Every HN burnout post brings out people who think burnout is a bit of exhaustion. Burnout breaks something inside you, like a mini stroke. I burnt out four years ago. The absurdity of lockdowns saved me - I made the most of that to rest and recover - no guilt, the company owed me. Initially my todo list had one item per day. I'm back to getting a bit of enjoyment from programming, but not a lot, and only doing maybe a third per day of pre-burnout, there's no gung-ho, no rocket drive. I take a long while to get started, and probably won't do any personal project work after hours. I have to ignore recruiter emails knowing I couldn't keep up in the described roles. So, it improves, but very slowly, and I don't yet know to what degree. It doesn't help that as the years or decades pass the work becomes less interesting, but occasional mindless grunt work does enable some effortless productivity wins.
Ask HN: Has anyone managed to find enjoyment in their work after burnout?
301–310 of 370 posts
Re: Ask HN: Has anyone managed to find enjoyment in their work after burnout?
#302This advice is going to be hated by a lot of people but.. care less. You’re in an industry that values your skills and seems to always have demand. Whether or not that’s true in the future, it certainly is today , so the best thing you can do is put yourself first and worry less about work as a whole. Especially if it’s not your own company. Spend more time on you, on activities with friends and family, on hobbies. I…
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…
> The concept of "quiet quitting" is a shameful, panicky fraud perpetuated by the power holders in the industry that see their power slipping
Is it?
I always took "Quiet Quitting" to mean, "Lets see how long I can do nothing until I get fired", not "Work to Rule" or "work your pay", or whatever.
I've seen this "Work 5 hours a week sporadically answering slack and see how long till they notice I produce nothing" before, and it's surprising how long I've seen people get away from doing basically 0 work and continue drawing a paycheck.
I think it's largely because most companies don't properly manage a remote teams. It happens when they don't understand how to properly set results-based expectations and deadlines for remote work.
But it's also a huge middle-finger to your teammates who may still care about their work and job, and having dead-weight on the team is demoralizing.
Re: Ask HN: Has anyone managed to find enjoyment in their work after burnout?
#303I found enjoyment after burnout. I worked for an FFRDC for 4 years and it was slow and draining, with no self-actualization. I could complain about the place indefinitely.
However, I switched jobs to a startup where the work I do feels like it matters. I work with a small team and my love for development/engineering has returned. I don't burn myself out by working 10+ hours a day and genuinely enjoy going to work.
My advice might not be what you're looking for, but switching jobs into a small company with a mission that is acceptable (no ad-based jobs for me, please) has been a huge benefit for my mental health.
Re: Ask HN: Has anyone managed to find enjoyment in their work after burnout?
#304Earlier 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…
> The concept of "quiet quitting" is a shameful, panicky fraud perpetuated by the power holders in the industry that see their power slipping Is it? I always took "Quiet Quitting" to mean, "Lets see how long I can do nothing until I get fired", not "Work to Rule" or "work your pay", or whatever. I've seen this "Work 5 hours a week sporadically answering slack and see how long till they notice I produce nothing" befor…
That would basically just be “fraud” IMO. Maybe others can chime in but I’ve only seen quiet quitting described as “not going above and beyond anymore. Just doing the minimal job.”
Re: Ask HN: Has anyone managed to find enjoyment in their work after burnout?
#305This advice is going to be hated by a lot of people but.. care less. You’re in an industry that values your skills and seems to always have demand. Whether or not that’s true in the future, it certainly is today , so the best thing you can do is put yourself first and worry less about work as a whole. Especially if it’s not your own company. Spend more time on you, on activities with friends and family, on hobbies. I…
Yeah this is solid advice. I'm on year 17 in the industry and year 5 of "care less" which has really turned into "care very little, if at all". I work for a FAANG and while I procrastinate like crazy (btw I have very bad ADHD, so factor that in), I still tend to complete my work on time or ahead of schedule. I do the bare minimum though and I don't give a damn about the job at all beyond that. I haven't put in an hon…
> I try to cram all my real work into a 2-3 hour block of time each day
I tend to do this too. Thing is, without the down time I couldn't do it consistently, so I'm really still putting in a full day of work.
Re: Ask HN: Has anyone managed to find enjoyment in their work after burnout?
#306True burn out is rarely about some surface level routines, lack of excercise, work-life balance habits etc.
It's usually solely about meaning.
If there's no meaning for you, your body and subconscious will scream about it sooner or later.
Re: Ask HN: Has anyone managed to find enjoyment in their work after burnout?
#307I think it's worth looking back at where you came from. When you're young and naive it's easy to push yourself to work 70 hours a week doing something because you have a goal in mind. Maybe its money, prestige, or just a sense of accomplishment, but you buy into the idea that if you just keep on going and push through the pain, you'll be happy when its all over. Eventually you get older and wiser and see that's not true - maybe one project is a slog that just never leads to anything, or maybe you put your heart and soul into something and are just left empty afterwards, or maybe those few extra hours of exertion just cost your body a lot more now and a reward that once sufficed no longer does. People talk about burnout like you're a battery that is designed to be drained and recharged, but you're not. That shitty feeling is not your body asking for a rest, it is your body saying you need to make some deep fundamental change.
In my experience, it's much easier to learn to be good at something you enjoy than it is to learn to enjoy something you're good at. It's okay to not enjoy programming like you once did, find and do what you enjoy now.
Re: Ask HN: Has anyone managed to find enjoyment in their work after burnout?
#308Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
I'm on track with retirement and savings, but do you know what would put me immediately off track? an unpaid sabbatical with bad health insurance.
Well obviously if you are so sick that the only way for you to survive, financially and literally, is to have employer paid health insurance then ok don't take a sabbatical. This is of course a US-centric problem and would be absurd to basically anyone outside the US.
Re: Ask HN: Has anyone managed to find enjoyment in their work after burnout?
#309Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
It's less that and more that you're not maximizing retirement savings at that point, which is something that stresses a lot of folks out. Also, even within software, I can't imagine trying to find a job with a 6-month gap on my resume. I'm not in the bay area, and even working remotely, competition is brutal. A gap on your resume is a great reason to get immediately rejected by wherever you're applying to. Not all of…
> It's less that and more that you're not maximizing retirement savings at that point, which is something that stresses a lot of folks out.
What you contributed in years 1-3 are going to be worth far more than what you are contributing after year 7, see exponential returns.
>Also, even within software, I can't imagine trying to find a job with a 6-month gap on my resume.
Idk what field you are in but I get recruiter calls and emails daily, there is massive demand so I don't see this making much sense.
>A gap on your resume is a great reason to get immediately rejected by wherever you're applying to.
I don't think this actually bears out for people with in-demand skills that can interview well. Maybe you are overthinking how long people even look at a resume before interviews, hint: it's not long.
One could easily move past the gap by saying you took an extended break, were traveling, were working on a passion project, etc.
Re: Ask HN: Has anyone managed to find enjoyment in their work after burnout?
#310Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is what I did. Took 2 1/2 years and didn't write a line of code for two of those years. I simply fucked off and traveled the world. Half the time I didn't even know what day of the week it was. It was glorious and it cured my burn out.
How much did you forget in that time span? Did you have to relearn a bunch, and did it come back faster the second time? I feel like I forget so much about programming on a daily basis that I would probably have to re-earn a CS degree if I took 3 months off lol.
Forgetting is not a problem. Given all the churn in the js world lately it feels like I’m re-earning a CS degree every 3 months anyway.
Skipping 3 years you wouldn’t miss anything, just read up on the latest and you are good to go.
If you are lucky, the PR you submitted to some sleeping library, months ago, might have finally been accepted when you get back.