I joined one year into the business and have been there for the last three years. I took on a lot of responsibility early on because I was excited and I learned a lot. I worked on tasks that had a direct impact on revenue.
Now I'm feeling burnt out and question whether I started on this path too early. I had really high expectations of myself and now I am wrestling with this feeling of guilt that I can't get motivated like I used to. I've tried doing the things with tech I love -- like working on my website -- but lose energy quickly.
I know I'm early in my career but I feel tired and unmotivated at work. Work seems like a never-ending treadmill of tasks, many of which are more bureaucratic now and don't interest me. What should I do?
Update: One thing that's worth noting is my job has changed in this time to something that doesn't interest me as much. The company has grown to 200+ people and I'm struggling to see how my skills apply to my role since my first role is now no longer relevant to our core business.
2. Take some time off.
3. Realize that your personal identity and value has nothing to do with your job. Outside of a small world of co-workers, no one in the world cares about your job or your promotion or if you delivered your project on time. You almost certainly think about your job performance 10x more than your bosses do. They are probably just shocked/glad you are still there giving them a good return on their investment into your wages. Your value as a human is not related to how fast you close tickets.
4. A company that grows a lot will change significantly. Big companies are fundamentally different beasts that require different skills for success than small companies. At a small company, you are praised for getting things done as fast as possible. At a big company, you are praised for your ability to herd cats to get small things done that other people need. If you don't enjoy the latter, find a different job at a smaller company (or start your own, or do something else entirely).
In other words:
Working for someone else's company is indeed a never-ending treadmill of tasks. Eventually you will get burnt out doing it, which is what this sounds like. So take a little time off and then make a change!
The difference is that you now have 3 years of solid experience at a fast-growing company. It will probably be much easier for you to get your next job based on that and you will probably make more money doing it.
Your free time activities shouldn’t be similar to your work time activities. That’s a recipe for burnout. Get away from the computer! Go outside, go to the gym, go to a social event. If you sit in front of screens all day for work and then sit in front of screens all evening after work, you’re going to feel unmotivated and burned out. You must get out and do different things. More than you’re already doing.
Second: Learn to pace yourself. It’s not realistic to expect to be motivated by every task forever the same way you were at first when it was new and exciting. The tough truth is that you need to learn how to structure your days as work, which often means doing things that are uninteresting or not naturally motivating. You shouldn’t be doing these tasks for 12 hours per day and crushing the backlog at a rapid rate all the time, but you must learn how to sit down, work for 30-60 minutes on your top priority task, get up and take a 10-30 minute break, and then repeat.
Forget the guilt for not doing everything as fast as possible. Learn how to sit down and work for at least 4 hours per day whether the tasks are interesting or not, then learn how to turn it off and go do the (non-computer) things you like.
It’s not about the work or inherently motivating tasks. It’s about contributing, working with your team, and getting a reasonable amount of work done.
Also, you mention not having motivation to work on personal tech projects, and I can relate to that. I don't have a good answer except that you don't have to do any of those projects now, and it's probably better for you to find a non-tech related hobby like cooking. You'll use a different part of your brain, while also creating something and solving the occasional problem.
Also, and I say this to most people who are struggling with work, but therapy is a great outlet to help you explore the pressures of work and strategies to deal with them. When I worked at a start-up, half the reason I was in therapy was to have a neutral outlet for venting my work frustrations that wasn't my significant other. It's not for everyone, but I highly recommend giving it a shot, especially if you have insurance since there's no real downsize except for the hour or so the session takes (especially now that a lot of therapists are doing virtual visits).
2. Stress less. Recognize that professional athletes train for at most 3-4 hours a day. You are a professional athlete now where your brain is your most potent muscle. Find time and hobbies to enjoy life and hopefully away from screens.
3. Move more. Exercise not only keeps us strong, it helps us sleep better and stress less physiologically. Find activities you enjoy and better if away from screens.
4. Eat better. Start thinking of your brain as part of your body, fuel it with food, not processed garbage.
If after one month of #1-4 you still feel awful, start your job search. Even if you live to work, versus work to live, a job should help you grow professionally. Seek out mentors and work to change what you do, after you have a stable base of who you are.
1) Do you practice a sport regularly?
If you don't, that's almost certainly taking a huge toll on your mental health. Start practicing and check again in a month.
2) Are you sleeping properly?
You need from 7-9 hours of good sleep every night.
Turn off screens at 8 PM.
Go to bed early, you need to be asleep by 10 PM at most.
Avoid junk food, sugar, etc especially hours before going to bed.
Here are my thoughts
1) Burnout is not a workload problem, it is related to your subjective perception of the meaning behind that workload
2) Ultimately, the 'meaning' you attribute is related to your desired identity
3) The company where you work may change, but you may also change
4) You have to find and negotiate a role related to your long term desired core identity
Good luck!
I think a lot of people go to college too early to really benefit from it and it is an awesome experience if you can approach it from more than just a credential gatekeeping you from your chosen career.
But even now, 6 years later. I still have days/weeks where im not motivated at all. And i have had periods where i worked 18 hours a day with full joy. I cant really put my finger on it. I dont know what causes this. I havent really looked into it tbh. Even though i should, because when im lazy, i feel really bad about it.
I recently had this problem again, im looking into it now. Im experimenting with quitting caffeine. quitting endless internet content. Maybe exercise. I dont think its food related. Anyway, it's to soon for me to tell, i wish i had tried to fix this earlier, so i could give u an answer.
Thank you for making this post, curious what others will say.
You have to start making waves and get the job you want, the life you want. I'm not saying that you will get it, I'm saying that the journey itself, the discoveries you make will worth it.
I am one of those people. I always struggled at 100 person, 200 person companies. Fights with C-levels, struggles with HR, breaking through silos to make things happen.
You can't make things happen at a 200 person company like you can at a 5 person company. You can't have the conversations. You can't pivot on a dime.
I've embraced who I am and what I'm good at, and it's increased my happiness to a huge degree.
Two things to do, not necessarily in that order: 1. Take a break from work and hobby software projects. Distance yourself a bit from all of it - tech world is not going anywhere. 2. Find another project/company that does what interests you. It will do wonders for your motivation.
I went through it - got stuck in some shitty company on a legacy project, just because of the money. I died inside slowly every day. Took two months off and went on, now I am working with new tech and love it again.
My problem with outright suggesting that for you is that it sounds like this company has been treating you well. It's just the nature of startups to become what feels like busy work after launch (or even before).
That said, I've never experienced management shifting gears just to satisfy engineers. I think in some circumstances it might make sense to, for example, promote the main engineers and hire contractors to do the busy work. But it's just not realistic. Business processes need to evolve and roadmaps need to be maintained, especially if there's a board of investors involved.
I wish we could do projects where we build the product, launch it, then just sit back and make money. It'd be heaven to my ears. Unfortunately, we instead decide to tweak things endlessly and add features which often don't need to be there. But often they simply do need to be there if the business wants to scale.
In any case, I wouldn't worry about it: your lack of motivation is most likely temporally locked and heavily dependent on your current work.
> What should I do?
Go to college, full-time, while you are still young. As you get older, it will be increasingly difficult to have a tech career without a degree.
You are in a place in your life where you're still on the same wavelength as the typical college student. Also, now that you have career experience, college will be significantly easier than someone who went because it's "what you do after high school." If you go back to college when you're in your late 20s, or older, you may find that spending your days with people a decade younger is frustrating.
Hopefully you don't have a large car payment or mortgage, so it's easy to enter college without strings. Thankfully, you can probably sell anything you bought on credit for more than you owe.
Edit: One thing to add. There is clearly an education bubble and many people young people are spending far too much money on an education that will never pay for itself. You are not one of those people; you've clearly proven that you will benefit immensely from a degree; and that you will have no problem paying back any loans you take out. If you want to keep your costs reasonable, favor looking at good public schools, like UMass Amherst.
1. Become really good at your job. Be able to finish a task in less time than what is expected. Take the remaining time to relax and reduce stress. Don't engage in "bull**" tasks that are meant to make people seem productive. If you reliably deliver value in the important tasks nobody will mind. Find a niche in your team or company that makes you in particular valuable. For me that's writing code in a niche language where few people have experience and being able to teach others, ie. train colleagues in programming. Reduce your working hours if possible (4 days max of 9-5 per week).
2. Do some work on your mental attitude. Feeling guilty is a self-destructive path. Read [1]. If you're struggling with anxiety, I recommend meditation and breathing exercises (eg. [2], watch the video on safety before trying it). Get at LEAST some physical exercise (even just walking outside). Spend more time in the sun whenever possible.
3. Do stuff that makes you feel like a winner. Beat a difficult video game, set yourself a goal to lift x KG in an exercise of your choice or challenge yourself to do something you know you should be doing but makes you nervous. Find motivation outside of work. For me that's working on game development projects. Try to be persistent and get some work done before the workday starts.
[1] https://newsletter.butwhatfor.com/p/takeaway-tuesday-facing-...
This is the type of situation that fosters burnout. The conditions were already there ("work is a never-ending treadmill of tasks which don't interest me") and you don't see how the things that intrinsically interest you align with the business anymore, so your brain says, "I just can't."
In your shoes, I would:
* ask around about lateral moves to something more interesting within the same company, or even a downward move. If they balk that your pay needs to decrease, then you can either accept it, or negotiate a shorter workweek.
* simultaneously: start a low-key job hunt to avoid the feeling of being stuck calcifying further.
If things are really bad, consider cutting your hours, doing less within your hours (and using the extra time to take care of yourself), or taking a sabbatical if you have the means.
There are plenty on tech forums who will use their undying devotion to creating new websites and programs to be some sort of weird cultish flex, but the vast majority who are just going through their lives are stepping away from the keyboard when the work day is over.
And all you have to do, if you want to do other things, is to pay no attention to that cult. If they require access to your github as part of a job interview, then just don't take that job.
Indeed, time off or time out is a reasonable way to try restore your energy levels and shift your attention. I hope your boss is observant and rational to offer this to you.
Meanwhile, I'd try to review some of your past successful accomplishments, those that consumed your sweat and efforts. Often we underestimate our successes. It maybe a morale booster for you too.
Also, helping others may be another way to reset your perceptions. Given your experience, you may try to ask if you could mentor someone or onboarding. In a way, it's a step in the leadership direction.
Either…
1) You’re going to be rewarded with higher compensation and because of it you determine to stick with the company long term, build up a very stable savings/investment and focus a lot more on your life outside of work for your personal fulfillment. As a side effect, you may find ways to get interested in new challenges at the current job (like organization efficiency).
2) You change jobs for higher pay and focus on a new problem that gets your interest.
I also went into tech out of high school and burned out after a few years. I wrote a post about it on here and got some really good feedback. There may be some tidbits in there that also apply to you.
Ultimately taking a few months off and traveling/hanging out with family worked wonders. Happy to talk more about it with you. samheutmaker at gmail
One thing to note maybe: you will not change the world from your country in a software job, you will not replace experience with self awareness and you will not act upon others unless you have the ability to act for them.
Leave, evolve, stay humble.
Take a month off.
Speak to your manager about your career growth and what you want to do.
If you're feeling less useful, consider going back to school. Either part-time, or full-time if you can swing the finances.
It said that you can see burnout as a long-term fail in the strain--rest equation, much like obesity is a fail in calories in--out.
Sometimes, it's hard to change the strain part, since strain may be something that cannot be changed by you (eg worry about family or society), or it is a sum of infinite tiny things that are individually insignificant even if you got rid of a couple. In that case you need to change the rest part.
Rest, as expressed in that book, is not necessarily being passive, ie lying on the sofa watching TV. It can be, but often, it's rather the opposite - it's stopping you from _real_ rest.
Rest can be seen as a change in what you do, on a mini-scale. Ie, it's not "change job and move to another country", but it can be to not do the same thing for too long.
Example: you work on the phone, talking with people as support or whatever. Rest in that case is not to put down the phone and chat with friends. Rest would be to change the mental occupation, eg meditating, sorting papers, doing something admin-y. For some, offloading to friends after a days work is a rest, for others, that's a strain. You need to introspect here.
A couple of things anyone can do that will help a great deal:
* Go to sleep in time to get a full nights sleep, for most ca 8h
* no drugs or alcohol, since that'll impair high quality sleep
* use a pomodoro clock or kitchen timer to remind you to take breaks every 30 minutes or so of work
* remove all time-sucking apps from your phone, eg facebook, youtube. No excuses, you don't need them. For eg browser on phone, use eg "Digital wellbeing" (android) to limit yourself.
* install Leechblock on your browsers, which, again, blocks timesuckers
* exercise! Getting your pulse up often is more important than that weekly 2h weightlifting thing. Ie, do burpies a few times a day. Use the stairs. Take walks.
* periodically (eg every 15-30 minutes) close your eyes and breathe deep and relax. A fitbit can help with this reminder.
Note that excessive procrastination or compulsive timespending on eg youtube or facebook etc, can be a sign of mental exhaustion and you try to stimulate yourself to be more awake, like a dead tired child that is just all over the place. You need to make such things harder to do (remove apps etc) and good things easier to do (eg breaks).
Related: if someone knows of something like Leechblock but for Android and apps, that would be awesome. The Google "Digital wellbeing" is just bad. Leechblock makes it easy to block and hard to unblock, DW does the opposite.
edit: went to https://www.android.com/digital-wellbeing/ and omg, it's designed like by a tired child on speed. Large letters flying in from all over the place, really horrible.