Can't tell if genuinely overworked/tired, unmotivated or inefficient with my time
So relatable. Are you me?
I'm sure different people think of it differently, but I would say "burnout" is the feeling that starts to fade in when you're exposed to high stress situations at a higher frequency than you're used to coping with, and the frequency stays high for long enough that you actually start to lose hope that you'll be able to make it go away in your current role. It essentially makes you prone to not care about things you otherwise would, like responding to pages quickly or participating in team meetings. You mentally "check out".
And yeah I feel like there's overlap with how people get when they're in a slump or depressed, but maybe it's more like apathy towards work rather than sadness.
Spot on with how I feel. Finding I can't really enjoy life outside of work without feeling some sort of guilt/frustration related to a work issue.
Sometimes it happens after your burned. It effects you mentally
Do you constantly worry about staying afloat? Do deadlines override your personal life? Are you afraid of having a sick day because you won’t be able to recover? That’s burnout.
First two points yes. Third point, more so taking more WFH days to cope with stress alone and focus more. Tend to WFH sometimes to avoid faking small talk/making it seem like everything is okay..
If you find yourself doing busywork like answering emails, searching and reading stuff on the web not related to your immediate work, I would say you are probably inefficient. If you are steadily doing work and more and more gets piled on, then you are going to feel burned out.
First scenario sounds like a coworker or two of mine. Very frustrating to be surrounded by and not sure how to address as one of them is senior to me. Second scenario valid - feel there's been a lot of context switching for the most part on work that's being a bit difficult to manage at times as well as picking up extra slack/re-doing work co-workers have neglected to follow through correctly on.
That feeling of unfairness can be hard to shake off. You can either leave and try find a better environment or make adjustments to make things more equitable - say by communicating in as tactful a way as possible that your workload is too high or to give you time to focus and finish one project at a time
Question: so do you tell your manager this? Or just take some time off? Seek therapy? Take a sabbatical? What are some things have y’all done that helped?
Being early in my career, seems like I just want to tough it through.. but it helps ensuring I have time planned aside for vacation. Therapy seems to be my boyfriend as finding a good therapist is like a needle in a haystack.
If you can tell your manager is supportive of you definitely have a chat if you're stressed about work. I was burned out for a while emotionally about work, vacation didn't help (why would it if the problem is still there) but chatting with my manager did.
That sounds like depression