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Burn out not usually presents with the full "i cant work anymore" symptoms from the onset. It usually starts with a "i cant take this main projects stress" anym

Burn out not usually presents with the full "i cant work anymore" symptoms from the onset. It usually starts with a "i cant take this main projects stress" anymore. Better switch to a side-project that is not so stressful. Something small. A website. A framework. A library. Something to feel the magic again, of creating, without getting crushed alive.

zomglings 4y ago
Your last sentence is poetry. Melancholic, beautiful poetry.
- firebaze 4y ago
  If you consider this being poetry, you're on the way to burn-out in my eyes. Try to avoid to expect "feeling magic" in a job altogether - if it is there it's a dream job, if not, it's just a job and you should look for the next gig as you go. Don't invest that much emotion in a job to feel the absence of magic. It won't be there by default.
boredemployee 4y ago
I completely agree. Problem is, I get so tired after work that my "intelectual energy" goes below zero. I think it's urgent to change the working hours model. I want to engage with my kids while they care, I want to enjoy my mom's health while she is alive, and I don't want to wait for my vacations to only then do that.
- wonderwonder 4y ago
  Work takes my drive to do anything after work and just crushes it. I understand that I should get up after work and play with my kids or do something but I am almost unable to. I want to I just cant. I just sit mindlessly staring at the screen. I envy people that have a job that doesn't drain them of everything. I watch the guys on the garbage truck with jealousy.
  - kneebonian 4y ago
    Honestly one of the best days of work I felt was after I spent a day helping a guy in my church lay new sidewalk in front of his house, it was hard labor for like 5 hours, and afterwards I walked home and felt so exhausted, but I also felt complete, like I did something good. It's the damn golden handcuffs man.
    - yamtaddle 4y ago
      It's sitting staring at a screen... all day, every day. Like you, I know for a fact I'm not lazy. Not at all. I love working and dive into it enthusiastically. This is a consistent and effortless experience of mine, throughout my life. It's natural and rewarding to work hard. What makes me seem lazy a lot of the time is that most jobs are just a few types of activity, focusing on just one or two major ends at a time, repeated over and fucking over for 40 hours week after week. Programming's fun, but it's not 40-hours-a-week-every-week-for-all-the-best-hours-of-5/7-days fun. Not one year after another after another. I fucking dread it and, sure, I slack off. Because it's literally an in-human thing to ask of people. But, economics. So, we optimize. And here we are. Hooray. [EDIT] Like, truly, most things I do specifically for pleasure stop being enjoyable well before the 40-hours-a-week mark. A particular kind of work might be outright fun, maybe even for 40 hours in a week, hell, maybe for 80 hours in a week, but by the second or third 40-hour week it's probably gonna be something I would much rather stop doing in favor of something else—even other work, ideally as different from what I've been doing as possible (been programming three weeks straight, need a break; got any firewood that needs splitting or square bales that need gathering?).
      - wonderwonder 4y ago
        And the endless context switching. I just can't get people to leave me alone long enough to get anything done. Constant requests from people above me and below me and no resources to get anything finished. It's exhausting and it all takes place on a stupid monitor in my office at home. I've never even met the people I've worked with for the last 3 years. I live at work and it bleeds into everything.
- randomdata 4y ago
  > I want to engage with my kids while they care Interestingly, some of my fondest memories are a kid were going to work with my parents. This newfound fascination with steering completely clear of work until one is deep into their 20s is a big problem here. Not only does it result in things like the parental separation you allude to, it also means that the child isn't making money during their most important earning years, requiring even harder work and less play later in life to try and catch up. And for what? More time at the babysitters? That does not seem like a win. It seems quite silly, really.
  - bluefirebrand 4y ago
    > it also means that the child isn't making money during their most important earning years, requiring even harder work and less play later in life to try and catch up Sorry if I am misreading this but are you saying that the Teen years are the most important earning years for a person? Working likely minimum wage jobs in highschool and post-secondary does not seem like that important an earning time to me. I would be interested in your reasoning.
    - randomdata 4y ago
      Why minimum wage? That's what people who have never seen a job in their life make. Someone who has worked alongside their parents for the approximate decade leading up to reaching the typical high school age is quite economically valuable by that point. And yes, with the time value of money, the sooner you can make it the better.
      - bluefirebrand 4y ago
        > Someone who has worked alongside their parents for the approximate decade Not sure if this is a culture difference here or something but most people where I'm from (Canada) don't work alongside their parents doing anything valuable as a pre-teen, and it's illegal to employ people younger than 16. Even if they do, it's very unlikely anyone would seriously consider it valuable work experience and pay substantially more than minimum wage. For most people being a teenager is absolutely the first job they will have and it will be minimum wage or near it. Working as a teen was absolutely not my most valuable earning years. That money went towards my university degree to offset my student loans, not into savings accounts to maximize the time-based value of my money. N=1 but I would wager my experience is more common here than what you describe.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

zomglings 4y ago

Your last sentence is poetry. Melancholic, beautiful poetry.

firebaze 4y ago
If you consider this being poetry, you're on the way to burn-out in my eyes. Try to avoid to expect "feeling magic" in a job altogether - if it is there it's a dream job, if not, it's just a job and you should look for the next gig as you go. Don't invest that much emotion in a job to feel the absence of magic. It won't be there by default.

boredemployee 4y ago

I completely agree. Problem is, I get so tired after work that my "intelectual energy" goes below zero. I think it's urgent to change the working hours model. I want to engage with my kids while they care, I want to enjoy my mom's health while she is alive, and I don't want to wait for my vacations to only then do that.

wonderwonder 4y ago
Work takes my drive to do anything after work and just crushes it. I understand that I should get up after work and play with my kids or do something but I am almost unable to. I want to I just cant. I just sit mindlessly staring at the screen. I envy people that have a job that doesn't drain them of everything. I watch the guys on the garbage truck with jealousy.
- kneebonian 4y ago
  Honestly one of the best days of work I felt was after I spent a day helping a guy in my church lay new sidewalk in front of his house, it was hard labor for like 5 hours, and afterwards I walked home and felt so exhausted, but I also felt complete, like I did something good. It's the damn golden handcuffs man.
  - yamtaddle 4y ago
    It's sitting staring at a screen... all day, every day. Like you, I know for a fact I'm not lazy. Not at all. I love working and dive into it enthusiastically. This is a consistent and effortless experience of mine, throughout my life. It's natural and rewarding to work hard. What makes me seem lazy a lot of the time is that most jobs are just a few types of activity, focusing on just one or two major ends at a time, repeated over and fucking over for 40 hours week after week. Programming's fun, but it's not 40-hours-a-week-every-week-for-all-the-best-hours-of-5/7-days fun. Not one year after another after another. I fucking dread it and, sure, I slack off. Because it's literally an in-human thing to ask of people. But, economics. So, we optimize. And here we are. Hooray. [EDIT] Like, truly, most things I do specifically for pleasure stop being enjoyable well before the 40-hours-a-week mark. A particular kind of work might be outright fun, maybe even for 40 hours in a week, hell, maybe for 80 hours in a week, but by the second or third 40-hour week it's probably gonna be something I would much rather stop doing in favor of something else—even other work, ideally as different from what I've been doing as possible (been programming three weeks straight, need a break; got any firewood that needs splitting or square bales that need gathering?).
    - wonderwonder 4y ago
      And the endless context switching. I just can't get people to leave me alone long enough to get anything done. Constant requests from people above me and below me and no resources to get anything finished. It's exhausting and it all takes place on a stupid monitor in my office at home. I've never even met the people I've worked with for the last 3 years. I live at work and it bleeds into everything.
randomdata 4y ago
> I want to engage with my kids while they care Interestingly, some of my fondest memories are a kid were going to work with my parents. This newfound fascination with steering completely clear of work until one is deep into their 20s is a big problem here. Not only does it result in things like the parental separation you allude to, it also means that the child isn't making money during their most important earning years, requiring even harder work and less play later in life to try and catch up. And for what? More time at the babysitters? That does not seem like a win. It seems quite silly, really.
- bluefirebrand 4y ago
  > it also means that the child isn't making money during their most important earning years, requiring even harder work and less play later in life to try and catch up Sorry if I am misreading this but are you saying that the Teen years are the most important earning years for a person? Working likely minimum wage jobs in highschool and post-secondary does not seem like that important an earning time to me. I would be interested in your reasoning.
  - randomdata 4y ago
    Why minimum wage? That's what people who have never seen a job in their life make. Someone who has worked alongside their parents for the approximate decade leading up to reaching the typical high school age is quite economically valuable by that point. And yes, with the time value of money, the sooner you can make it the better.
    - bluefirebrand 4y ago
      > Someone who has worked alongside their parents for the approximate decade Not sure if this is a culture difference here or something but most people where I'm from (Canada) don't work alongside their parents doing anything valuable as a pre-teen, and it's illegal to employ people younger than 16. Even if they do, it's very unlikely anyone would seriously consider it valuable work experience and pay substantially more than minimum wage. For most people being a teenager is absolutely the first job they will have and it will be minimum wage or near it. Working as a teen was absolutely not my most valuable earning years. That money went towards my university degree to offset my student loans, not into savings accounts to maximize the time-based value of my money. N=1 but I would wager my experience is more common here than what you describe.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]