<story><title>Ask HN: Burned Out. What Now?</title><text>I&amp;#x27;ve been feeling off in several ways for a long time now, months if not more, and finally got around to seeing some healthcare professionals. &amp;quot;Showing symptoms of severe occupational burnout&amp;quot; is what I&amp;#x27;m being told, and it rings true.&lt;p&gt;I know there are probably plenty of people on HN who have gone through the same. Reflecting back on your experiences, what are the sensible things to do next? Aside from continuing to listen to the aforementioned healthcare professionals, that is.&lt;p&gt;Some questions I&amp;#x27;m wondering about, specifically:&lt;p&gt;- Should I tell my boss and&amp;#x2F;or team? Should I tell them right away, or wait until I know what other steps I want to take? What should I expect their reactions to be?&lt;p&gt;- Should I take time off? How much? Or should I try to work reduced hours? I&amp;#x27;m hesitant because I don&amp;#x27;t have many hobbies (if any) and in the middle of the pandemic there isn&amp;#x27;t much to do anyway. I don&amp;#x27;t think running out of things to do would be any better for my health than continuing as-is. I&amp;#x27;ve been there before and I don&amp;#x27;t handle boredom well.&lt;p&gt;- If I continue working, is there something in my working environment I should try to change? Think of senior engineer in a typical DevOps-y SaaS startup.&lt;p&gt;- Is there anything specific to working in tech and burning out that I should know about? I feel like this isn&amp;#x27;t exactly rare.</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>ok_dad</author><text>&amp;gt; Should I tell my boss and&amp;#x2F;or team?&lt;p&gt;No, they will stab you in the back, no matter how much you think they won&amp;#x27;t.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Should I take time off? How much?&lt;p&gt;Yes, if possible several months or a year so you have time to get fully away from the grind.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Is there something in my working environment I should try to change?&lt;p&gt;Probably reduce the volume of work you are doing or do something that you care about more.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Is there anything specific to working in tech and burning out that I should know about?&lt;p&gt;Yes, it&amp;#x27;s a constant treadmill of work, and if you aren&amp;#x27;t ready to never finish a project (all projects I&amp;#x27;ve seen are in constant flux with constant changes) then get out now and find a career where you actually produce a finished product then move on to the next (like furniture building). The idea that software is a thing that is &amp;quot;complete&amp;quot; was a leftover from the 90&amp;#x27;s and the constant treadmill makes some people (myself included) go nuts.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>bastardoperator</author><text>I had an opposite experience. I went to my manager and described how I felt when I was feeling like OP early in the pandemic. I couldn&amp;#x27;t tell if it was anxiety, burnout or both.&lt;p&gt;He recommended an immediate two week vacation to clear my head and told me to plan my next vacation for two weeks 6 months out from my last vacation so that there was a constant light at the end of the tunnel. He was empathetic, and explained losing me would be costly and that he wants to avoid that. Had I not spoken up I would have ended up giving up a great job at a great company for what was mostly inside my own head.&lt;p&gt;I also went to my doctor and got anti-anxiety medication and that seemed to help. Now that I no longer had physical manifestations of my issues, and that fact that I was getting feedback that I was valued and that my health mattered, it really calmed me down.&lt;p&gt;If you have decent manager, they want to see you succeed, and they care about your well being. If they don&amp;#x27;t, bailing from the position is probably in your best interest anyways. Either way, it&amp;#x27;s an opportunity to see where you stand. Letting go will feel good in the short term, but maybe not so good long term. Doing nothing and hiding it will likely exacerbate the issue. I would say something, I at the very least deserve to be heard. What they do with the details is on them, not you.</text></comment>
<story><title>Ask HN: Burned Out. What Now?</title><text>I&amp;#x27;ve been feeling off in several ways for a long time now, months if not more, and finally got around to seeing some healthcare professionals. &amp;quot;Showing symptoms of severe occupational burnout&amp;quot; is what I&amp;#x27;m being told, and it rings true.&lt;p&gt;I know there are probably plenty of people on HN who have gone through the same. Reflecting back on your experiences, what are the sensible things to do next? Aside from continuing to listen to the aforementioned healthcare professionals, that is.&lt;p&gt;Some questions I&amp;#x27;m wondering about, specifically:&lt;p&gt;- Should I tell my boss and&amp;#x2F;or team? Should I tell them right away, or wait until I know what other steps I want to take? What should I expect their reactions to be?&lt;p&gt;- Should I take time off? How much? Or should I try to work reduced hours? I&amp;#x27;m hesitant because I don&amp;#x27;t have many hobbies (if any) and in the middle of the pandemic there isn&amp;#x27;t much to do anyway. I don&amp;#x27;t think running out of things to do would be any better for my health than continuing as-is. I&amp;#x27;ve been there before and I don&amp;#x27;t handle boredom well.&lt;p&gt;- If I continue working, is there something in my working environment I should try to change? Think of senior engineer in a typical DevOps-y SaaS startup.&lt;p&gt;- Is there anything specific to working in tech and burning out that I should know about? I feel like this isn&amp;#x27;t exactly rare.</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>ok_dad</author><text>&amp;gt; Should I tell my boss and&amp;#x2F;or team?&lt;p&gt;No, they will stab you in the back, no matter how much you think they won&amp;#x27;t.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Should I take time off? How much?&lt;p&gt;Yes, if possible several months or a year so you have time to get fully away from the grind.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Is there something in my working environment I should try to change?&lt;p&gt;Probably reduce the volume of work you are doing or do something that you care about more.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Is there anything specific to working in tech and burning out that I should know about?&lt;p&gt;Yes, it&amp;#x27;s a constant treadmill of work, and if you aren&amp;#x27;t ready to never finish a project (all projects I&amp;#x27;ve seen are in constant flux with constant changes) then get out now and find a career where you actually produce a finished product then move on to the next (like furniture building). The idea that software is a thing that is &amp;quot;complete&amp;quot; was a leftover from the 90&amp;#x27;s and the constant treadmill makes some people (myself included) go nuts.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>sulam</author><text>&amp;gt; No, they will stab you in the back, no matter how much you think they won&amp;#x27;t.&lt;p&gt;At the end of the day, the business has to do the right thing for the organization, even when that&amp;#x27;s not to the benefit of an individual in the organization.&lt;p&gt;That said, &amp;quot;the end of the day&amp;quot; is not the beginning. Yes, some people will behave the way you describe. It can be hard to be sure you can trust another human being who you know will be forced to fire you if you can&amp;#x27;t do the work they hired you to do, at least on a long enough time frame. But not everyone will &amp;quot;stab you in the back&amp;quot;, I can promise that.</text></comment>