This is what Burn Out looks like. Image found on Twitter, created by Maxine Vee @Maxinevee
Note: This is not how Burnout looks like. See it more as you having different files. And you have to clear them one by one with different stamps, some being more important than others. Arrives a moment where you get way too much files for you to Process and it continues and continue and continus and the flow of files doesn’t stop. It makes you very tired, and your brain gets to a point where every files seems like it’s the one single most important you should work on. But they are now to your brain/eyes all like that. And peeweew. You Softlock, too tired to make a choice, your body itself blocks and can’t choose and need time to heal back
You just described my current work life.
Change it before it breaks you.
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I had to find a new job when my last job pushed me to a breaking point. It was worth it despite how difficult professional change can be.
Everyone I’ve ever seen leave my company has become so much happier. A few even went through total transformations and lost 100+lbs.
I’m just always worried about putting myself in a bad spot financially, but I’m not factoring in the price I’m paying with my physical and mental health.
There’s always a certain element of risk in changing employers, especially if you’ve been where you are for awhile and have a lot of stability. Plus you’ll probably lose some acquired benefits like additional annual vacation time if you’re in the US. But if you’re diligent in researching the companies you interview with, and you’re pretty sure that you’re capable of performing the duties of the new job, then I think it’s worth the risk. It usually works out. There are exceptions where it ends up being the wrong move, but you can improve your chances by making wise choices along the path to a new offer instead of just jumping on whatever falls in your lap first. I get the fear, I had a lot of it myself. But changing jobs was the best move I’ve made in years! I ended up making more money, with fewer responsibilities, and a more prestigious position. You can probably do it too if you make it a goal and approach it methodically.
Best of luck to you! I really hope you’re able to make some change to reduce the stress, even if those changes are just a change in arraignment with your current employer. Stress is the number one silent killer in modern society. It causes so many different health conditions that it’s easy to overlook that the cause is stress. In my last job I developed insomnia, lost a bunch of weight, my memory went to shit, and my blood pressure was always high. All of those symptoms went away within a few weeks of getting my current job.
Thanks. The insomnia is killing me right now. That’s one of the worst parts. I started talking to a therapist a year and a half ago thinking that might help, but so far it’s done nothing.
I have pretty bad imposter syndrome, which always makes it hard for me to look for jobs. A few years back my boss had me review a job posting for a job I had done in the past, excelled at, got promoted out of, set process for, hired people for, and built a whole training process for, and built tooling and automation to make the job easier…. Reading the job description, I wouldn’t have applied and would have felt it was beyond me, lol
I’m pretty well compensated and have some golden handcuffs, so I’m expecting a jump will lead to a significant pay cut. I had head hunters and former co-workers reach out in the past and the offers are always a big step down. I probably need to accept that’s going to happen in the name of actually having a life worth living, because right I don’t have much of a reason to wake up in the morning. My dad took a 50% pay cut to move jobs once when he was really unhappy. Maybe I should talk it over with him to get some perspective.
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Well I wish you to take care of yourself before your body just freeze on its own or worst make, take care
Note: this is not what it actually looks like.
“Burnout” is what habit extinction feels like from the inside, when applied to work tasks or the like.
“I keep doing the thing that used to be rewarding, but it’s not rewarding anymore, so I don’t want to do it so much.”
“I used to believe that getting up early and going to work and closing a bunch of tickets actually made things better for the users. But, over time, it became obvious that the users’ real problems were not getting solved this way. So doing it became less and less rewarding, and it became harder and harder to motivate myself to do it.”
“I used to think that if I worked hard that I would get promoted and get a raise. But that did not happen. So now I am less interested in working hard, and I find it more and more difficult to actually do the thing.”
That’s just habit extinction, as described by classic behaviorism. Even though behaviorism is blatantly wrong as a total theory of human psychology, it’s pretty reliable for things that rely on reinforcement to motivate you.
It’s a neat piece of art, but as people have pointed out, and as someone who has experienced it, this isn’t at all what burnout feels like.
Burnout is quite hard to detect, and that’s why it’s very dangerous.
Except the flame is going out on its own… it goes out because of something or someone else!
