I - You aren't excited about work anymore
If you aren't happy about working, either your job sucks or you're burning out. In both cases you need to act on it.
II - Your social life is dipping
You haven't seen your friends in a while.
III - You're making more mistakes at work
Would you have introduced this bug if you were at the top of your game?
IV - You feel "Lazy" about shipping high-quality code
It's working. It does the job. Who cares if it's not perfect? (the technical debt, that's who).
V - You think the situation will be better when X will be gone
"I just need to finish this project then it will all be better" - you probably need some rest, then it will actually be all better.
VI - You feel like crap in the evenings
Work isn't supposed to make your life worse, it's supposed to make your life better.
VII - You have "very good reasons" to not take any time off
That's also a red flag. If for any reason you can't afford to take some time off, you probably overworked yourself already. And you almost always can actually take some time off, and definitely should.
VIII - Your life hygiene has been deteriorating
Been skipping leg day at the gym recently? Started smoking again? Been drinking a bit more than usual? Have your sleep been worse lately? Are your back pains back? Think deeply about what you're doing to yourself.
IX - You can't immediately tell when you took your last vacations
If it's so far behind you that you don't remember the last time you took them, then it's time for new vacations.
X - You think about work when you're not working
Not just a little bit, and not in an excited, positive way.
XI - You feel bad on Sunday evenings
Good old Sunday evening blues. Anybody with a crappy job, or who's burning out, will know about them.
XII - If you're honest with yourself, you just know it
We Humans are terrifyingly good at lying to ourselves, but deep down we often know the truth and how we should act on it.
If this list rings a bell or several, please take some time to reflect on it.
Ask your significant other(s), your friends and family for their opinions. They aren't driving the car, which means they're in a better position to see the landscape.
Take care of yourself first. What's better for you is also better for your job.
Top comments (9)
The One Missing Thing
Please go to a doctor.
Forget about all that social crap how it's bad to have weaknesses
About it's good to suffer and make people around you suffer.
Preventing that shit early is much better than going to the absolute hell afterwards
I've totally been down that road where the burnout signs were all flashing red for me. It was rough. Last year, I hit a point where every item on that list was like a checkmark next to my life. So, I decided to take a serious break, just step away from all things work and dive into stuff that made me happy. Funny enough, during this time, I found that smoking was one of those things that really helped me chill out and avoid burnout. Came across red-vape.ch/ during my downtime and it kinda opened up a new way of relaxing for me.
Oh, its very usefull article, thank you!
It's IX, not IV :0
...but you know lol
woops
Did you ever experience one or more of these signs & what did you do about it? Share your experiences in the comments.
That's a good list.
Here is the scientific definition and how it looks like when it gets real bad.
Don't wait.
right now i experiencing point 1 and 2. i don't really had any "friends" in work. so that makes me a little bit lonely and impacting my work.
That Sunday evening feeling...and the hopelessness that next Monday is going to be exactly the same :(