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Recovering from Burnout and Depression

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Re: Recovering from Burnout and Depression

#101

Post by tannerc »

rubicon33 wrote: post #96

I want to highlight something that the article touched on, which for me, was a big source of burnout. "Breakdown of community" This can happen if you work remotely, or work in-office with a team that isn't collaborating effectively. If the work you do is isolating and you rarely collaborate with others, you may suffer burnout. At our core we all want to feel like we're part of something bigger than ourselves. Being p…

Poor collaboration within a small team is something I'm experiencing now, and it's devastating.

Would be curious to hear if you found a way out, or a way to improve collaboration within a currently flawed group.

Re: Recovering from Burnout and Depression

#102

Post by gxespino »

tannerc wrote: post #101
rubicon33 wrote: post #96

I want to highlight something that the article touched on, which for me, was a big source of burnout. "Breakdown of community" This can happen if you work remotely, or work in-office with a team that isn't collaborating effectively. If the work you do is isolating and you rarely collaborate with others, you may suffer burnout. At our core we all want to feel like we're part of something bigger than ourselves. Being p…

Poor collaboration within a small team is something I'm experiencing now, and it's devastating. Would be curious to hear if you found a way out, or a way to improve collaboration within a currently flawed group.

Second that request for how to deal with poor collaboration within teams.

Re: Recovering from Burnout and Depression

#103

Post by gxespino »

postfacto wrote: post #14

For 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.

WOAH, that is an perfect description of what I've experienced in the past but was unable to put into words.

Re: Recovering from Burnout and Depression

#104

Post by thesagan »

jly wrote: post #64
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 think this is more true than many would like to admit. Maybe 'most work' as meaningless isn't the way I would phrase it, but I know many including myself that are often creatively and technically challenged, work an average number of hours, but feel the mental stress of burnout purely because of the guilt and resentment of spending so much time on the specific job function, itself. To put it a little more abstract…

I identify with a lot of what you write, especially about wanting to avoid hurting other people in the pursuit of profits. What has bothered me lately, very much so, is how in-the-minority I feel about this "social crisis" that I feel is occurring: hurting people/ourselves in pursuit of money that we won't personally even see. (In-the-minority from the people that surround me in my work and personal life.)

I'm [finishing] working through burnout from my own consultancy that I closed down a few years ago, reloading fuel for my next heat. Meaning is so important, because after a certain income threshold the money means less and less, too.

As an aside, the people I work among seems to be primo in what fuels my passion, even before getting to the work of the company mission. Always looking for camaraderie (and friendly competition) among peers and an acceptable "mission" that binds us.

Good luck to you!

Re: Recovering from Burnout and Depression

#105

Post by michaeltoth »

convolvatron wrote: post #100
twfarland wrote: post #71

I burned out three times in salaried jobs. Mostly due to chaotic leadership. Hard work isn't the problem. Chaos and bad leadership is the problem. Moved to contracting, and have been fine since.

how is that? i find that chaos and bad leadership still has a huge impact on my perception of my job and my ability to make progress as a contractor. its just alot easier to shrug and cash the check. and spend as much of the rest of your time doing things you think are worthwhile. ideally as a contractor i could choose to apply myself at places which were better organized and more engaging, its just they aren't as in…

A bit off topic, but I'm curious - how did you get started in contracting and how do you go about finding clients? Is it through people you've worked with in the past, or do you somehow advertise yourself? This is something I've considered moving toward but I don't know where to begin. Thanks!

Re: Recovering from Burnout and Depression

#106

Post by taco_emoji »

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.

> strongly held, over-arching life goal

Like what? I believe that I'm an incidentally self-aware thermodynamic curiosity; setting any sort of lifelong goal feels like an attempt to fool myself into feeling important.

Re: Recovering from Burnout and Depression

#107

Post by draw_down »

rubicon33 wrote: post #96

I want to highlight something that the article touched on, which for me, was a big source of burnout. "Breakdown of community" This can happen if you work remotely, or work in-office with a team that isn't collaborating effectively. If the work you do is isolating and you rarely collaborate with others, you may suffer burnout. At our core we all want to feel like we're part of something bigger than ourselves. Being p…

I hasten to agree. Working with others can be hard and annoying sometimes, but being adrift in the ether doing work that doesn't seem connected to anything else is so much worse.

In a previous job, I was nominally a member of a very strong and effective team, but the work I was assigned was isolated from the members of that team. I came to feel like I wasn't "really" on the team (there were some social factors that contributed to the feeling), and I got tired of nobody knowing or understanding what the hell I was doing. Open a pull request and everyone is all "wait, what is this? Why is this thing like this?". It sucks.

Re: Recovering from Burnout and Depression

#108

Post by dasmoth »

rubicon33 wrote: post #96

I want to highlight something that the article touched on, which for me, was a big source of burnout. "Breakdown of community" This can happen if you work remotely, or work in-office with a team that isn't collaborating effectively. If the work you do is isolating and you rarely collaborate with others, you may suffer burnout. At our core we all want to feel like we're part of something bigger than ourselves. Being p…

While I don't doubt that's true for some people, I'd argue that the precise opposite is also possible.

Re: Recovering from Burnout and Depression

#109

Post by mamcx »

maldusiecle wrote: post #23
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 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…

Also, help people is high stress, and people fight back hard against help (for example, try convince someone to quit drugs).

Re: Recovering from Burnout and Depression

#110

Post by neuromantik8086 »

seanp2k2 wrote: post #90
neuromantik8086 wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Relatedly, it took me a while to pick up on the fact that "non-profit" does not necessarily equate to "beneficial for society". Many non-profits out there have noble purported goals, but when you actually gain some experience at them you start to realize that they are vanity projects for the wealthy. [edit]: To clarify, I'm not making the claim that all non-profits are vanity projects, just that there are many out th…

Vanity projects or ways for rich people to defer more money they should be paying as tax to orgs run by / made up of their friends & family.

True, although using non-profits for tax evasion doesn't really work out that well if you die. iirc, HHMI was originally supposed to be a tax evasion vehicle, but started becoming a serious research venture after Howard Hughes expired.
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