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Tell HN: Burnout is bad to your brain, take care

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Tell HN: Burnout is bad to your brain, take care

#1

Post by tuyguntn »

I am depressed and burned out for quite some time already, unfortunately my brain still couldn't recover from it.

If I summarize the impact of burnout to my brain:

- Before: I could learn things pretty quickly, come up with solutions to the problems, even be able to see common patterns and see bigger underlying problems

- After: can't learn, can't work, can't remember, can't see solutions for trivial problems (e.g. if your shirt is wet, you can change it, but I stare at it thinking when it is going to get dried up)

Take care of your mental health

Re: Tell HN: Burnout is bad to your brain, take care

#2

Post by dheera »

You're not alone, I'm burned out too and tired of every AI-related company expecting engineers to work more than 40 hours a week and nights and weekends, steal scope from teammates, fight for clout, fight for internal resources, on top of dealing with rush hour traffic for some stupid RTO metrics, with stupid-short amounts of vacation time, and expectations to take meetings during vacations.

AI was supposed to allow us to work less, not more.

I'd be okay if science moved 50% slower than it does now. I'm okay with AGI happening in 3 years instead of 2. Or 5. Or 10. I just want time to take care of myself, spend time watching sunsets with my girlfriend, create some art, and learn about what's going on elsewhere in the world instead of die early.

Re: Tell HN: Burnout is bad to your brain, take care

#4

Post by parpfish »

You should also know that it can take a LONG time to fully recover.

I got burnt out 3-4 years ago and am only now feeling like I’m coming back to normal. Maybe if I took a more intentional path to recovery I’d be back earlier, but it’s not like the kind of thing where you can take a couple weeks PTO and expect it to clear up

Re: Tell HN: Burnout is bad to your brain, take care

#5

Post by VonGuard »

The number one trait I have seen in people who are burned out is that they utterly and completely deny they are burned out. They often furiously push back on the idea. "I cannot possibly be burned out, because I have way too much to do," or something less articulate.

Admitting you're burned out is the fist step on the path back. It can take years to get back to normal and have passion again. But it will return if you take care of yourself and avoid the kind of things that send you spiraling into stress.

Re: Tell HN: Burnout is bad to your brain, take care

#6

Post by linotype »

dheera wrote: post #2

You're not alone, I'm burned out too and tired of every AI-related company expecting engineers to work more than 40 hours a week and nights and weekends, steal scope from teammates, fight for clout, fight for internal resources, on top of dealing with rush hour traffic for some stupid RTO metrics, with stupid-short amounts of vacation time, and expectations to take meetings during vacations. AI was supposed to allow…

I’m starting to wonder if this problem is more startup related or if big companies have this issue as well. The math for startup employees financially doesn’t make sense anymore anyway and for most probably never did.

Re: Tell HN: Burnout is bad to your brain, take care

#7

Post by CooCooCaCha »

parpfish wrote: post #4

You should also know that it can take a LONG time to fully recover. I got burnt out 3-4 years ago and am only now feeling like I’m coming back to normal. Maybe if I took a more intentional path to recovery I’d be back earlier, but it’s not like the kind of thing where you can take a couple weeks PTO and expect it to clear up

Did you take a break from working or did you find a way to recover and work?

Re: Tell HN: Burnout is bad to your brain, take care

#8

Post by dheera »

linotype wrote: post #6
dheera wrote: post #2

You're not alone, I'm burned out too and tired of every AI-related company expecting engineers to work more than 40 hours a week and nights and weekends, steal scope from teammates, fight for clout, fight for internal resources, on top of dealing with rush hour traffic for some stupid RTO metrics, with stupid-short amounts of vacation time, and expectations to take meetings during vacations. AI was supposed to allow…

I’m starting to wonder if this problem is more startup related or if big companies have this issue as well. The math for startup employees financially doesn’t make sense anymore anyway and for most probably never did.

I just left Amazon, and the situation is identical at several other companies based on anecdotal evidence from friends, so it's very much a big company issue as well.

The biggest problem with many startups I think is workaholic, narcissist founders who don't know how to treat humans like humans. It's generally less procedural and internal competition bullshit than big tech, but more immature management trying to bite more than they can chew or expecting employees who have a 0.1%-0.5% stake in the company to behave like founders with a 40% stake in the company. Not going to happen.

Re: Tell HN: Burnout is bad to your brain, take care

#9

Post by gk1 »

For me the critical moment was recognizing I had burnout. It happened when I saw this post on HN, whose list of symptoms almost perfectly matched what I was feeling: https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2022/03/29/how-people-fall-ap...

I’ve obviously heard of burnout and experienced it before, yet somehow I failed to recognize what was happening until then.

So thank you for posting this. Hopefully it’ll help someone out there realize they’re burned out and start addressing it.

Re: Tell HN: Burnout is bad to your brain, take care

#10

Post by jpm_sd »

CooCooCaCha wrote: post #7
parpfish wrote: post #4

You should also know that it can take a LONG time to fully recover. I got burnt out 3-4 years ago and am only now feeling like I’m coming back to normal. Maybe if I took a more intentional path to recovery I’d be back earlier, but it’s not like the kind of thing where you can take a couple weeks PTO and expect it to clear up

Did you take a break from working or did you find a way to recover and work?

Getting a new job at a big, slow moving company can be a good way to recover while not becoming destitute
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