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Burnout Is Real

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Re: Burnout Is Real

#211

Post by munificent »

necrotic_comp wrote: post #157
zwkrt wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Classist against who? Land owners? Color me unmoved.

"Poor people have kids all the time, a lot of times they are even smart!" is extraordinarily classist. It makes a joke that based on the assumption that the majority of the time poor people are stupid. Not a good look to say something like that.

I think there is a charitable interpretation of that sentence where they were being tongue-in-cheek with the understanding that readers would all agree that obviously being born to a poor family does not determine your intelligence.

Re: Burnout Is Real

#212

Post by turtlebits »

Best thing I found for myself is to stop worrying about the career, progression and job titles (which equates to $$). We all make more than enough in tech.

I've found specific things I want do at work (for me, it's automation, writing dev tools) and just do those. There are always going to be things that you don't like doing.

Leave or swap teams if you're not happy. We are extremely privileged to be able to leave and find a new position relatively easily.

Re: Burnout Is Real

#213

Post by adregan »

ChipSkylark wrote: post #184

Personal take/rant/experience: I fell in love with programming because I didn't give a shit about maintainability, architectural considerations, stressing vulns or holding a pager all night to support a living computer system. I learned how to code and got the degree because of how much fun it was every day as a beginner - growing, learning something new and exciting, feverishly building new things to show my friends…

> applying worst case scenario visualization

I recently learned about "thinking traps" (essentially spiraling out of control imagining terrible outcomes) when my pandemic stress hit an all time high.

I learned coping mechanisms and ways to short circuit them (really comes down to awareness), but realized that I get paid to engage in this destructive behavior! We have pre-mortems at work trying to imagine everything that might go wrong; a little of the macabre mixed in with the stress.

I became a professional programmer later in life, and I've been wondering whether or not it has been influencing my behavior and personality in negative ways. I don't remember this paranoid in my previous life.

Re: Burnout Is Real

#214

Post by system16 »

seniorThrowaway wrote: post #160
system16 wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is definitely true for me. I went from a digital nomad lifestyle living abroad for over a decade, to moving back to North America and "settling down". In the last three years I've bought a house, fancy car, and accumulated a bunch of "stuff". By most people's standards, what I have accumulated is not that much, but to me it's a huge weight on my shoulders. Not only the physical items, but subscriptions to servic…

>By most people's standards, what I have accumulated is not that much, but to me it's a huge weight on my shoulders. Not only the physical items, but subscriptions to services, utilities, property taxes, home maintenance fees, etc. It's all extremely stressful and draining. You're not alone, I feel the same way. I think it's the never-ending recurrence of these costs in both time and money that causes the anxiety. I…

This dev did just that! http://disengage.ca

Re: Burnout Is Real

#215

Post by pksebben »

culopatin wrote: post #207
dijit wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“Your problems are not as bad as these other people’s problems so they are not really problems”. Lots to unpack, but that’s the statement every time someone mentioned someone else’s privilege.

I meant to say “man your problems are real, but they have been a problem for a big portion of the society for a very long time and they wish they could act on it, maybe be a bit more sensitive about it”

I think the thing that rankles for me in a lot of posts like this, is that they tend to talk about solutions to problems like burnout that are only feasible if you have the privilege to execute on them.

"Give yourself space to not work so you don't get burnt out" is only applicable if you have the expendable resources to do so, and the reason that many people don't is that our culture and society are broken for them. For someone like that, listening to people talk about things like "work-life balance" is enraging, frustrating, and demoralizing.

That said, if we're going to fix this situation, we're going to have to work together on it; which, for people who have the capacity to spend extra time on social issues, means putting their oxygen mask on first, so they're more effective at whatever it is that they're focused on. In many cases, this is precisely the kind of change necessary to fix the system.

My point here is that it's a complex situation, and it's correct both that a) there are bigger problems than burnout in the world and we should be aware of this and b) burnout is a real issue for some people, and that deserves support and attention too.

There's no reason we can't focus on more than one thing.

Re: Burnout Is Real

#216

Post by testfrequency »

elpatoisthebest wrote: post #204
runawaybottle wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can we please not devolve every discussion about natural human behavior into ‘you must have adhd, get meds’. It’s standard pressure and human centric fear of failure around business expectations where those around you may or not give a flying fuck about your efforts. Thus, the pressure feels unfulfilling and driven by fear. It’s not always rocket science.

I don't think this was the poster's attempt to "devolve" the discussion. Simply sharing an anecdote that he thought might prove worthy of consideration for those who are suffering burnout. I also suffered burnout at a job, but I didn't realize it until I was receiving therapy related to my anxiety. I don't know anything about meds or ADHD since that isn't anything I have experience with, but I think it's worth doing…

Correct. I am sharing my current on-going experience with what I thought was workplace burnout, but was really a number of other mental health issues that were contributing to my overall feeling of doubt, anxiety, performance at work.

To be clear again, I am not advocating for everyone to assume their burnout is due to some sort of mental health issue - but to also not discredit exploring this prior to making a big emotional decision like leaving a job, and possibly making symptoms even worse if not addressed.

Re: Burnout Is Real

#217

Post by microtherion »

ravedave5 wrote: post #191
ryneandal wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't feel bad if your mental health is in a much better place now. You come first. No exceptions.

Until you have children, then they come first.

That's not entirely wrong, but it's not quite correct either. When our first was born, the nurses at the maternity ward (about as pro-baby advocacy a bunch as one could imagine) advised us to "take care of yourselves so you can take care of the baby"; you're not doing your children any favors if you're driving yourself into a breakdown.

Re: Burnout Is Real

#218

Post by phaemon »

lancemurdock wrote: post #185
culopatin wrote: post #120

I don’t know how to frame this well and I apologize in advance. But I think this idea of “oh wow burnout is real I’m so woke” is a privileged person problem. I don’t mean that burnout is a first world problem, but that this “Burnout is real” is. I struggle to put my head in a place where I can be amazed that burnout is real and that I have to warn others of this “thing” as if it’s not part of millions of people’s liv…

I seriously wish I could never hear the word the "privilege" again. Its an extremely spiteful mechanism to tear people down.

I'm sure you do. Along with your wish to:

"check back on this coin when its tokenomics have improved. I am not interested in something with 70% of the total supply not yet in circulation."

...

Re: Burnout Is Real

#219

Post by culopatin »

pksebben wrote: post #215
culopatin wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I meant to say “man your problems are real, but they have been a problem for a big portion of the society for a very long time and they wish they could act on it, maybe be a bit more sensitive about it”

I think the thing that rankles for me in a lot of posts like this, is that they tend to talk about solutions to problems like burnout that are only feasible if you have the privilege to execute on them. "Give yourself space to not work so you don't get burnt out" is only applicable if you have the expendable resources to do so, and the reason that many people don't is that our culture and society are broken for them.…

Your response makes me think you truly understood what I meant. And I agree with the latter part of the post. Hopefully people in the position of making the change experience the burnout and keep it in mind for when they are in a managerial position

Re: Burnout Is Real

#220

Post by microtherion »

I hope the author finds happiness in his new calling. One thing I noticed is that he basically seemed to have turned his favorite spare time activity into his job; I've seen that with other people as well.

Personally, I try to have some activities that I enjoy immensely but would never think of trying to make money from. I'm a bit concerned that the moment I monetize them, obligations would start getting attached, and the enjoyable activity would turn into just another job. But then, I'm not a particularly entrepreneurial type, unlike (it appears), the author of the post.

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