I'm at the two year anniversary of the time that I was so burned out that I basically had to abruptly quit, and just the anniversary of that trauma feels stressful
I want to believe that I'm much better able to deal with burnout in tech work now, particularly since reading _Burnout_ by the Nagowskis, because not understanding burnout and not properly appreciating the stress I'd been under was a large contributor to all of my past adult experiences with burnout
But, I'm not really sure
If you've been doing tech work (or similar) for a long time: What have you felt helped you prevent/mitigate burnout?
(And if you're newer to this work, do read https://www.burnoutbook.net/ It's wonderful)
@recursive for me it was the advice from my therapist to "find things to care about that will care about me back". It's been a long road internalizing that work (especially tech) will never be a safe space for me. Putting the energy I would have put towards trying to meet impossible goals of men who will never respect me into more resonate things has helped my relationship to my job a lot. Harder to burn out if the candle burns for someone else
@liz you go, cat girl!
@recursive I make sure to schedule a 4-day weekend each month, and a full week off every quarter. (I usually add time off around statutory holidays.)
And I usually pre-plan the entire year's vacation in January or even the previous December, so no one can plan a "critical" meeting in my me-time.
Prevention is so much easier than recovery here, as I'm guessing you know!
@recursive I went down to working 4 days a week and I have a much better boss now, both of which are helpful
@recursive remote work, having colleagues mostly from southern Europe and simple kanban (no sprints)
I'm still on the edge from time to time but it's not the same as when I was working with Danes.
Nothing against Danes but they make the German punctuality feel like propaganda. It's good to have predictable systems but not many managers know enough about agile and people.
I think my main points are the same as others have already made.
A lot of reflection on what makes up my sense of identity, so I could divide my energy between the things that are most important to me and not put all of it into work; how to notice when my batteries are running low so that I can see early signs and quickly change or reduce what I'm doing before I get ill; and how my batteries get recharged, including different kinds of active rest.
None of these answers have been obvious, and then I have also needed to be brave enough to actually follow through. I think I have lost out on traditional ideas of success because I've chosen to prioritise my wellbeing, and I've also felt like I'm being awkward or like I'm the odd one out, which has social costs.
It's tough but it's so worth it! I wouldn't want any other kind of life.
@emma_cogdev My mind is extremely resistant to this approach, which probably means I need to spend a lot more time thinking about it :)
There's certainly a degree that I've structured my identity around things that I'm good at
Hm, yes the resistance is often a clue! Hope it's not too uncomfortable.
@recursive For me, it feels like the danger generally comes from working for too long without seeing any positive feedback. Changing things up helps, particularly doing quick bug fixes as a break from my long term projects that won't pay out for a while.
I think having that as my main concern is a sign that my workplace is really good, in other ways. I work a sustainable number of hours, with few arbitrary barriers, on things I really do care about.
@recursive Maybe I'm weird but I take off Thursdays and work Saturdays. 2 days is more of a break than I know how to use effectively, and 5 days is more than I feel good working in a row.