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Ask HN: Do you get lazy during burnout?

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

#11
post #6

Yes that’s a key sign of burn out.

To be fair, laziness isn’t but being unmotivated is. But there’s more to it than that and everyone seems to just make up their own definition of burnout when they aren’t happy at their job.

feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion;

increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one's job; and

reduced professional efficacy.

https://www.who.int/news/item/28-05-2019-burn-out-an-occupat...

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

#13
You have internalized the disrespect of management in that "laziness" is bad.

When you get injured, you have to rest to recover. Burnout is kinda like that but there's no blood, scabs or physical pain you can identify.

Either find a way to re-adjust your workload, or find a new team that treats you with dignity and respect. As someone who is 4+ years into a burnout / recovery journey I can assure you that you will NEVER feel better in an environment that is hostile.

People are not honest about their negative behavior and if you try to confront abusers they will gaslight you into thinking you are the problem. If you are beaten down enough you will not be able to fight back against this even if you are smart enough to outwit them.

Watch peoples actions, try not to let their words distract you.

You are not lazy your heart and soul have been injured. Be compassionate to yourself or you will never heal.

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

#14
What you're describing is not laziness.

Burnout reduces your maximum productivity.

Working to the full extent of this reduced capacity, even if it is a reduced output compared to your ideal capacity, is not laziness.

You are in fact working at 100% capacity ... which is hardly lazy.

Calling this laziness is just playing into the bullshit corporate power games that drive people to health failure.

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

#15
post #5
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.

I don't know. I'm convinced burnout can't be fixed at this point. Or maybe that's because this is regular burnout mixed with autistic burnout.

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

#16
post #15
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I don't know. I'm convinced burnout can't be fixed at this point. Or maybe that's because this is regular burnout mixed with autistic burnout.

I've read that it takes _at least_ 3 months of complete withdrawal from what was causing the burnout to fully recover from it. I imagine if you throw autism into the mix, it's probably longer than that haha.

Sometimes it feels like the only real solution is to go back to school and get a degree in something that's not related to tech at all. Or go live in the woods.

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

#17
I haven't really found swapping teams or companies to be particularly effective. Within a company, often every team has the same basic tools, workflows, and problems that come from the top.

I guess you need to really analyze what isn't working for you, and then try to fix that. In my case, I still like the programming/problem solving aspect, but I have no interest in scrum calls, sprint planning, elaborate frameworks and build pipelines, and all the other pervasive meta-work.

I think my burnout will persist until I can get away from that, possibly my changing career tracks altogether.

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

#20
Burnout is, truth be told, a dead-end... You studied, dreamed of working on projects, wanted to gain experience, create something of your own, become independent, and earn income from your brainchild - be it a game, utility, program, or something else. However, in the end, you realized that years were passing by, and the project to become your own boss didn't materialize. The fear of losing your job instills panic, as your brain at a cognitive level calculates that you've literally spent too much of your own time on learning and working for someone else. You've sold a considerable amount of your time to others for a coin, and now you find yourself at an impasse. Yes, this is life at 40+. Even if you become an encyclopedia, your time becomes cheap because the time of young, ambitious people is considered precious. It's like being charged printer cartridges while you're already an old printer barely printing. So burnout is the result of selling so much time that doing something for yourself to take a break and generate income, becoming your own boss, has slipped away. You didn't become a genius because you exchanged everything possible for money, and there needed to be a balance. Thirty percent of the income from your sold time should have been saved for your own time to work on your projects instead of squandering it!
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