Heather Laing ran a company-wide layoff the same day her son was admitted to a pediatric psychiatric unit. She was eligible for FMLA. She didn't take it. That story is the center of everything she's building now.

Bridget Carney has seen burnout from every angle — as a family member of first responders, a former Fortune 25 executive, and a therapist who knows that being trauma-informed and being culturally competent are not the same thing. Her advice for everyone: say the hard thing out loud.

Tom O'Reilly has burned out in law school, in tech, and in a nervous system that was never built for either. He talks about what ADHD actually looks like from the inside — and why the problem is structural, not personal.

Charity O'Reilly is a trauma therapist, practice owner, and author with over 20 years of experience specializing in complex PTSD. She runs an intensive therapy retreat practice and helps high achievers understand why leaving a bad situation isn't always enough — and what actually breaks the cycle.

Integrations engineer Nischal Rana joins Systems Check to talk burnout in DevOps culture — why the grind gets normalized, what it really costs over time, and the one mindset shift that changes everything: stop optimizing for your best days and start building for your average ones.