Ask HN: How to survive a year at my job while burned out | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How to survive a year at my job while burned out

6 pointsrizizep3 comments

I've been really burned out for more than a year and feel really crappy going to work every day. I am not burned out by software engineering, in fact I enjoy it a lot. It's just the way the company is managed: poor processes, bad hires, plenty of good people leaving.

At the same time, there is a pretty big financial incentive in place if I somehow survive here for another year. It's a pretty significant amount of money, so I find it very hard to justify leaving now, even though I really want to. But one year is a pretty long time to be unhappy.

Has anyone been in a similar situation lately? Any tips on how to make this extra year tolerable?

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I was pretty unhappy cleaning oil tanks at a refinery for a year where the average summer temperature is 100+ degrees fahrenheit. I was also pretty unhappy working retail at a big box hardware store and pulling mandatory monthly night-shift while working through college.

I can't tell you personally how to not be unhappy. But rather than looking at all the negative why don't you try to find the good things about your job? You're probably making more money than 95% of your peers from high school. You can likely pay bills, put food on the table, etc... I've had a lot of bad jobs over the years but none of them in tech compare to the dozen other non-tech jobs that paid less and worked me harder.

I'm married and have 2 children. They give me a reason to get up every day and work hard and look past all the negative little things in the day to day life. Set some goals, look to the future, and try not to worry about what makes you unhappy now. Push through it for a year then find something better knowing that you're making a good financial decision today. And, if you're still really that unhappy and money isn't important long or short term then quit. There are a lot of other worse places just waiting for your resume to hit the desk.

Don't work any more overtime than absolutely necessary. Have something fun/meaningful to do in your off hours.

Be nice to people. Help people.

Beyond working {code|product}, make your work product look good, something that you enjoy looking at for looking's sake. If that's code, make it pleasant to read and easy for other professionals to understand.

If you're depressed or otherwise unsettled, get professional help appropriate for whatever that is.

Hmm ... that all applies to any job. :)

Exactly how I feel atm. I hope to see some useful comments.

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