<i>> The top 1 percent of the income distribution is composed largely of executives, financiers, consultants, lawyers, and specialist doctors who report extremely long work hours, sometimes more than seventy a week.</i><p>Be extremely skeptical of this claim by the super-rich of 70-hour work weeks. I can't find it now but a while back there was a graphic going around by an exec who charted out how he spends his work time. A huge proportion consisted of things like going to the gym and getting haircuts--activities that us common rabble have to call "time off."
I suspect many resignations due to burnout would be better attributed to the company's poor management, culture, lack of opportunities/compensation, etc.<p>not that I think burnout isn't real; I think the test is if the person can easily move on to their next thing or not
As with most things in mental health, personal experiences will vary dramatically.<p>I burned out almost 10 years ago now, and I'm still not sure what recovery/redemption looks like. I know I'm getting closer, but it's a long process, and every unexpected bump in the road slows me down a lot. My main direct insights have mostly been around letting go of ego while somehow still finding things I can reliably dig in and fight for. Redefinition of context is a primary theme.
After being burned out and reading a lot into it I think the main reason for a burnout is 'not accepting'.<p>Not accepting: you hate your job, you need a break, you need to recover from a disease, you hate your house, you need help, you need to stop cheating, your asking too much from your body, and so on.<p>This causes stress and when this goes on for too long your body burns out.<p>A lot of this comes from social pressure. You hate your job but you need it to pay the big house. You don't want to buy a smaller house because 'what will my family think of me when I do this'.
Or: I need to go to this client while I am sick because else I might loose them.<p>Anyway, for those who are feeling burned out I would say: step on the brakes because a burnout can really be dangerous and life threatening.
That was long winded, but it seems to agree with the ideas:
Since the pandemic, more perceived effort is needed to accomplish the same work which directly causes burnout (or whatever name you want to give it)
Companies need to think about what employees do in a day to identify grind (tedious, annoying, useless work) and automate or eliminate it. (a little goes a long way)
I've long suspected that my work ethics shield me from getting a burn-out. These ethics are:<p>- work is a way, a tool, a means to an end:to make money. If work becomes more (a way to meet people, a way to have a higher status, a way to fill time) then it should be culled, cut off, put back in its proper corner.<p>- work should not be enjoyed too much. Lest you come into temptation to do more of it than necessary.<p>- work should also not be too boring. A little challenge now and again is fine.<p>- Do not take shit from colleagues. Talk to them about their behavior. No change? Talk to the manager. Still no change? Transfer or quit this job.<p>- Do not take shit from managers or your boss. Be open about this and direct: the buck stops here. Period.<p>- It helps to have F-you money. I suggest 2-3 years salary is a nice stash.<p>- work should not be done too much (working 2 to 4 days per week seems ideal. I've worked for 3 days a week for years and can highly recommend it).<p>- work should be done diligently (you should do the required tasks, and recommend improvements). Any time your suggestions for improvements are sworded down, you should NOT worry. After all, you only work for money, not for your ego.<p>- work should be done honestly (no lying, stealing or cheating).<p>- You do not work overtime, not even when paid, unless there is an emergency. If there are more than 1 emergencies per year, then the company's definition of an emergency is wrong. Look for a less toxic company.<p>- You do not do any unpaid overtime. Work is for money. No money means no working. It's really that simple. But would you really want to abandon your colleagues/coworkers? No, but it's the task of the shareholders or company owners to chip in, not yours.<p>- When fired, give yourself a year sabbatical.<p>- In case of being fired, do not take it personally. Were you really under-performing, or was your new manager just not able to appreciate your work? Hint: he was too short-sighted to see your work's true value. But what if he was right? Maybe you do suck at this. It is better to think about such soul-searching things after the sabbatical. When you still agree: look for a whole new kind of work. A different position with fresh perspectives.
a friend of mine is a productivity researcher at a notable tech company. She studies all sorts of signals like hours worked , number of meetings , output artifacts like landed commits and docs created etc . overall productivity increased with lockdown , but work efficiency actually went down. basically people worked longer hours and had more meetings, but the output per unit of time went down .<p>burnout is real
Main point:
> "Americans have powerful fantasies about what work can provide: happiness, esteem, identity, community. The reality is much shoddier. Across many sectors of the economy, labor conditions have only worsened since the 1970s. As our economy grows steadily more unequal and unforgiving, many of us have doubled down on our fantasies, hoping that in ceaseless toil, we will find whatever it is we are looking for, become whoever we yearn to become. This, Malesic says, is a false promise."<p>It's the same kind of problem communist economies struggled with: why should a worker put out any significant effort at all if the results of their labor are being appropriated by someone else? You can work twice as hard, make a major contribution, but you get no reward - the rewards all go to some form of ruling class, be it the head honchos of the Central Committee (Soviet Union) or some small group of founders and their VC investors (Silicon Valley).<p>I suppose the alternative - living homeless in poverty without any access to medical or dental care - is the stick used to keep the no-contract wage-rate workers in line in the USA, while in the Soviet Union, the threat of deportation to the Siberian gulag served that purpose.<p>The solution is fairly obvious, create a system that rewards people fairly for their contributions. This of course means much less profits flowing to founders and investors, right, hence the organized political resistance to anything like that.
Burnout is your body trying to save itself because your conscious brain is killing it.<p>The solution is not to rest <i>and then</i> resume consuming toxins but to eliminate the toxicity.<p>In order to do that, you must identify what is killing you.
Burnout has become a buzzword that can mean basically anything that excuses poor performance. Like most buzzwords, and excuses for that matter, it's not very interesting to talk about.<p>However, there is such a thing as real physiological burnout, and it is very very nasty. It is not a "mental health condition," but rather a metabolic disorder that can be objectively physiologically diagnosed with the correct equipment. The brain is just another organ, and like every organ in the body it does its best to maintain homeostasis. Thinking, especially deep rigorous logical thinking, is highly metabolically stressful, as can be seen by how it burns thousands of extra calories[1]. The brain is a remarkable organ, but like any organ it can be stressed beyond its ability to adapt[2][3][4]. Spending too much time in exhaustion impairs the body's ability to restore homeostasis and adapt to similar stresses in the future. Continuing in that state for long periods can cause cumulative damage.<p>In short, real mental burnout is akin to real physical overtraining, which incidentally is another term that has become a buzzword. There can be mental health consequences from both burnout and overtraining though. An athlete or a programmer can both become depressed from no longer being able to perform at the level they are accustomed to, among other possibilities. For example, was Bobby Fischer's mental instability later in life an example of the possible mental health effects of physiological burnout? Who knows, but it sounds plausible at least.<p>[1] <a href="https://www.espn.com/espn/story/_/id/27593253/why-grandmasters-magnus-carlsen-fabiano-caruana-lose-weight-playing-chess" rel="nofollow">https://www.espn.com/espn/story/_/id/27593253/why-grandmaste...</a><p>[2] <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2038162/" rel="nofollow">https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2038162/</a><p>[3] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stress_(biology)#General_adaptation_syndrome" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stress_(biology)#General_adapt...</a><p>[4] The top search results are absolute pop-sci garbage, read the above paper or the wiki summary.
Civilization is a recent concept especially in light of evolution. Is it really surprising that people suffer so much stress and anguish trying to live in this civilized manner, whose rules are just whatever bullshit constructs we put on ourselves of the age? Maybe we are so stressed out because we evolved to be out foraging during daylight hours, and instead we toil in caves with drop ceilings and put all kinds of strange expectations on ourselves.
"Introvert" seems to be another. The number of outgoing co-workers I meet who describe themselves as introverts has been increasing in the past few years.
People don't want to face the facts, that we have to make up for lost productivity.<p>nobody wants to be productive, because of the new wave of entitlement.<p>this is both objectively and subjectively true.<p>everyone wants the checks, nobody wants to run at 130% capacity afterwards to help pay those checks off.<p>this point is refuted by the "da globalist cabal stole the productivity", but the math shows otherwise.<p>the pandemic created debts that the average person must repay.