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This concept has always fascinated me because it feels so alien to me. I've never felt burned out for more than a couple hours. Having dinner and taking a wal

This concept has always fascinated me because it feels so alien to me. I've never felt burned out for more than a couple hours. Having dinner and taking a walk resets me back into a good spot. Not saying people are lying; but it's weird how much it varies from person-to-person.

Insanity 3y ago
If it’s a couple of hours I’d say it’s just “exhaustion”?
the_fury 3y ago
If it only lasts a couple of hours, then it's not burnout.
- jdwyah 3y ago
  Yes, "toasted" is not "burned".
jdwyah 3y ago
That's awesome. You're staying in the top health bar. Challenges of the day that then reset and you're back at full health. I was going to start typing about the things that take me past that point, but... you're in such a good place. I don't want to ruin it :)
pjc50 3y ago
You've never got into the second health bar.
jshen 3y ago
I'm curious what type of job you have. I felt the same as you the entire time I was an individual coder. Once I got into management that all changed, and the higher I climbed the tougher it was. I never felt like I needed a vacation when I was coding, but now I need a long weekend, etc, every 3 to 4 months.
- justrealist 3y ago
  Probably 1/3 IC, 1/3 manager, 1/3 eng PM. Small team.
gingerrr 3y ago
Plenty of others have already chimed in why it's likely you haven't experienced actual burnout if that's the case, but an analogy might make it clearer: You've experienced headaches, but never experienced a migraine. When you get a headache you can just pop an over-the-counter pill to numb it out. Migraines are a fundamental neurological shift orders of magnitude more debilitating - that Advil would be like a drop in the bucket. It sounds like you have a healthy relationship to work - keep doing whatever you are doing that is keeping you fundamentally mentally healthy!!
iteria 3y ago
Burn out can be dodged for most of your career if you actually like what you do and you avoid environments that are a bad fit for you. I've never experienced burnout, but I have a lot of friends who have and to me their key problem is they stayed when they felt the drain. The moment I become truly apathetic towards a job and don't even have professional investment in it, I just quit and find another job. I've felt the weight of a job that is just a bad fit for you and it eats at you. I'm currently enduring that now. Unfortunately, I cannot just quit. I and my child have very expensive healthcare needs now and I need to be picky about the healthcare offerings. It's a very slow search because I'm at the top of what I can reasonably expect for what I can give. I can take jobs with more responsibility and excel, but at the cost of my child's health, so that's out. I won't trade pay for her care. I've looked at dozens of insurance plans from perspective employers and reminded myself why I took such a dull job. I'd take a significant pay cut to move anywhere else just from medical bills. So, I sit at this job bored and apathetic. It's a slow march to burn out. From an outside view it doesn't make any sense to take a new job. This is the trap many of my friends fall into. But burnout isn't always about if a job is hard. It's mostly about how it makes you feel emotionally which will trickle down to physically eventually.

Insanity 3y ago

If it’s a couple of hours I’d say it’s just “exhaustion”?

the_fury 3y ago

If it only lasts a couple of hours, then it's not burnout.

jdwyah 3y ago
Yes, "toasted" is not "burned".

jdwyah 3y ago

That's awesome. You're staying in the top health bar. Challenges of the day that then reset and you're back at full health. I was going to start typing about the things that take me past that point, but... you're in such a good place. I don't want to ruin it :)

pjc50 3y ago

You've never got into the second health bar.

jshen 3y ago

I'm curious what type of job you have. I felt the same as you the entire time I was an individual coder. Once I got into management that all changed, and the higher I climbed the tougher it was. I never felt like I needed a vacation when I was coding, but now I need a long weekend, etc, every 3 to 4 months.

justrealist 3y ago
Probably 1/3 IC, 1/3 manager, 1/3 eng PM. Small team.

gingerrr 3y ago

Plenty of others have already chimed in why it's likely you haven't experienced actual burnout if that's the case, but an analogy might make it clearer: You've experienced headaches, but never experienced a migraine. When you get a headache you can just pop an over-the-counter pill to numb it out. Migraines are a fundamental neurological shift orders of magnitude more debilitating - that Advil would be like a drop in the bucket. It sounds like you have a healthy relationship to work - keep doing whatever you are doing that is keeping you fundamentally mentally healthy!!

iteria 3y ago

Burn out can be dodged for most of your career if you actually like what you do and you avoid environments that are a bad fit for you. I've never experienced burnout, but I have a lot of friends who have and to me their key problem is they stayed when they felt the drain. The moment I become truly apathetic towards a job and don't even have professional investment in it, I just quit and find another job. I've felt the weight of a job that is just a bad fit for you and it eats at you. I'm currently enduring that now. Unfortunately, I cannot just quit. I and my child have very expensive healthcare needs now and I need to be picky about the healthcare offerings. It's a very slow search because I'm at the top of what I can reasonably expect for what I can give. I can take jobs with more responsibility and excel, but at the cost of my child's health, so that's out. I won't trade pay for her care. I've looked at dozens of insurance plans from perspective employers and reminded myself why I took such a dull job. I'd take a significant pay cut to move anywhere else just from medical bills. So, I sit at this job bored and apathetic. It's a slow march to burn out. From an outside view it doesn't make any sense to take a new job. This is the trap many of my friends fall into. But burnout isn't always about if a job is hard. It's mostly about how it makes you feel emotionally which will trickle down to physically eventually.