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Recovering from Burnout and Depression

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Re: Recovering from Burnout and Depression

#51

Post by p0nce »

55555 wrote: post #15

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. 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…

Burnout is a physical problem first and foremost, albeit caused by prolonged stress.

(very interesting link: http://www.arltma.com/Articles/BurnoutDoc.htm)

Re: Recovering from Burnout and Depression

#52

Post by hn017132 »

I burned out in 1999 and never really recovered. I miss some of the work, but not the stress, not the politics nor gamesmanship. Instead of creating capital value for faceless shareholders I've spent the past nearly 20 years creating financial and personal value for myself.

Re: Recovering from Burnout and Depression

#53

Post by existencebox »

chatmasta wrote: post #42
rjeli wrote: post #2

Why do I never read articles targeted at other high-stress jobs (lawyer, med student, etc etc)? Do software engineers have a unique culture that identifies this danger? Or are we the only ones that get burned out, maybe because of some self-selection into the field?

Probably just confirmation bias given the fact that a) you mostly read articles/blogs targeted at SWE professionals, and b) software engineers are far more likely to blog about their career experience than any other profession. I'm sure if you read some trade magazines targeted at lawyers, etc you'd find similar sentiments. Another, slightly more cynical interpretation is that software engineers are "special snowflak…

I somewhat agree with your cynical interpretation, but I might tweak it a little bit to be more forgiving: It's a matter of expectations. SWE work, for the most part over the last 20-30 years, (until very recently, at least to my eyes) has been perceived as "creative", almost "artistic" work, whereas the day to day is much much more in line with some weird combination of banking (often high stress, shifting goals, high impact of externalities, one small cog in a giant machine) and blue collar production work. This not even counting the drastic shifts I've seen in the last 5-10 years to commoditize SWE work. (not a value judgement, just an observation)

Most of my friends and family who went into finance did so knowing what they were getting into, some even _wanting_ that. It definitely cultivates a different culture and set of expectations. (There are definitely some CSers I knew who love the grind, but I don't think I'm making a stretch to assert they were the minority, and often were within a specific slice of CS that requires that more similar culture)

Re: Recovering from Burnout and Depression

#54

Post by losteric »

crush-n-spread wrote: post #19
55555 wrote: post #15

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. 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 submit that the working person greatly benefits from having a strongly held, over-arching life goal. Then even if he or she is working a soul-draining job for, say, a social media company, they will be content knowing it is a necessary step towards their goal.

What do you mean by "goals"?

I've met too many people hopelessly throwing themselves against a wall trying to "achieve their dreams"... they see themselves as a Hollywood-esque main character, either aiming unrealistically high or shooting for mundane gimmes. Without a broader vision, those that pick reasonably scoped goals may still end up depressed by their small wins that add up to nothing. Modern mss media and image culture certainly hasn't helped manage realistic expectations or self-perception.

I think it's more important to have a strong life stance - a broader collective vision that adds context to the individual - and a stoic understanding of limitations. That metaheuristic provides deeper meaning while facilitating rational evaluation of our achievements/goals.

Drawing an analogy to software projects, the life stance defines a person's mission and tenets while goals act as milestones or stories. Executing without the broader vision simply doesn't work for humans... our limited and unknown budget of time is constantly burning away.

Re: Recovering from Burnout and Depression

#55

Post by tutufan »

a3n wrote: post #47
55555 wrote: post #15

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. 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 left a job last year that was the most meaningful job I've ever had. Despite the benefit to society, and my appreciation of that fact, I left because of an indignity. I essentially gave someone else power over how I felt about myself. Jobs are not just jobs, they're people too. You don't go to work and save the world every day, you mostly work with other people, which can be great, or it can be hell.

I've been through this as well, and it sucks. Sadly, even organizations doing societally important work can be incapable of policing their internal politics and professionalism in even a basic way.

I'm still working on accepting this.

Re: Recovering from Burnout and Depression

#56

Post by ge96 »

55555 wrote: post #15

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. 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…

random unconnected thought

I'm working on a "may eventually make me money" thing and I do pretty much 100% of the work as far as technical aspect goes (coding) and I'm set to have 30% of this "thing"... 13 hours of coding today, I feel like I achieved nothing. And it's like there is no return, I didn't get paid "someday you'll make money maybe" and I'm not sure I like the idea itself. I don't know I keep asking myself why am I doing this. It may happen.

edit: the thing I did today was un-jQuery the entire "codebase", oh my god so much broke. Also to make the scripts load async, bumped the dom loading from 6 sec to 1.5-2. Developing a site to deploy in a place where network speed on average is around 500Kbps

Also it's funny when people don't know coding, I'm not an expert, I'm pretty sub-par but people are like "Why don't you just do this..." "Do that..." if Facebook can do it why can't you? hahaha, I don't know, pathetic

edit: nothing really against jQuery just that a 1KB file takes almost 1 second to download, requiring jQuery (even min) big file. It's so easy to work with though especially multiple-selectors like selecting by class. the cross browser support... man. something I depended on and take for granted... sorry rambling pointless comment on my part.

Re: Recovering from Burnout and Depression

#57

Post by suryakrishna »

I was working for the software giant based in Seattle. I experienced all the emotions mentioned in this post. Lucky that you had an option to take a break for 6 months. I cannot quit my job and take a big break as my visa does not permit this but I did quit my job and spent a month looking for another job which was even more stressful. Currently, I am lucky that I work for a company which truly values employees. I am currently recuperating and it is gonna take some time. The important learning is never to allow this in the first phase, when you have a inception of a thought that something is not going right, get on it and fix it and never ever think about it again.

Re: Recovering from Burnout and Depression

#59

Post by d3ad1ysp0rk »

ge96 wrote: post #56
55555 wrote: post #15

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. 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…

random unconnected thought I'm working on a "may eventually make me money" thing and I do pretty much 100% of the work as far as technical aspect goes (coding) and I'm set to have 30% of this "thing"... 13 hours of coding today, I feel like I achieved nothing. And it's like there is no return, I didn't get paid "someday you'll make money maybe" and I'm not sure I like the idea itself. I don't know I keep asking mysel…

I spent 2 hours getting a python environment properly setup last night. It's not pathetic.

Re: Recovering from Burnout and Depression

#60

Post by saral »

This has certainly been eye-opening read for me. I believe a lot of us can relate to the traits mentioned in the blog, this will lead us to take necessary steps at the right time.

>Burnout offers a hidden silver lining.

In the end this is what leads to satisfaction in life.

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