Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: How to deal with burnout and its consequences?

news.ycombinator.com

91–100 of 232 posts

Re: Ask HN: How to deal with burnout and its consequences?

#91
Questions for self-reflection:

Are you generally seeing your brain as a performance tool needing regular and daily maintenance?

In the time since, what have you changed about yourself in how you live, work, and play to be at your best?

Do you prioritize good sleep, eat well, exercise daily, and manage stress as the continuous physiology?

How are your social relationships? Do you use or abuse any drugs including nicotine and caffeine?

Consider that focus, attention, memory, and decisions are core brain functions. How do you optimize your best capabilities?

You are a professional athlete. Do you train and recover like one?

If you’re considering medication for (mental) health, has your doctor tested your sleep and vitamin D?

Re: Ask HN: How to deal with burnout and its consequences?

#92
post #75

I can't tell you it's all gonna be okay because I don't know that it will, but I do know that you should go fishing, because for that moment of clarity and relaxation, what does matter to you will become clear.

This is legitimately good advice. I like fishing because it is _just_ mentally occupying enough that I can actually stop thinking about life for a few hours. If I just go on a hike, I'll enjoy nature, I'll benefit, I'll chill a bit, but I can very easily just ruminate on things while I walk. But when I'm fishing, I'm not stressing about anything, but just pleasantly occupied thinking "should I try a different lure? s…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: How to deal with burnout and its consequences?

#93
The reality is that deep down in your soul, this is not something that you really want to be doing with your life. Unfortunately in modern society, we have to trade our time and focus, staring at a piece of glass all day, just so we can survive. It’s absolutely insane if you think about it. I’d bet that most ADHD, depression, anxiety is caused because we see no end in sight working on these meaningless tasks. My advice is to find something you love and also adds value to society. Start very small and watch it grow…

Re: Ask HN: How to deal with burnout and its consequences?

#94
> the corporate environment I found myself in was something I'd never done before and it was completely unsuited to me as an individual

There are two things here. There is your (correct!) realization and recognition of your alienating corporate environment, then that acts as a catalyst to your reaction - your resulting behavior.

My grandfather used to meet people who were in the original class divide in the United States - the masters and slaves from the cotton fields in the south. You are a wage slave, and the corporation controlled by the capitalist bourgeoisie exists to exploit you, and doesn't ultimately care if it burns you out as there's another young guy coming down the road.

Other than your exploitation ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploitation_of_labour ), the unpaid expropriation of your surplus labor time ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surplus_value ) by your corporate employer, there is also the feeling of alienation ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marx%27s_theory_of_alienation ) you are describing, which flows from a number of things I won't go into here, but that others have described in literature over the past two centuries.

Making this even more unpleasant is the idea pushed that the problem is you. That is due to the hegemony ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_hegemony ) of the superstructure ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Base_and_superstructure ) by the current ruling class. This is ever-present - one example, you post this message on this board, but the Verizon/AT&T corporations mediate your access to this board, which itself is run by another corporation. While this is an example, the cultural hegemony of the rentier ruling class's superstructure us ever-present.

So you have come to the correct realization. You work for your enemy. Your boss is your enemy. They have worked to turn not just your workplace against you but the entire society.

The comfort, fellow worker, is that your fellow workers are not your enemy. Some of them vye to be managers themselves, and will side with the bosses against you, but many will act in solidarity with you, their fellow worker. And you will act in solidarity with them. Learning about all of this, and organizing with others to push back where one can at this point of history can be comforting as well.

Your feelings are natural and will not change, but your reaction can change. I work for an alienating corporation as well, but I can cope with it. I'd prefer to work for myself or a coop, but can not afford to currently, and even that is not an ultimate solution within the existing relations of production - the entire system has to be overthrown, just like it was in France and England and Russia when their kings and czars were eliminated (well I guess in England the kings came back).

I still feel unpleasantness at work, much of it things my fellow workers complain about. I probably react to micro-management more strongly than some, or worse workers trying to become managers who think they're my boss.

In addition to this, why should I do a good job and create a good product for my exploited? This is real cognitive dissonance because the exploiters don't care if you churn out crap if it's profitable. But we have a need to put out a good product for those who consume the fruit of our labor. My uneasy compromise is I spend my 40 hours a week making a good product, but I will not work over that to do a better job if I am rushed (unless not working unpaid overtime threatens my job). That is some cognitive dissonance - I do a good job for myself, my fellow workers and the consumers - not for my company.

Re: Ask HN: How to deal with burnout and its consequences?

#95
I've seen similar situations before (with some co-workers) and I was in the same path some time ago. For my friends the only thing that helped was to change careers, they started non-related business (one became a carpenter and the other one started a grocery store); having a non-mentally demanding job allowed them to heal. In my case, I changed jobs to avoid being so much stressed. It was complicated to start being productive again and every day I struggle but I is becoming better and better.

Re: Ask HN: How to deal with burnout and its consequences?

#96

> I'm not well off like most people on here, I can survive 4-6 months with no salary Be careful of comparing yourself to what people post online. It's easy to read social media and think everyone else is waking up at 5am, drinking their keto coffee, and making millions with their startup while working as a digital nomad. Even on a tech heavy site like HN I would classify someone with 6 months of savings as very well…

Same. Also several months of medical leave for burnout sounds very generous.

That's standard procedure here in Sweden.

Re: Ask HN: How to deal with burnout and its consequences?

#97
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean if they want to try and medicate me I'm not going to say no at this point, regardless of my personal views on the diagnosis. I've reached a point where I don't think any additional harm would be caused by doing so. I'm going to find out in ~2 weeks at my next meeting whether they want to try medicine or not and I will just do whatever they tell me to do. I mean I'm not a psychologist, I'm paying them for their…

If you're up for learning a bit more about ADHD and associated meds, I would recommend these two podcast episodes: https://www.alieward.com/ologies/adhd They cover what it is that ADHD meds actually do and why certain meds work for some people but not for others.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: How to deal with burnout and its consequences?

#98
>I'm not well off like most people on here, I can survive 4-6 months with no salary, which I'm likely going to have to consider given my firing seems imminent at this point.

>My mind knows what needs to be done, but my body says no and I am overwhelmed by apathy.

I've been there before. I was completely burned out but had to keep working. You need to find a job where the expectations are sensible.

It took me more than 1 year find the energy to change jobs after I burned out and in hindsight I waited way to long.

Find a new job and make sure you ask questions like 1)What's the work culture. When do people usually start working and when does it end? 2)How often is there a fire that needs to be put out? 3)If I need to take a 2-3 week vacation, would that be considered normal? 4)Are deadlines set in stone or frequently accelerated?

A healthy job environment will help reignite the part of you that has gone dead. It might take years, but you'll get back some of the faith and motivation you once had.

It took me 3 job changes to find a job with a good working environment because I simply didn't have the guts to ask employers the tough questions about the working conditions. With my current job I was very direct in asking questions about work/life balance and the manager and good managers/employees were equally direct in giving me answers. Being in a healthier work environment has done more for my mental health and personal life than anything else did.

Re: Ask HN: How to deal with burnout and its consequences?

#99
> I'm not well off like most people on here, I can survive 4-6 months with no salary

For a more extended break, you can stretch that out by going somewhere much cheaper and living like a digital nomad. Consider places like Kuala Lumpur, Manila and Taipei since you can live there for a few years on your current savings. If those places aren't your cup of tea, then check out https://nomadlist.com/

Re: Ask HN: How to deal with burnout and its consequences?

#100
post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same. Also several months of medical leave for burnout sounds very generous.

That's standard procedure here in Sweden.

Jealous. I need this because I've been burned out for like a year doing bare minimum and overeating
Post reply on HN