Ask HN: Do you get lazy during burnout?

#1

Post by bosch_mind » Thu, Feb 22, 2024, 11:56 PM UTC

I'm just now starting to realize I'm very burnt out. However, I'm still very interested in tech, but I think I'm completely burnt out on my team and morale is very low causing me to feel very demotivated to work.

I'm an experienced dev. What have you done in positions like this? What has helped you get out of the rut? I have hobbies and friends outside work, but the lacking motivation at work (which consumes 8+ hours of my day-to-day life) is making me feel depressed and worthless. Has swapping teams within your company been a good move? Have you moved externally to resolve the issue?

Re: Ask HN: Do you get lazy during burnout?

#2

Post by MatthiasPortzel » Fri, Feb 23, 2024, 12:07 AM UTC

Have you tried working no more than 8 hours a day?

Re: Ask HN: Do you get lazy during burnout?

#3

Post by pawelduda » Fri, Feb 23, 2024, 12:39 AM UTC

Swapping teams or changing job is always better idea than trying to push through the burnout if you don't see it change anytime soon. Also, anything above 8h on a regular basis is a bit too much and it works until it doesn't.

Re: Ask HN: Do you get lazy during burnout?

#4

Post by giantg2 » Fri, Feb 23, 2024, 12:56 AM UTC

Swapping teams can sometimes help for a little bit. But within a couple months it's back to the same burnout for me.

Re: Ask HN: Do you get lazy during burnout?

#5

Post by qlk1123 » Fri, Feb 23, 2024, 2:02 AM UTC

giantg2 wrote: post #4

Swapping teams can sometimes help for a little bit. But within a couple months it's back to the same burnout for me.

This is the same for me. My case was internal transferring from a engineering division with solid background to a newly created division of a different domain. Things turned out to be very different from what I had previous imagined.

At least now I know that, at the end of the day, burnout can only be fixed by other means.

Re: Ask HN: Do you get lazy during burnout?

#6

Post by lulznews » Fri, Feb 23, 2024, 5:47 AM UTC

Yes that’s a key sign of burn out.

Re: Ask HN: Do you get lazy during burnout?

#7

Post by philosopher1234 » Fri, Feb 23, 2024, 6:48 AM UTC

IMO burnout has complicated emotional sources. You can experiment with working less transferring teams or what have you but those are really bandaid solutions. What you really ought to do is get into therapy with someone good and try to understand the emotional causes of your burnout. Once you understand them, it may become much more clear what you could do to improve.

Re: Ask HN: Do you get lazy during burnout?

#8

Post by swman » Fri, Feb 23, 2024, 8:30 AM UTC

No. If I’m burned out I go until I’m turned into ash.

I spent the last 30 hours getting something to work. I took a couple of walks, cooked some food, but kept going back to the problem.

Now that I fixed the issue I’m feeling down because tomorrow I’m going to jump back into the fire to take on the next problems.

I have no other choice. I love it. But this is how it is.

Re: Ask HN: Do you get lazy during burnout?

#9

Post by Jensson » Fri, Feb 23, 2024, 11:20 AM UTC

swman wrote: post #8

No. If I’m burned out I go until I’m turned into ash. I spent the last 30 hours getting something to work. I took a couple of walks, cooked some food, but kept going back to the problem. Now that I fixed the issue I’m feeling down because tomorrow I’m going to jump back into the fire to take on the next problems. I have no other choice. I love it. But this is how it is.

Sounds like you are burning yourself out rather than you already being burned out.

Re: Ask HN: Do you get lazy during burnout?

#10

Post by gorfot » Fri, Feb 23, 2024, 11:25 AM UTC

Laziness Implies not having a 'valid' reason to do some work. I think of being burned out as being 'drained' by cognitive / emotional load to the extend that your (hormonal, emotional, cognitive etc) system is continously out of whack; which in turn affects your ability to work.

Discomfort, disinterest, boredom etc play into this of course.

That said, why not change things up if you feel so bad? make sure to include other measures to help your mindstate (exercise, vit d, therapy, social life etc). Don't see it as a single problem and one-time fix though. Wether you are burnt out or not, it's worth doing what you can in selfcare.