I hit my burnout point about 10 years into work. I had flunked out of college, so I was about 30. I was in banking, doing risk analysis. I had a manager who

I hit my burnout point about 10 years into work. I had flunked out of college, so I was about 30. I was in banking, doing risk analysis. I had a manager who would give us arbitrary, ridiculously short deadlines, then expect us to work all hours to meet them. I was listening to suicide-y music. The breaking point was when I got my bonus; it was less than half of what I had been promised. When I hit that burnout point, I took 2 weeks off and went to a remote place with no internet. I drank heavily the first couple of days (I think of it as a mental-reset). And then I started analyzing what made me burn out. I realized that for me it was a combination of two things: Time, and Talent. I was spending too much time at work, and I was working with supremely untalented people. I also realized that I had a good amount of experience under my belt, and that I was fairly desirable as an employee. Armed with that knowledge I went back to work, and started saying "no". I also started interviewing (I'm not stupid). > No, I'm not staying late tonight. No, I'm not staying late tomorrow night. I've got arrangements. What am I doing? That's personal. I wasn't anti-social. When the team did things I hung out with them and was friendly. I just didn't work late. > No, I'm not going to work with him on that project. In the past he has worked against me, even though I was the lead. I don't feel like the project can be a success if he's involved, and I don't want to be on a doomed project. If any of my "no"s had been met with threats of being fired, I would have quit on the spot. I made it clear to my manager that I enjoyed what I was doing, but I had a handful of open offers at a higher rate. My manager backed down for a bit. We started a new project, it was done later than his demand, but before my estimate. And it was the most stable project we'd built. After that I never felt like he was judging me again. Eventually I did move on, and at every job since then it's been about setting expectations on day one. I do not work evenings or weekends (unless it's something I'm genuinely excited about). I do not run errands for other people. I do not fix other people's bugs or document their code just because they think they're too important to (of course I work with other people's code, I'm just not their bug bitch). It's been 9 years and I haven't felt burnout-y since. It didn't fix everything overnight, but actually enjoying my primary job helped the burnout feelings fade. I still get angry and frustrated, but they're usually short-term things that I can eventually work around or fix.