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Has anyone managed to recover from а serious burnout without taking a sabbatical? How? (kbin.social)

submitted 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) by Oteron@kbin.social to c/AskKbin@kbin.social

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I've noticed (with the help of family members and my SO) that I've become very negative, cynical and drained lately. Reading about burnout, I find all of the symptoms to be true for myself.

My job requires me to work on a single project full-time, and a couple of small side-projects. The management of the project is very chaotic and I feel more and more inadequate for my position. Priorities constantly change and just looking at the week's schedule in Monday, I can tell the we're not going meet the set goal by Friday. It has been like that for more than a year. It doesn't help that I've become very pessimistic about the main project's future.

Outside of work, I don't have much free time. The little I have, I try to spend with my loved ones. Hobbies and other interests are on the back burner.

As the title implies, I don't have the option of quitting or taking a sabbatical at the moment.

I know kbin is not a replacement for therapy but I was just wondering if anyone has been through this and found anything helpful other that distancing from their current workplace.

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[–] effingjoe@kbin.social 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

I am not qualified (through education or experience) to give you advice on the issue, but you might have better luck from someone that is, if you add more context about the situation. Like, are you burned out because you're always stressed out, or you're siloed into one project, or you work too many hours, etc.

Any advice to mitigate the situation will need to be tailored to the specifics of the situation.

Oh, and don't necessarily respond with the context in a reply to me; edit the thread itself.

Good luck finding your balance.

Edit: I upvoted and boosted to help get more eyes on your question.

[–] JoeKrogan@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

Can you increase your estimates for the work to give yourself some breathing space or ask to be transferred to another project or perhaps you can get an extra person to take some of the load to free you up ?

[–] Oteron@kbin.social 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

You pinpointed all the pain points at my workplace. We are a startup, understaffed, in my opinion, and long estimates are frowned upon. Our main project is what we were hired for, so transferring is also not an option.

Thanks for chiming in!

[–] dumples@kbin.social 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

This may seem simple and kind of dumb but you will need to start caring less about certain things at work. It is a form of therapeutic reframing where you understand that you cannot change external forces but only your own actions and view of things. You don't have control of this projects and this is stressing and burning you out.

Just understand that nothing you ca do will change the projects final results and whether it succeeds or fails it won't really affect you. Business thrive people naturally care about things which they use to guilt people into working longer and harder hours since they feel connected to it. The fact is that with the current leadership on this project it cannot succeed and you are just there when you are there. Your time is sacred and honor it.

[–] Oteron@kbin.social 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Thank you for the advice!

Caring less might certainly help. It just feels wrong to me to take the paycheck and not put my heart into the work. Maybe some kind of a balance could be found.

[–] numbscroll@kbin.social 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I have so many thoughts! I think your experience is very relatable, I bet many people reading this are thinking “wait does this person work on my team or for my company?”.

If you have a trusted friend or a therapist you can talk with I think that’d be helpful to sort out how burnt out you are and how much longer you can sustain this. But even just based on your original comments alone, it really seems like a change up would be helpful. If you have friends or even friends of friends in a similar field but different company, ask around about work culture and try to find an organization that does things differently. I do think work stress management techniques are useful no matter what kind of role / company you work for, but still…. Seems like it’s time for you to get away from your current situation. Best of luck to you and I truly hope you land yourself in a better spot!

[–] Oteron@kbin.social 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Yeah, that's sound advice! Thank you very much!