I burned out long ago. But there is still enough work out there for those like me. It is like being an alcoholic, once you are, you are forever.
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I am burned out from working at a large corporation who has no work for me and wants to force me back into the office with people I do not like.
In my experience, once I got burned out I never recovered. I just set an outlook reminder at quitting time, and when it hits I'm gone. I don't care if I'm in the middle of a conversation. I cut it off right in mid sentance if I have to.
In IT you're never "done" with anything. You need to draw a line in the sand, enforce your work-life balance to the point (BEYOND the point) of rudeness, and simply chop off the demands.
It won't do your career any good, but if you're career oriented you wouldn't be at WF in the first place. This is a place for us "deadwoodies" whose careers are behind us and who are just marking time until retirement.
If you do have a career ahead of you, get out. Am very serious about that.
This place is toxic. Get out to save your soul.
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WHY are you burning yourself out? Are you afraid of failing? Afraid of being broke? Afraid of being perceived as a loser?
The WHY is a spiritual problem and may be addressed through meditation (slow), psychotherapy (slower), or psychedelics (fast but more risk).
Until you resolve the WHY of your burnout you’ll likely remain stuck in this cycle."
Boy, you sure like to play blame the victim. Usually, burnout is caused by external factors:
- * Lack of control. An inability to influence decisions that affect your job — such as your schedule, assignments or workload — could lead to job burnout. So could a lack of the resources you need to do your work.
- Unclear job expectations. If you're unclear about the degree of authority you have or what your supervisor or others expect from you, you're not likely to feel comfortable at work.
- Dysfunctional workplace dynamics. Perhaps you work with an office bully, or you feel undermined by colleagues or your boss micromanages your work. This can contribute to job stress.
- Extremes of activity. When a job is monotonous or chaotic, you need constant energy to remain focused — which can lead to fatigue and job burnout.
- Lack of social support. If you feel isolated at work and in your personal life, you might feel more stressed.
- Work-life imbalance. If your work takes up so much of your time and effort that you don't have the energy to spend time with your family and friends, you might burn out quickly.
Agile done well can alleviate burnout and stress. The problem is we don't do it well.
I was severely burned out at the end of 2020. I ended up taking short term disability for 8 weeks because of a health scare directly related to the burnout. If you think a sabbatical of some sort would help ease your burnout, do it. You can take STD for anxiety and depression. Then during that time you can focus on your well-being and have space to really contemplate what would make things better.
In my case, once I returned I've been much better about boundary and expectation setting (no I cannot give you a deliverable in 48 hours with only scant details to go off of). I'm also more frank with my manager about state of affairs. If my manager wasn't open to true root cause analysis on our department's issues, I'd turn around and find a new job
it is actually super common under agile. it is a sweat shop strategy for knowledge workers.
WHY are you burning yourself out? Are you afraid of failing? Afraid of being broke? Afraid of being perceived as a loser?
The WHY is a spiritual problem and may be addressed through meditation (slow), psychotherapy (slower), or psychedelics (fast but more risk).
Until you resolve the WHY of your burnout you’ll likely remain stuck in this cycle.
Some questions I'm wondering about, specifically:
- Should I tell my boss and/or team? Should I tell them right away, or wait until I know what other steps I want to take? What should I expect their reactions to be?
- Should I take time off? How much? Or should I try to work reduced hours? I'm hesitant because I don't have many hobbies (if any) and in the middle of the pandemic there isn't much to do anyway. I don't think running out of things to do would be any better for my health than continuing as-is. I've been there before and I don't handle boredom well.
- If I continue working, is there something in my working environment I should try to change? Think of senior engineer in a typical DevOps-y SaaS startup.
- Is there anything specific to working in tech and burning out that I should know about? I feel like this isn't exactly rare.