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The psychology of stress and burnout

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Re: The psychology of stress and burnout

#191

Post by pragmatic »

acron0 wrote: post #90
clifanatic wrote: post #82

I'm in one of those (inescapable) open-office nightmares right now. All day, every day, people are talking right next to me, making it impossible to concentrate. They're not even talking about work, they're talking about cars, or kids, or movies, or inane bullshit. I don't care that they're talking (and apparently management doesn't either, because since we're in a panopticon, if I know it, they know it too), but whe…

Quick answer: Headphones and music/white noise. Long answer: If you really feel this strongly about your working environment then you should seriously consider telling your manager. It's in their best interests that you're happy/comfortable/working as smoothly as you can. If they can't or won't change your situation, look for another employer. Ten years, Christ.

Headphones lead to hearing damage, especially when used all day. One of the reasons I'm glad I'm out of the bullpen environment for now. My hearing is bad enough already.

Re: The psychology of stress and burnout

#192

Post by pmoriarty »

CocaKoala wrote: post #78
quickben wrote: post #24

I have a friend that is to damn good as a developer and allowed one of the big Canadian companies failed projects to burn him out thoroughly. He is looking into opening a bakery now, and by the look of it, no amount of convincing is going to change his mind. So no matter what you do, your mental robustness and coherency comes first. Don't let anybody every come close at touching that. Btw opening a bakery is an amazi…

God please do everything you can to convince him not to open a bakery. The hours are brutal, the money is poor, the margins are slim, and the people are terrible. Customers, employees, vendors, they're all terrible. Baking for friends is a fun way to pass the time. Baking for money is a quick road to a second burn out; it was literally years before I was able to stomach the thought of baking cookies or bread for my w…

"Baking for friends is a fun way to pass the time. Baking for money is a quick road to a second burn out"

8+ hours a day, 5-7 days a week, nearly every week for years on end is liable to turn any hobby in to a slog eventually. Except for some people and some hobbies it doesn't. Somehow some people make it work, and enjoy it in the long run, without burning out.

Don't ask me how. I haven't found that magic job myself, and always tend to burn out on anything eventually. I need variety. I can't do any one thing for the long run without getting sick of it. Unfortunately, making career changes is difficult and stressful. So I'm not sure what the solution is. Maybe someone who's made it work for themselves can chime in.

Re: The psychology of stress and burnout

#193

Post by emilburzo »

marknutter wrote: post #165
emilburzo wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you for the friendly warning. Yes, it did start as a reckless "last thing I want to do before I die" depression kind of thing while I was a teenager. Fortunately for me, all the physical effort/socializing/amazing scenery/nature changed my perspective 180° and now I'm a happy camper. People that knew me before actually commented on how responsible/cautious I've now become with all my hobbies, some even call me…

That's great to hear. Gives me hope for myself.

Feel free to email me if you need someone to talk to.

Re: The psychology of stress and burnout

#194

Post by graeme »

snarfy wrote: post #28

Burnout is caused by a series of failures. Your brain is quick to pick up patterns and will assume your next attempt will be a failure. To get over burnout, you need a series of successes. Create small, attainable goals and complete them. Engineers in particular need a sense of accomplishment. This way you will look forward to you next endeavor instead of dread it.

I don't think this is necessarily true. I had a light burnout earlier this year because I went through a very busy, successful period with my business. I taught and recorded an online course over a 2.5 month period, and this recorded course became my product.

It went great! But, it was very busy, and I couldn't hit pause because i was teaching a live class. Took me 3-4 months to recover, and I got almost nothing done.

I was running over capacity, and I knew it (I also knew it was temporary, which is why I did it). Yet it was anything but a failure!

Re: The psychology of stress and burnout

#195

Post by emilburzo »

tonyarkles wrote: post #159
emilburzo wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What if you are afraid of extreme sports? There's a quote in a jump plane that I really like: "you just have to get comfortable with fear"[1]. > What alternatives would you recommend? Anything that requires you to be 100% focused on the task at hand, or physical exertion (or even both). The catch is that you need to feel satisfaction from it, and humans suck at predicting what activity is going to give them satisfa…

I'm chuckling at "You can usually tell within the first few minutes if it's for you or not." in the context of Skydiving. I did a 10kft tandem jump for my first, and it was the first time I'd ever been on a plane. It was terrifying! I was actually more comfortable under the chute than I was in the plane. You're right though, some activities give me a big ol' "meh", and some make me feel joy right off the bat. Don't k…

> I was actually more comfortable under the chute than I was in the plane.

Even after 10 years, the ride to altitude is the scary part for me -- and others that had the decency to admit it -- as soon as I'm out the door, everything calms down in the body, it's weird.

I'm guessing it's because while in the plane you have very little control over what happens, and the exit is especially dangerous because a lot of weight (skydivers) shift to one part of the plane.

> Snowless-November in the Canadian Prairies? What the heck?!

I feel your pain, we haven't had a decent winter in a few years now.

Re: The psychology of stress and burnout

#196

Post by rhizome »

sedachv wrote: post #157
beachstartup wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i think stress really just depends on the kind of work, and the expectations of your customers. yes, most restaurants fail, but most businesses fail, because people think of it as some kind of paid vacation rather than an actual job. getting up at 5am and making croissants is a very different thing than getting up at 5am and dealing with people screaming at you because an api endpoint isn't functioning.

It is very easy to fail as a restaurant because you signed the wrong lease/for the wrong place/at the wrong location/in the wrong neighborhood, or any combination thereof. Everyone I personally know in the food services industry works harder than anyone I know doing computer programming. Every task that happens in back and front of house has a very specific start time and a very specific duration allowance - there is…

A piece of fish cooks in 6 minutes regardless whether it's plain or encrusted in black pepper.

Re: The psychology of stress and burnout

#198

Post by mjevans »

tonyedgecombe wrote: post #87
skybrian wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most restaurants fail. It doesn't seem like a way to avoid stress?

I don't think you would need to do much due diligence to rise above most restaurateurs.

What strikes me as recurring problems from the things that make it on to shows like Kitchen Nightmares are the following.

  * Can't or won't keep the accounting books in order.
  * Micro-management of staff that want to do the job.
  * Under-management of staff that aren't doing the job.
  
  * I /suspect/ not paying the staff enough (in money/respect/etc) to keep good staff and keep the motivated.

Re: The psychology of stress and burnout

#200

Post by jack_pp »

shawn-furyan wrote: post #134
myth_drannon wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless you drain your life savings, end up divorces... etc.

Professional gamblers* have something to teach everyone about managing risk. In this case, the primacy of establishing a separate fund as your bank roll, and protecting it by not letting too much of it ride on any single bet (no matter how great the bet seems), is very appropriate to self-funding your own businesses. If you lose your bank roll, then you have to stop gambling, which is bad if you are convinced you hav…

You're right, management risk is extremely important for anyone wanting to quit their job.

My advice would be to not even consider it without having enough money to sustain yourself for a minimum of 2 times the period you predict will take you to become profitable in your desired venture.

So if you spend 3000 a month, want to become a freelancer and expect it to take you 6 months until you build up steady business you should have a minimum of 36,000 saved up.

I learned this the hard way, hope someone out there heeds this advice.

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