I always feel like an alien when people talk about burnout, because I've never felt it as a discreet thing. I've never had one period of my life where Ive felt the symptoms the author describes...
I always feel like an alien when people talk about burnout, because I've never felt it as a discreet thing.
I've never had one period of my life where Ive felt the symptoms the author describes any more than any other period of my working life, because I've basically felt that way at every job, at every period of time that I've been working there.
I have a pretty successful career, but I've never once felt a consistent feeling of enjoyment from it. I would quit in a fraction of a second if I could maintain my current lifestyle without working.
I don't think it's an issue if the company I work for or the kind of work I do either. I just a absolutely detest working. I hate not being able to do what I want on a given time, I hate that a third of my time is spoken for in a given week. I hate deadlines and having to keep work streams organized in my head, having to write down notes to keep track of everything, having to manage my calendar. I hate meetings and emails. I hate virtually every aspect of working.
There are small slivers of things I enjoy about my job, but anyone who would pay me to do those things would require I mostly do the parts that I hate, and as a vital point, being required to do those things I enjoy on an efficient timeline basically crushes any enjoyment I have from them.
That's the reason I don't identify with burnout. I've had periods where I'm working too much because of some mandate, and yes that sucks, but it doesn't suck significantly more than working normally, and so I don't even have a point of comparison really.
The implication of stories like this is that things used to be great at work, but now working so hard has taken it's toll it doesn't fulfill me anymore. My issue is that it's never been great at work for me. It's always something I've just gritted my teeth and tolerated because well... I need to eat, and having money greatly improved my life. I've never felt fulfilled by work, and work is never something I'd voluntarily choose to do if all of my other needs were met.
Frankly, most people I know and who I've talked to feel the same way, so either there's this different (pretty large) group of people online that talk about this sort of thing who genuinely do feel fulfilled and enjoy working, or there are a lot of people that are just lying about how much they love work in order to... I don't know, impress prospective employers?
I think I'm the same way as you, but when I hit burnout, it got worse. There was a noticeable point where I shifted from "this is a thing I have to do to afford the rest of the things I want to...
I think I'm the same way as you, but when I hit burnout, it got worse. There was a noticeable point where I shifted from "this is a thing I have to do to afford the rest of the things I want to do" to "this is taking so much of my mental energy that I cannot make myself do the things I want to do".
TLDR: To me it seems like it might be both for some people. I love my job and care about the work I do, but the amount of work is debilitating and unending. Valuing one's job might have a...
TLDR:
To me it seems like it might be both for some people. I love my job and care about the work I do, but the amount of work is debilitating and unending. Valuing one's job might have a compounding factor in some cases which drives increased productivity to one's detriment.
I definitely relate - esp when you mentioned you don't have time to do the things you want to do. I'm there right now unfortunately.
I think part of the response to the original commentor above is that it feels like, generally speaking, the average worker's workload has greatly increased. This is compounded by cost of living increases (housing, inflation, etc.) and a lack of wage reconcilliation and otherwise to address these issues across the board.
So it feels like you're working harder than ever, getting promotions, etc. but it seems more often than not you feel further behind and less 'free' (e.g. financially mobile, general opportunity and choice in multiple aspects of life) than you were even a few years ago.
I love my job, the people I work with, heck I even have massive respect for people through several rungs of the corporate ladder above me. My job and bosses are extremely flexible with work-life overall. I consider myself incredibly fortunate and am very thankful for it.
The problem is there aren't enough hands. I'm buried in work while more keeps getting added. I can never get caught up or even close. I value my work and all that entails and feel grateful, and so I feel even more pressure than I already do to complete the work and catch up.
And in order to try to catch up, I put things I want to do outside of work on the backburner - even important things like my health (diet, exercise, heck just going outside lol).
It's demoralizing, wears you down, and leaves you drained but it never seems to end.
What does that mean? If you’re a founder, then what were you during the missing three years? I get it though. I think 5-10 years is a pretty long time to work on a project, and that’s when I start...
For the last seven years (four of which as a co-founder),
What does that mean? If you’re a founder, then what were you during the missing three years?
I get it though. I think 5-10 years is a pretty long time to work on a project, and that’s when I start feeling like flipping it and starting something new.
I always feel like an alien when people talk about burnout, because I've never felt it as a discreet thing.
I've never had one period of my life where Ive felt the symptoms the author describes any more than any other period of my working life, because I've basically felt that way at every job, at every period of time that I've been working there.
I have a pretty successful career, but I've never once felt a consistent feeling of enjoyment from it. I would quit in a fraction of a second if I could maintain my current lifestyle without working.
I don't think it's an issue if the company I work for or the kind of work I do either. I just a absolutely detest working. I hate not being able to do what I want on a given time, I hate that a third of my time is spoken for in a given week. I hate deadlines and having to keep work streams organized in my head, having to write down notes to keep track of everything, having to manage my calendar. I hate meetings and emails. I hate virtually every aspect of working.
There are small slivers of things I enjoy about my job, but anyone who would pay me to do those things would require I mostly do the parts that I hate, and as a vital point, being required to do those things I enjoy on an efficient timeline basically crushes any enjoyment I have from them.
That's the reason I don't identify with burnout. I've had periods where I'm working too much because of some mandate, and yes that sucks, but it doesn't suck significantly more than working normally, and so I don't even have a point of comparison really.
The implication of stories like this is that things used to be great at work, but now working so hard has taken it's toll it doesn't fulfill me anymore. My issue is that it's never been great at work for me. It's always something I've just gritted my teeth and tolerated because well... I need to eat, and having money greatly improved my life. I've never felt fulfilled by work, and work is never something I'd voluntarily choose to do if all of my other needs were met.
Frankly, most people I know and who I've talked to feel the same way, so either there's this different (pretty large) group of people online that talk about this sort of thing who genuinely do feel fulfilled and enjoy working, or there are a lot of people that are just lying about how much they love work in order to... I don't know, impress prospective employers?
I think I'm the same way as you, but when I hit burnout, it got worse. There was a noticeable point where I shifted from "this is a thing I have to do to afford the rest of the things I want to do" to "this is taking so much of my mental energy that I cannot make myself do the things I want to do".
TLDR:
To me it seems like it might be both for some people. I love my job and care about the work I do, but the amount of work is debilitating and unending. Valuing one's job might have a compounding factor in some cases which drives increased productivity to one's detriment.
I definitely relate - esp when you mentioned you don't have time to do the things you want to do. I'm there right now unfortunately.
I think part of the response to the original commentor above is that it feels like, generally speaking, the average worker's workload has greatly increased. This is compounded by cost of living increases (housing, inflation, etc.) and a lack of wage reconcilliation and otherwise to address these issues across the board.
So it feels like you're working harder than ever, getting promotions, etc. but it seems more often than not you feel further behind and less 'free' (e.g. financially mobile, general opportunity and choice in multiple aspects of life) than you were even a few years ago.
I love my job, the people I work with, heck I even have massive respect for people through several rungs of the corporate ladder above me. My job and bosses are extremely flexible with work-life overall. I consider myself incredibly fortunate and am very thankful for it.
The problem is there aren't enough hands. I'm buried in work while more keeps getting added. I can never get caught up or even close. I value my work and all that entails and feel grateful, and so I feel even more pressure than I already do to complete the work and catch up.
And in order to try to catch up, I put things I want to do outside of work on the backburner - even important things like my health (diet, exercise, heck just going outside lol).
It's demoralizing, wears you down, and leaves you drained but it never seems to end.
What does that mean? If you’re a founder, then what were you during the missing three years?
I get it though. I think 5-10 years is a pretty long time to work on a project, and that’s when I start feeling like flipping it and starting something new.