No post body was provided.
Ask HN: Has anyone managed to find enjoyment in their work after burnout?
211–220 of 370 posts
Re: Ask HN: Has anyone managed to find enjoyment in their work after burnout?
#212When I get burnt out, I go to a different but adjacent role. That way I can apply my experience, but perhaps in a different context. It's helped with my burnt out.
Companies tend to look at someone who's good in their role and say 'surely they'll be good at managing people in the same role'. But perhaps you're not suited for management due to any number of factors. Experiences bears out that I'm good at training. But I find training all day long and work travel incredibly exhausting. So moving to trainer wouldn't have worked for me.
I'd suggest trying to find an adjacent position to what you currently do while still being an individual contributor. Or maybe look for companies wanting principals or tech evangelists. Maybe that will put you onto something less draining for you.
Re: Ask HN: Has anyone managed to find enjoyment in their work after burnout?
#213My burnout experience was a little different, I was younger and it was like 50 to 60 hour weeks that burned me out combined with a really bad startup experience.
I took a few months off (in SF, that burned through my savings) and had a nice long think about my relationship to my job/career. Ended up moving out of the Bay Area because I wanted hobbies and to be able to meet people who weren’t in tech.
IMO boundaries are really important. I work a max of 40 hours a week as a rule (always been salaried) and force myself to leave my work desk at 5PM (even if I’m having fun working on something and want to continue). I only work after hours if there’s a page or something similarly urgent.
I’d also recommend a hobby or a sport (programming is ok just make sure it’s not work related stuff)
So far it’s working, but I guess I could always become a float plane pilot in Alaska, or do something with bikes if I got tired of software.
Re: Ask HN: Has anyone managed to find enjoyment in their work after burnout?
#214Can you afford a sabbatical? The term has roots in "seven", just like Sabbath, so with 14 years in the industry, you've skipped one. I think a solid half-year off every seven to ten years is an excellent practice for intellectually demanding labor. What makes it a sabbatical is that it's a change of pace which furthers your career. I'd love to take a sabbatical and just work on building stuff, personally: from solder…
A sabbatical sounds outrageously stressful to me. I'd immediately have significantly worse health insurance, I wouldn't be contributing to retirement, all the while I'd be draining away my safety net.
If you're a software engineer that has been working for 7+ years and don't have enough savings to survive 6 months off work or are so behind on retirement savings that this would seriously impact your future I think you should work seriously on getting your finances in order.
Re: Ask HN: Has anyone managed to find enjoyment in their work after burnout?
#215"What I learned is that burning out isn’t just about work load, it’s about work load being greater than the motivation to do work." https://thetech.com/2010/04/09/dubai-v130-n18 I recommend reading the whole section on burnout. Although burnout isn't really the topic of the article this is the most enlightening writing I have ever read on it. Hoping it might serve you.
It's an interesting point about motivation and work load. My experience with burnout occurred at a time where I was regularly doing 60 hours / week, and enjoying it! The motivation hit came when a new manager moved into the team, and he suddenly wanted to shift my role in a career direction I did not agree to. Prior to him joining, I felt my path was progressing in the direction I wanted, with the blessing of my previous management.
It's amazing how fast a single person can flip that motivation versus work load into the wrong direction.
Re: Ask HN: Has anyone managed to find enjoyment in their work after burnout?
#216I’m midway through a batch at Recurse Center — (www.recurse.com) and I both personally am getting a lot of energy connecting back to the part of programming I just think are intrinsically satisfying, and I’m meeting other programmers who are also finding it helpful for recovering from burnout.
Re: Ask HN: Has anyone managed to find enjoyment in their work after burnout?
#217Still facing this. After 5+ years of straight working, and nothing but short 3 day vacations. Took nearly 7 months off so far. I was staying at my parents for half the time, and was able to have enough savings to take a long break, therefore it was an option I could take. But still feel mentally jaded. For the first few months, time just passed while I was at home, and I thought it would get better but it didn't. I r…
Also I found meditation to be really helpful. Hard to get into, but so worth it.
Re: Ask HN: Has anyone managed to find enjoyment in their work after burnout?
#218You wrote plenty about the ways you dislike spending your time. You haven't said anything about what you like to do - work or otherwise. It's hard to find ways to do what you enjoy if you don't know what that is.
Re: Ask HN: Has anyone managed to find enjoyment in their work after burnout?
#219Earlier quoted context omitted.
Kind of this. I don't think it's "care less" but I think it's "care appropriately for 40 hours a week." The concept of "quiet quitting" is a shameful, panicky fraud perpetuated by the power holders in the industry that see their power slipping. "Quiet quitting" has been known as "work to rule" or "fulfilling a contract." My paystub says 40 hours. My original contract says nothing about overtime. I'm not quiet quittin…
> My job is a side quest, not a main quest. Even if it were your main quest, I think the strategy you outline is worth following. Going all out is what causes burnout, and that applies to whether you are working for yourself or for someone else, and also whether you are working a job or working on your passion. A career is like an ultra marathon -- maintain a sustainable pace, and run with people you like to spend ti…
This ^^^^. I am in my thirty ninth year in embedded development, started the year I turned 27. (yeah, do the math) I have strictly limited myself to 40 hour weeks following a severe burnout in the late 1990s.
I could retire now, if I had to, but I hope to do this for another three to five years. It is just far too interesting and fun. I had an older coworker that worked full time until he was 74. He also just enjoyed the work and the people he worked with.
It is a marathon, and change is constant, which makes it more interesting than a lot of careers in the long run. Plan for the long run, and make room to live your life all along the way.
Re: Ask HN: Has anyone managed to find enjoyment in their work after burnout?
#220Burnout is kinda like an injury, it makes new injuries more likely and you need to train around it. I think there are a few things that I've found that always help: * Removing the source of frustration or the thing that is burning you out -- this might mean quitting a toxic job, reducing hours, whatever. But be honest with yourself, ask for somebody who you talk to a lot to give input on what they think it is and lis…
I'm burned out from spending a couple of years in meaningless corporate jobs, and now that I found a more challenging job I truly love, I'm finding myself unable to hit the bar. All of are insightful and actionable tips, thank you so much for the great advice!
No problem. I'm by no means an expert, just a sufferer of burnout myself and a friend to a few people I've seen struggle with it.
I think sometimes the unfortunate news you'll learn is that you did something during your career path that felt right, but put you in the wrong situation down the road. The type of change that's needed to correct that might be learning something new, applying to jobs you'll love more that are perceived as "beneath your ability" or simply changing trajectory.