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No. Burnout has one and only one reason - the lack of courage or resources to say “no”. No company can make you overwork yourself. The worse they can do is fi

No. Burnout has one and only one reason - the lack of courage or resources to say “no”. No company can make you overwork yourself. The worse they can do is fire you [1]. Yes I know most people need a job. But don’t put yourself in a position where you need your current job. I have worked for 30 years across 10 jobs everything from lifestyle companies, startups, medium size companies, boring old large enterprise companies and BigTech and currently full time as a staff architect at a third party cloud consulting company. Never once have I been stressed or experienced anything close to burn out because I was always prepared to look for another job. Being prepared means having a strong network, living below your means, saving money, keeping your skills in sync with the market, and being interview ready. I respond to every reputable recruiter whether I am looking or not. Also whatever you do, don’t be a ticket taker. Before you say you don’t make enough to save, if you make a standard developer wage (not BigTech wages) and you have 3-5 years of experience, you are probably making twice the median wage in your area. I don’t do side projects and never have. I close my computer when I get off work. I exercise consistently and religiously and have since I was 15 in 1990. I prioritize spending time with family and friends for my mental health In other words, work toward a position of f%%% you. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XamC7-Pt8N0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XamC7-Pt8N0 And before anyone says I don’t know what looking for a job is like these days, I was looking for a job in both 2023 and last year and found one quickly. [1] Yes I am aware of the exception if you are here on H1B.

Spooky23 1y ago
I wish I could upvote this 100x. I gave a lot of myself to a job, of my own free will. It felt like a mission at the time. Then I lost several people in my life who were my world, and discovered the harsh reality that it didn’t matter at all, and I never really stopped to be honest about what I wanted in life. I’ll never get the time back that I gave away for nothing. While I was dealing with my personal life exploding, there was a political change at work (unrelated to me directly) that made most of what I had sweat over for a few years nearly irrelevant. It reinforced the lesson and like yours, the importance of boundaries and knowledge of self.
- JustExAWS 1y ago
  So I guess I should be completely honest and hopefully this will provide a life lesson for someone. While it’s true I’ve never experienced burnout because of work, I did experience burn out because of my personal life. I wasn’t willing to walk away from a toxic marriage soon enough and in hindsight, the signs were clear. The marriage was short - only four years. But the mental and financial repercussions lasted a lot longer. I stayed at my second job 6 years too long (for a total of nine) because my personal life wrecked my self confidence. I left that job in 2008 (and got remarried in 2012). But I didn’t fully rebuild my career to be competitive as you’d standard “senior” [sic] enterprise dev until 2014 at 40 year old and didn’t get into any company of note until 46.
TheCapeGreek 1y ago
I almost want to disagree with you out of emotional pleading, but I think for most situations you're right. The unsaid part of your post I think is that you actually have to be good at the job and be capable of networking, if you want to be taken seriously and keep getting jobs - as well as getting paid a decent amount in the first place.

Spooky23 1y ago

I wish I could upvote this 100x. I gave a lot of myself to a job, of my own free will. It felt like a mission at the time. Then I lost several people in my life who were my world, and discovered the harsh reality that it didn’t matter at all, and I never really stopped to be honest about what I wanted in life. I’ll never get the time back that I gave away for nothing. While I was dealing with my personal life exploding, there was a political change at work (unrelated to me directly) that made most of what I had sweat over for a few years nearly irrelevant. It reinforced the lesson and like yours, the importance of boundaries and knowledge of self.

JustExAWS 1y ago
So I guess I should be completely honest and hopefully this will provide a life lesson for someone. While it’s true I’ve never experienced burnout because of work, I did experience burn out because of my personal life. I wasn’t willing to walk away from a toxic marriage soon enough and in hindsight, the signs were clear. The marriage was short - only four years. But the mental and financial repercussions lasted a lot longer. I stayed at my second job 6 years too long (for a total of nine) because my personal life wrecked my self confidence. I left that job in 2008 (and got remarried in 2012). But I didn’t fully rebuild my career to be competitive as you’d standard “senior” [sic] enterprise dev until 2014 at 40 year old and didn’t get into any company of note until 46.

TheCapeGreek 1y ago

I almost want to disagree with you out of emotional pleading, but I think for most situations you're right. The unsaid part of your post I think is that you actually have to be good at the job and be capable of networking, if you want to be taken seriously and keep getting jobs - as well as getting paid a decent amount in the first place.