, a deliverable, a “resource”, a policy and procedure follower.

You are technically free to leave, of course. But most people need income, housing, stability, and a future. That dependence creates a kind of soft coercion where you are free in theory, but boxed in practically.

So I left.

Becoming a one-person mercenary

I became a one-person mercenary, and my mental health improved drastically without the “feel-good Fridays” and pizza lunch Wednesdays.

Sure, self-employment started with its own stress, uncertainty, admin, and occasional panic-flavoured surprises. But I would still take that A MILLION TIMES over being absorbed back into the beige machinery where I slowly lose myself. The pressure feels more honest now. If I work hard, it is for my own business. If I take on too much, that is my own problem to solve. If I need silence to think, I can create my own.

Life after the beige machine

Leaving made me realise how much of my exhaustion was environmental.

It was the performance. The corporate nonsense. The interruptions. The forced visibility. The strange expectation that adulthood means being managed, monitored, overstimulated, and slowly sanded down into something more convenient for an organisation. You are enslaved into a corporate adult day-care centre where you generate money for other people, while taking a tiny agreed-upon cut.

I found that I do not need that.

My life is richer because I took the risk and left.

Anyone else feel this?

EDIT: Thanks for the amazing responses, people. It is oddly nice to know this feeling is shared by so many.

For those calling this “AI slop”, I actually enjoy writing. Believe it or not, some humans still use paragraphs. This post is a general overview of my experience, and I still work in an industry where I need to be careful not to get too specific about what I do for confidentiality reasons.

Unlike your day job, you aren't obligated to engage if you do not see value in what is written here.

Hi Reddit,

I have seen a lot of questions from people asking owners on their experience of Sealion 7 and EVs in general..

I've owned a BYD Sealion 7 Performance from new and have now done around 15,000 km, including a road trip from NSW to Kangaroo Island in South Australia and up through the remote wilderness of the Flinders Ranges. I figured I'd share some real-world ownership impressions for anyone considering one.

The good 😉

Ok, so overall, I genuinely love the car.

The biggest surprise has been how capable it is outside sealed roads. I've driven it completely stock through dirt roads, mud in the Flinders, shallow rocky creek crossings and some fairly rocky trails. It's not an off-roader, but it's considerably more capable than a typical sedan and handled everything I threw at it.

Performance is ridiculous for the money. BYD advertises around 4.5 seconds to 100 km/h, but mine has reliably achieved 3.7 seconds on multiple occasions (obviously not through the muddy terrains of the Flinders haha). It's hilariously quick and never gets old surprising people who assume it's just another family SUV.

The interior is also far more luxurious than I expected at this price point. It feels like a much more expensive vehicle.

Practicality has also impressed me. We comfortably packed enough luggage for a small family for a three-week holiday without any issues.

Range and charging

This is probably what most tend to be curious about.

Around town, I realistically see about ~550 km from the Performance model.

On the open road at highway speeds, expect something closer to ~350 km, which is simply the reality of driving any EV around 110 km/h.

Despite that, I honestly haven't found regional touring to be difficult at all (and I have been as remote as 100km north of Leigh Creek in SA). During my trip through regional NSW, South Australia, Kangaroo Island and the Flinders, there was generally enough fast charging available. If I stopped for lunch at a fast charger, I could usually get the battery close to full before I was ready to leave. I thought I would find this inconvenient, but the reality is, we would have stopped for lunch and dinners anyway and the convenient part is, I don't need to spend time at a Servo. Many accommodations and Air BnBs are also good places to charge while travelling.

One thing I also noticed is that during holiday periods, chargers just off the major highways were often much quieter than some of the petrol stations we drove past.

For day-to-day life I charge almost exclusively at home. I drive roughly 700 km per week, and home charging has been more than enough for my needs. I probably pay about $60-$70 PER MONTH for that sort of mileage and I am yet to change my energy plan to an EV plan.

The annoyances 😒

I have no real reliability concerns so far and build quality has been solid.

Most of my complaints are software-related.

Android Auto occasionally develops a delay in the audio, and disconnecting and reconnecting the phone fixes it (irritating).

The driver monitoring system is EASILY my biggest annoyance. Even looking at Google Maps on the built-in infotainment screen can trigger warnings. SINGING you favourite tune can result in a little coffee cup icon telling you to fuel your caffeine habits while simultaneously having a break (the ai thinks your are yawning because your mouth is open)

The child presence detection is another feature that I understand from a safety perspective, but it becomes irritating when it sounds the alarm because someone is just sitting in the car while parked.

The real frustration is that both systems have to be disabled every single time you start the car. I wish BYD would simply let owners save those preferences.

Would I buy it again?

Absolutely.

It isn't perfect, and BYD still has some software polishing to do, but the combination of performance, luxury, practicality and value is genuinely impressive.

After 15,000 km including some pretty remote touring through rural NSW, rural VIC, and rural SA, I'd have no hesitation using this vehicle!