Take a vacation / break, refocus on personal priorities. Learn what makes you happy, and do that - at least outside of work.
Recovering from Burnout and Depression
31–40 of 266 posts
Re: Recovering from Burnout and Depression
#32How timely; last night I typed 'how to recover from burnout' into google. Thank you.
Re: Recovering from Burnout and Depression
#33[deleted]
Re: Recovering from Burnout and Depression
#34I think a big factor in burnout is that most work is ultimately meaningless, or even morally wrong, and on a deep level, we're aware of that. Why is it so hard to make yourself work? Probably because you actually should be doing something else with your life. If someone paid you money to kick a dog, you'd feel a strong urge to do something else. That's because you shouldn't kick dogs. But when we feel the same urge t…
>I think a big factor in burnout is that most work is ultimately meaningless, or even morally wrong, and on a deep level, we're aware of that.
I don't this is true across the board, but the challenge is finding a "job" that you love and are excited to tackle every day. This will differ for most people, but the closer you can get to doing something that you would voluntarily want to do even if you weren't being paid for it the better mental space you will be in.
Personally, I'm still searching for that magic job but through trial-and-error I'm getting pretty good at identifying what I don't want to do.
Re: Recovering from Burnout and Depression
#35Hey everyone - thanks so much for reading! Burnout and depression is a topic that not enough of us talk about, even though that's often the best solution. If you know anyone struggling with burnout or depression, or you just enjoyed my article, I'd be forever grateful if you'd share it with them on Twitter or Facebook, to help spread the word. Thanks so much!
> Burnout and depression is a topic that not enough of us talk about
You know, I get what you're saying, but I actually need to stop you here. Because honestly, we can't go two weeks without a post hitting the front page about someone's personal come-to-Jesus moment about burnout. We do talk about burnout and depression, a lot. And nobody learns.
Nobody learns and I don't think anyone will learn. In the 20 years I've been working in the tech industry, I've only seen things get worse. Workers get treated more like cattle every day. Creatives who become founders self-flagellate themselves even more. It's a sick, disgusting cycle, all built on a lie of "just work hard--never mind on what--and you will get your due", and it's one I think companies like Facebook and funds like Andreeson are encouraging so that they can have a constant churn of Jr Devs desperate to get started and Sr Devs desperate to put their lives back together after their own failed startups.
Re: Recovering from Burnout and Depression
#36I think a big factor in burnout is that most work is ultimately meaningless, or even morally wrong, and on a deep level, we're aware of that. Why is it so hard to make yourself work? Probably because you actually should be doing something else with your life. If someone paid you money to kick a dog, you'd feel a strong urge to do something else. That's because you shouldn't kick dogs. But when we feel the same urge t…
> I think a big factor in burnout is that most work is ultimately meaningless, or even morally wrong, and on a deep level, we're aware of that. I don't this is true across the board, but the challenge is finding a "job" that you love and are excited to tackle every day. This will differ for most people, but the closer you can get to doing something that you would voluntarily want to do even if you weren't being paid…
> Personally, I'm still searching for that magic job but through trial-and-error I'm getting pretty good at identifying what I don't want to do.
Knowing what you DON'T want to do is sometimes more important and useful than knowing what you DO want to do!
Re: Recovering from Burnout and Depression
#37I think a big factor in burnout is that most work is ultimately meaningless, or even morally wrong, and on a deep level, we're aware of that. Why is it so hard to make yourself work? Probably because you actually should be doing something else with your life. If someone paid you money to kick a dog, you'd feel a strong urge to do something else. That's because you shouldn't kick dogs. But when we feel the same urge t…
I don't think this is true. Occupations that have very positive social impact can have very high burnout rates--it's not as if burnout and depression are unheard of among teachers and social workers, for instance. You're confusing cause and effect, to a certain degree. The feeling that your work is meaningless can be a symptom of burnout itself. People who do work that clearly improves other people's lives can still…
I can imagine there are many teachers and social workers who burn out due to feeling like they're not making an impact no matter how hard they try.
I don't think he's confusing cause and effect. There are instances where burnout is caused by a lack of purpose provided by the job. Just because there are instances of work feeling meaningless caused by burnout, doesn't mean the inverse cannot happen.
> People who do work that clearly improves other people's lives can still feel that their work is meaningless.
I can't imagine this is common. For someone to feel this way, I feel, they probably have underlying issues of existential origin. This is assuming the person is directly doing work that is improving someone else's life.
Re: Recovering from Burnout and Depression
#38Hey everyone - thanks so much for reading! Burnout and depression is a topic that not enough of us talk about, even though that's often the best solution. If you know anyone struggling with burnout or depression, or you just enjoyed my article, I'd be forever grateful if you'd share it with them on Twitter or Facebook, to help spread the word. Thanks so much!
I'm very burnt out on the whole 'like and share' thing Kieran. Is the intent to productize your thoughts and advice? I thought it was an ok article but was turned off by the email harvesting to get your punch list. 'Work to live' rather than live to work is my credo...
I have no intention to productize my thoughts on burnout - I just know that one of the things that helped me the most was reading other people's accounts of what they went through. It took me a lot of searching to find the help I needed - if, by sharing, I'm able to make that a little easier for a few others, then I'll be happy.
Re: Recovering from Burnout and Depression
#39For me the cause for burnout was having to deal with a combination of politics, the fact that those determined my lack of technical input, that I wasn't allowed to perform at my best because I lacked input, and then getting beaten with the underperformer stick while the project was going down the tubes.
I hear that - it sounds VERY similar to what I dealt with. I also had the additional problem of working to help an audience and a customer base that deep down, I didn't care about. So many people seem to believe it's only about overwork - but that's only a small part of it. It's a myth I tried to dispel as best I could in the article.
Very true about overwork. I would be less burned out if I worked more, or was allowed to be more productive. For me burnout is about powerlessness in work, the feeling that no matter what I do I won't be able to make a positive impact.
Re: Recovering from Burnout and Depression
#40I think a big factor in burnout is that most work is ultimately meaningless, or even morally wrong, and on a deep level, we're aware of that. Why is it so hard to make yourself work? Probably because you actually should be doing something else with your life. If someone paid you money to kick a dog, you'd feel a strong urge to do something else. That's because you shouldn't kick dogs. But when we feel the same urge t…
This seems very case specific. I will admit the reason I quit being a real estate broker, and Realtor, was that it was just taking money from people. They're just smooth talkers who provide very little real value to people. Their clients are treated like prey, and its the broker's fault if somebody doesn't want to sell or buy a home, not the users.