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This exactly. At may last job I burnt out, bad. In hindsight I see it. It did so many weird things to my mental health (and physical health) that I did not see
by selykg 6y ago
This exactly. At may last job I burnt out, bad. In hindsight I see it. It did so many weird things to my mental health (and physical health) that I did not see at the time.
* Depression and Anxiety
* High blood pressure
* Weight gain
* Not having any idea how to simply relax
* Friends were more or less entirely from work
* Loneliness
At the end of the day I didn't want to go learn more stuff. I tried like hell to just gain my life back and failed miserably. It wasn't until reaching basically the bottom that I found a couple things that helped me:
1. Blood pressure medication was a must, I'm still trying to determine if this is stress related or a genetic thing.
2. Meditation. I found I did a ton of thinking about the future, worrying about the past, and just in general not being able to live today. I still struggle with this, but meditation and mindfulness have helped me a lot in trying to be in the present rather than past or future (depression/anxiety).
3. Time off. Though mine was sort of forced and forced to be longer due to COVID-19, I found time off helped, but since it was unplanned financial concerns kept me stressed out and I'm still trying to recover financially now.
If an employer wants me to continue upping my game they will need to give me the time to do it while I'm working. Within reason. I'm not expecting like weeks or something, but I just won't give up my free time anymore, it's too important to my health.
The sad reality is I know this is something an employer will tend to look down on. But I've found that happiness is not work, and work is generally not happiness. You have to have happiness outside of work and they need to be distinct separate things. Work, fundamentally, is about paying for the things I need to live so I can enjoy myself. I've found I don't need fancy toys or an expensive house to enjoy myself. I don't have to live on a lot of money.
Anyway, a little long winded, but your comment hit a chord with me.
- heavyset_go 6y ago> The sad reality is I know this is something an employer will tend to look down on That's not an employer you want to work for, and in the end, all they will succeed in doing is hiring kids who don't know any better, and driving away skilled talent.
- Kaze404 6y agoI had the exact same experience and reached the same conclusion. After starting therapy and taking medication for the severe anxiety I developed because of that experience, I remembered what it's like to be "normal" and decided this is what I want for the rest of my life. No job is worth giving it up.
- selykg 6y agoGlad you're feeling better. It's a tough hole to dig yourself out of.
- Alex3917 6y ago> Blood pressure medication was a must, I'm still trying to determine if this is stress related or a genetic thing. Could also be Vitamin D deficiency, which is probably common among developers.
- selykg 6y agoInteresting. I'll look into this, thanks!
- core-questions 6y agoNot just developers - anyone living far enough from the equator is suffering from this. This is in fact why lighter skin evolved, out of a need to get more vitamin D from the limited sunshine. Take your Vitamin D supplements, a few thousand IU a day, probably more if you're not White. Get sunshine. Sit by a window. It's particularly critical for men's health as Vitamin D is critical in the proper production of testosterone, as well.
- selykg 6y agoLooked at my multi-vitamin, it's 25mcg (1000 IU). You're saying more would potentially be necessary?
- Alex3917 6y agoIf you're mildly vitamin D deficient, you would probably want to take an additional 1000 IU per day in addition to the 1000 IU in your multivitamin. It's safe for most people to take up to 4000 IU per day, but unless you've been tested and know you're severely deficient then I wouldn't take more than 2000 IU total per day. Then just keep checking your blood pressure over the next 6 weeks and see what happens.
- selykg 6y agoThanks! Appreciate the insight.
- 6y ago
- wonderwonder 6y agoGoing through this now. Completely fried, working 12 hour days just trying to make sure I hit the required weekly point total. Cant spend any time getting better as all my time is spent just trying to survive. Take time to properly learn means my points drop and I'm fired in the middle a recession. On top of this, little kids are home so productivity is hard. I do nothing but sit at my desk trying to close tickets. Stress level is through the roof, gained 20 pounds, no time with the kids. It is not great.
- kyberias 6y agoWhat the hell is a required weekly point total?
- metalliqaz 6y agoIt's the value of all the issues you complete in a sprint. See: Agile process, Scrum, etc. It's stupid.
- kyberias 6y agoIt may be stupid if you don't understand it or apply it incorrectly. There is no "agile process" that defines "required weekly points".
- futureproofd 6y agoIt's most likely in the context of an agile methodology - "a time-boxed iteration of a continuous development cycle. Within a Sprint, planned amount of work has to be completed by the team and made ready for review." The planned amount of work is established via a number of tickets, each containing a point value in vague terms of difficulty/time. As you complete these tickets you tally up points. While this system is quite efficient, I'm also starting to have doubts as it could tend to lead towards gamification. Analyzed from a narrow scope/from manager or director's perspective, can lead to simple conclusions about the employee. For example, John is a better worker than Mary because for the past 5 sprints, John's point total was 130 while Mary's was only 100.