I’ve published thoughts on burnout that are scattered across the internet, and so I thought it would be nice to connect everything together in one hub post.
This video is my most recent post, and has my most up-to-date broad thoughts on burnout.
Topics include:
A lot of my core thoughts on burnout I wrote down in this twitter thread from 2022, after watching this fantastic Dr. K vid. I highly recommend the video, though I’ll summarize my notes below too.
Common ways for burnout to show itself are:
A lack of ENERGY, while you’re still performing OK at work.
A lack of EMPATHY, including self-empathy. e.g. minimizing your feelings, cynicism
A lack of ENJOYMENT or fulfillment in your job. On paper things look great, but but in reality it feels bleh.
Burnout lives in the gap between [what you want] and [what you are getting], with environmental factors as well as internal emotional factors at play, across 6 areas:
1. Fairness
Does your workplace have a culture of fairness? How’s the politics, nepotism, etc.?
Are things happening to you that are unfair?
Also, what is your perception of fairness, and how accurate is that? e.g. narcissists or pushovers have skewed perception here
2. Values
Why does your company want you there? What value do you provide, what duties do you have?
How do you feel about meetings or admin stuff?
Why do you want to be there? What work do you want to do? Are you challenged, valued?
3. Workload
Does your company have a culture of overworking?
How much are you willing to work?
Do you have emotional drivers that lead you to work a lot? e.g. wanting to be the best, not wanting to say no
4. Control
Is your boss micromanaging?
Are you a control freak?
(Bonus: consider that your boss may also be burnt out – how would this change things?)
5. Reward
How does your company compensate you? How does your boss acknowledge/reward a job well done?
What kind of compensation are you looking for (including emotionally!) ?
E.g. you want a bigger number – but is it actually because you want to be making more than the guy next to you?
6. Community
Isolation leads to burnout.
How social is your team and company? How easy/hard is it to organize activities?
How’s your social anxiety? Do you prefer to be on your own / avoid events?
Do you compare yourself to others?
Tactical stuff
What can you do to mitigate burnout?
Once you become too burnt out though, the only option becomes Rest.
(And if you don’t schedule rest, it will be scheduled for you, by your body, often as illness.)
Here’s me going through it, in chronological order, and coming out the other side too.