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Ask HN: Do you get lazy during burnout?

by bosch_mind on 2/22/24, 11:56 PM with 19 comments

• by philosopher1234 on 2/23/24, 6:48 AM

  IMO burnout has complicated emotional sources. You can experiment with working less transferring teams or what have you but those are really bandaid solutions. What you really ought to do is get into therapy with someone good and try to understand the emotional causes of your burnout. Once you understand them, it may become much more clear what you could do to improve.

• by pg_1234 on 2/23/24, 3:19 PM

  What you're describing is not laziness.

  Burnout reduces your maximum productivity.

  Working to the full extent of this reduced capacity, even if it is a reduced output compared to your ideal capacity, is not laziness.

  You are in fact working at 100% capacity ... which is hardly lazy.

  Calling this laziness is just playing into the bullshit corporate power games that drive people to health failure.

• by Johnkehster on 2/26/24, 1:17 PM

  Burnout is, truth be told, a dead-end... You studied, dreamed of working on projects, wanted to gain experience, create something of your own, become independent, and earn income from your brainchild - be it a game, utility, program, or something else. However, in the end, you realized that years were passing by, and the project to become your own boss didn't materialize. The fear of losing your job instills panic, as your brain at a cognitive level calculates that you've literally spent too much of your own time on learning and working for someone else. You've sold a considerable amount of your time to others for a coin, and now you find yourself at an impasse. Yes, this is life at 40+. Even if you become an encyclopedia, your time becomes cheap because the time of young, ambitious people is considered precious. It's like being charged printer cartridges while you're already an old printer barely printing. So burnout is the result of selling so much time that doing something for yourself to take a break and generate income, becoming your own boss, has slipped away. You didn't become a genius because you exchanged everything possible for money, and there needed to be a balance. Thirty percent of the income from your sold time should have been saved for your own time to work on your projects instead of squandering it!

• by tacostakohashi on 2/24/24, 3:01 PM

  I haven't really found swapping teams or companies to be particularly effective. Within a company, often every team has the same basic tools, workflows, and problems that come from the top.

  I guess you need to really analyze what isn't working for you, and then try to fix that. In my case, I still like the programming/problem solving aspect, but I have no interest in scrum calls, sprint planning, elaborate frameworks and build pipelines, and all the other pervasive meta-work.

  I think my burnout will persist until I can get away from that, possibly my changing career tracks altogether.

• by gorfot on 2/23/24, 11:25 AM

  Laziness Implies not having a 'valid' reason to do some work. I think of being burned out as being 'drained' by cognitive / emotional load to the extend that your (hormonal, emotional, cognitive etc) system is continously out of whack; which in turn affects your ability to work.

  Discomfort, disinterest, boredom etc play into this of course.

  That said, why not change things up if you feel so bad? make sure to include other measures to help your mindstate (exercise, vit d, therapy, social life etc). Don't see it as a single problem and one-time fix though. Wether you are burnt out or not, it's worth doing what you can in selfcare.

• by swman on 2/23/24, 8:30 AM

  No. If I’m burned out I go until I’m turned into ash.

  I spent the last 30 hours getting something to work. I took a couple of walks, cooked some food, but kept going back to the problem.

  Now that I fixed the issue I’m feeling down because tomorrow I’m going to jump back into the fire to take on the next problems.

  I have no other choice. I love it. But this is how it is.

• by pawelduda on 2/23/24, 12:39 AM

  Swapping teams or changing job is always better idea than trying to push through the burnout if you don't see it change anytime soon. Also, anything above 8h on a regular basis is a bit too much and it works until it doesn't.

• by toomuchtodo on 2/24/24, 4:26 PM

  You can suffer from depression and procrastinate. Procrastination is an emotional response.

  Was solved for me by getting fired, but I lucked out and my career improved significantly because of that event. Hope you find a path forward, you will survive.

• by sujayk_33 on 2/23/24, 12:59 PM

  I think that achieving small victories is the best way to overcome this burnout period. Until you get that "Yeah, I did it" moment. It'll just keep dragging.

  Cut off from your work, don't even think about it, and start again.

• by dirtybirdnj on 2/23/24, 1:24 PM

  You have internalized the disrespect of management in that "laziness" is bad.

  When you get injured, you have to rest to recover. Burnout is kinda like that but there's no blood, scabs or physical pain you can identify.

  Either find a way to re-adjust your workload, or find a new team that treats you with dignity and respect. As someone who is 4+ years into a burnout / recovery journey I can assure you that you will NEVER feel better in an environment that is hostile.

  People are not honest about their negative behavior and if you try to confront abusers they will gaslight you into thinking you are the problem. If you are beaten down enough you will not be able to fight back against this even if you are smart enough to outwit them.

  Watch peoples actions, try not to let their words distract you.

  You are not lazy your heart and soul have been injured. Be compassionate to yourself or you will never heal.

• by MatthiasPortzel on 2/23/24, 12:07 AM

  Have you tried working no more than 8 hours a day?

• by giantg2 on 2/23/24, 12:56 AM

  Swapping teams can sometimes help for a little bit. But within a couple months it's back to the same burnout for me.

• by cpach on 2/25/24, 10:59 AM

  How do you define laziness?

• by lulznews on 2/23/24, 5:47 AM

  Yes that’s a key sign of burn out.