discussion I'm burned out at work; don't know what to do

[Before Today]

I just accept the fact that it's how it is being a corporate slave. I bear with it, do my job and get paid. Build genuine friendships will likely help your burnout too.  I was feeling burnout as well and I took a week off in Bali partying every night enjoying nature doing nothing and it helped me tremendously. Working out is also a mental stimulation for me.

[gagacasanova]

Speaking as a department manager who absolutely loathes to even turn off my alarm clock, I'd say take personal time out to feel refreshed upon coming back or just start looking for something new. But looking for a job is a job within itself

[brraap]

I don’t understand why they have one person doing everything when they can just hire more staff. Sounds like a capitalism problem to me 

 

On the short term I’d say book a long holiday. For some people it takes ages to recover from burnout so I’d recommend going to therapy to see your options and manage a way to overcome this hurdle.

 

Wishing you well 

[pavi]

If you are truly burned out (like, medically speaking, 'burn-out'), switching jobs or taking a vacation won't help. I've seen it happen around me: if you go too far and break down, like you crossed some kind of last line, you'll need months away from your job to truly recover.

 

What to do probably really depends on where you live. Where I live, when you go to your doctor, they'll evaluate whether you're really burned out and evaluate how bad it is and tell you what to do. This could be going for paid sick leave and then later slowly building again, but I'm aware not every country has that possibility. It could also be working less for some time and slowly building, and maybe in the meantime think about a healthy careerpath for yourself. You need to find out: are you burned out because of your own patterns, or because the work environment is unhealthy or doesn't fit your personality? It al matters. There's no clear path, I think. You'll need expert help if you can. Wishing you the best 

[TaggedGalaxy]

Ugh I feel your pain, I'm in the same position. Completely burned out at work. I accepted a manager position in my company about two years ago and my workload went from manageable to overloaded since then. I have so much pressure on me and have had to take on so many responsibilities. And worst of all the upper leadership wants to micro manage everything and make everything into a systematized process that makes each task take longer than necessary because there are additional things to do for the tracking. I loved my job before but now I am miserable and stressed all the time. 

 

I also think they are taking advantage of me because of my age, being the youngest person in my office. I've been looking for new jobs but I can't find anything that pays as much as I'm making now so I feel stuck. 

 

Anyway just know that you are not alone 

[Queen.]

7 hours ago, =NEX= said:

 

Girl no, this will make it much worse. 

[theweekend]

I've been there before. since I opened my own company I feel so much better and happy doing what I do and doing in the way/time I want it to be done. I'm earning much less compared to what I've got before but I'm already growing and I can only see good in it.

 

it's not a paradise because it can be stressful/challenging, but it keeps me doing my best respecting my own body/sanity to keep it going.

 

take your time to think about you should do and what you value the most (and what you used to) so you can make you next step as good as you deserve! good luck!

[AMIT]

Stop taking on more responsibilities. You listed 4/5 and that is just INSANE. 

 

I get that you want to seem proactive and reliable, but the company's only interest is keeping you doing the most work possible and paying you as little as possible (you might think you earn a good wage, but you probably don't all things considered). Simply put: quiet quit. 

 

''Company loyalty'' does not exist anymore, keep an eye out for other offers and try to get as much experience as you can in the job you are in right now. Even if they don't let you go you consider switching companies like every 2 years or so.

 

And lastly but actually most importantly - this isn't a you problem, it's a systemic one. Every advice I and the others are trying to give you makes it seem like you are the one who needs to change, but the fact of the matter is that the system is unsustainable (to put it mildly) and things like this will keep on happening until we finally get a big societal shift. 

 

Wish you the best. 

[AMIT]

1 hour ago, brraap said:

I don’t understand why they have one person doing everything when they can just hire more staff. Sounds like a capitalism problem to me 

 

On the short term I’d say book a long holiday. For some people it takes ages to recover from burnout so I’d recommend going to therapy to see your options and manage a way to overcome this hurdle.

 

Wishing you well 

Yes, it comes from the capitalist "profit (usually on short-term) above all" logic. Why hire more staff if you can overwork the ones you already have and then pay those ones as little as possible? You have to think from their perspective.

[Eat The Acid]

You’re doing the job of 3-4 people. You need to identify for your manager that your workload is too much. It’s unreasonable. Any one with that much work would feel down and too heavy with responsibility. 

[katara]

You'll need MONTHS off to heal from burnout. I had a colleague go through this.

 

My advise is to talk to them and try to drastically reduce your workload and maybe change position. If they don't do that then just write yourself sick until they fire you and you get unemplyoment pay.

 

You need 3-6 months to recover and will prolly need to talk to a therapist.

[katara]

7 hours ago, Cain said:

I don’t want to dogpile on you or anything but I’ve started my working life this year and can I just say that a lot of people’s mental relationship with their work is extremely unhealthy? It’s just something I keep seeing over and over and somehow I find it very alarming but no one seems to notice

 

We are literally FORCED into work, there’s this whole farce about ‘you can do whatever you want and you have the world at your feet’ but you don’t. If you want to… stay alive, literally, you are forced to perform labour. Some of us start our own businesses, but most of us become a cog in a machine with a vision that isn’t ours, performing work that doesn’t better our own lives and usually not the life of our planet either. I guess it’s a kind of coping mechanism to feel ownership or responsibility over that, but I can’t for the life of me figure out why people would put their own (mental) health at risk and develop this extremely unhealthy dynamic with their work and colleagues in which they feel daily guilt just because they are project manager #3 at some consultancy firm. It’s not that important, no one actually cares

 

It’s very telling that people only feel like healthy living human beings protecting their boundaries and following their bodily needs when they are on vacation. You should be able to feel that agency and lack of guilt and stress at all times, it’s driving me insane

Aww this was so me like 4 years ago 

 

With time you'll learn to be a brave lil cog in the machine and drown out those thoughts. 

 

Also try to get away with doing as little work as possible. WFH jobs are best for this. Take as many sick days as you can get away with. Take all your vacation. Switch jobs to get pay rises. When switiching jobs leave some months in between jobs where you are free and get unemployment so you can relax and/or travel 

 

Use every chance to not work. 

Edited August 15, 2023 by katara

[Bosque]

If you tell anyone your company, let alone your manager, about this (or any other vaguely "psychological" illness you may have), there is a 95% chance they will try to **** you over in some way - and a 5% chance they will actually try to help you. Be prepared for that reality, and start looking for other jobs early, or at least be prepared for a chance to be jobless for a couple months.

[Cain]

1 hour ago, katara said:

Aww this was so me like 4 years ago 

 

With time you'll learn to be a brave lil cog in the machine and drown out those thoughts. 

 

Also try to get away with doing as little work as possible. WFH jobs are best for this. Take as many sick days as you can get away with. Take all your vacation. Switch jobs to get pay rises. When switiching jobs leave some months in between jobs where you are free and get unemployment so you can relax and/or travel 

 

Use every chance to not work. 

So all of my coworkers/friends think this way and that doesn’t make sense to me either  so are you trying to avoid the thing you do for half of your waking life and doing the bare minimum but you’re still stuck in that stressful environment, so nobody wins?

[Vespertine]

You need to request to have your role more clearly defined. Get HR involved. 

 

This is common with people who are high achievers — taking on more and more responsibility (and people throwing it their way) because you can seemingly handle a lot. From your post, it sounds like your position is not clearly defined, which means it will just keep growing. My best friend was in a position like this until she got a new job a year or two ago. Her old boss actually called her to apologize when he realized how much she had been doing; they had to hire two people in her place. 

 

If this is a problem for them, start looking for a new job. 

[katara]

37 minutes ago, Cain said:

So all of my coworkers/friends think this way and that doesn’t make sense to me either  so are you trying to avoid the thing you do for half of your waking life and doing the bare minimum but you’re still stuck in that stressful environment, so nobody wins?

I mean what else can you do? Like you said we are forced to work so might as well make it as enjoyable as possible.

 

Only people who are born into or inherited wealth can afford to not work. 

[Chemist]

9 hours ago, Cain said:

I don’t want to dogpile on you or anything but I’ve started my working life this year and can I just say that a lot of people’s mental relationship with their work is extremely unhealthy? It’s just something I keep seeing over and over and somehow I find it very alarming but no one seems to notice

 

We are literally FORCED into work, there’s this whole farce about ‘you can do whatever you want and you have the world at your feet’ but you don’t. If you want to… stay alive, literally, you are forced to perform labour. Some of us start our own businesses, but most of us become a cog in a machine with a vision that isn’t ours, performing work that doesn’t better our own lives and usually not the life of our planet either. I guess it’s a kind of coping mechanism to feel ownership or responsibility over that, but I can’t for the life of me figure out why people would put their own (mental) health at risk and develop this extremely unhealthy dynamic with their work and colleagues in which they feel daily guilt just because they are project manager #3 at some consultancy firm. It’s not that important, no one actually cares

 

It’s very telling that people only feel like healthy living human beings protecting their boundaries and following their bodily needs when they are on vacation. You should be able to feel that agency and lack of guilt and stress at all times, it’s driving me insane

Right! You really need to carefully select something you genuinely like and will find personally satisfying. It shouldn't be only about $$ or power in a company. I see the GM's or VP's in my company, and those people  have no life because they are working all the time. i have no desire to become someone like that, i don't care if it means getting stuck professionally. Interestingly when they retire they lament not having spent enough time with family and friends  There is literally no point of living like that. Happiness + Life >> Work. 

[CandleGuy]

Talk to your manager. Communicate your needs.

 

Offer solutions if possible. Sounds like you are doing the job of multiple people. Ask if they can hire a specialist for one of those roles. If they can delegate any responsibility to other members of your team.

 

Ask for time off to recharge.

 

Ultimately asking for help is the responsible thing to do. Not only for yourself but for your employer. A good employer will understand that you need support and will be happy to provide it to keep you functioning at 100%, because that is what they need too.

 

If they don't offer support then it's time to start looking for a new job.

[DamianSolo]

I was burned out at my last job, and I quit and found something else. They ultimately didn't care, and I know they didn't, so I didn't even bother with trying to communicate with them regarding it. On top of the job, itself, being excessively demanding, I was tired of managing and supervising people who complained all the time. And they all had some type of issue, one after the other. I was just over it all.

[naval23]

business analyst, UX designer, product and project manager, and event organizer.

 

gurl that is like 5 positions, what are your hours?

 

do you take work home with you?

 

if you're being overloaded, you need to speak up and say so 

 

i'd perhaps take a vacation (or even a staycation) for a few weeks to reset.

 

it might be time for a career change if it's truly making you happy.

[Mark!]

I quit when i got to that point  my director at the time even wanted to promote me, i was like *** NO. i cant deal with MORE stress 

 

i feel like i didnt handle my situation well and just dipped, but definitely it did help with my burn out

[spree]

definitely take some time off for a vacation before you make any rash decisions. 

[Exzime.]

Find a lazy girl's job. I go to office at 10:30, go home at 5 - doing the bare minimum each day 

[Mellark]

I worked a job in the field that I graduated from a few months ago but the role I completed didn't allow me to grow and develop the skills I need within my career. In addition, the unprofessional environment, the office politics (meaning you have to kiss ass in order to grow in the company), and the lack of challenging efforts led to my termination. But I believe they were a poorly ran company and found out some of my colleagues got terminated or laid off months later. So it was the company not them.

 

The company should be able to have a budget to have people fill those roles, not simply put those roles into one person. If you have PTO, use it - It is your personal time and if they get defensive about it. it's time to plan to start looking.