They are microscopic, squishy little energy-vampires. They look something like a fusion of virus, germ and extremely gross insect.
 

Of course, we can’t see them. No modern scientific instruments exist that allow us to view soulcrushers. Any reputable scientist, in fact, will tell you that there’s no evidence that such things even exist.
 

Oh, but we can feel them. We can tell there’s an infestation around us when we end the work day more drained, frustrated, and generally cranky at the world than we began. We know they're around when we find ourselves complaining more often than we find ourselves feeling proud of what we’re doing.
 

They slowly, but surely, crush our ability to be successful. They waste our time. They destroy our energy and confidence. They affect our productivity. They get in our brains and mess with our intelligence. They make us forget to act human when we interact with other humans. They prevent us from bringing our best selves to our work. They throttle ambition. They cost our company money. They cost us money. They hurt our careers. They destroy company cultures. They get in the way of our relationships with friends and family outside of work. And sometimes they make us want to crawl under our desks, assume a fetal position and have a good cry.
 

We can tell we’re surrounded by them because our work stops being fun.
 

Just like germs or bacteria or insects or mold or any number of other icky things, soulcrushers thrive under certain conditions. Bacteria thrives around warm, moist, protein-rich environments. Mosquitoes thrive around still water.

 

And soulcrushers thrive in nearly every workplace environment.

(Even virtual ones.)
 

These soulcrusher infestations are so widespread and rampant that many people go through life believing this is how work is supposed to feel: soul-crushing.