Older Workers May Be Less Susceptible to Burnout | Hacker News Reader

Older Workers May Be Less Susceptible to Burnout

aarp.org

22 pointsrustoo20 comments

This seems to just be a case of survivorship bias.

IOW, an older cohort is one that has already had burnout victims removed.

But the remainder may simply be those who resist being pressured into overwork, rather than those who don't succumb to burnout despite being overworked.

What do you mean by "removed"?

Obviously millions of people were removed from the workforce this year, but that had nothing to do with burnout.

In general, a non-wealthy person cannot simply retire because they feel burned out.

Well, burnout is positively correlated with lots of conditions that are in turn linked to higher mortality rates.

I don't think this is survivorship bias. They are not making the claim that they have a workforce immune from burnout because young dropout workers aren't counted. Instead, they are specifically pointing to the lack of pressures and time management skills cultivated over the years present in an older workforce that would lead to burnout in others.

Right. I'm saying that their claim is a bit of a just-so story, and that dropouts and increased mortality should be considered.

The obvious question to investigate is at what rate the older cohort experienced burnout when they were younger.

Seems like the closer you get to retirement age, the less likely you are to feel burnt out. Maybe this has something to do with how much you need the job. The job will be much less stressful if you know you have the financial means to retire or quit soon.

Not sure why this is downvoted.

I tried retiring and it wasn't all that. Back to writing code. Zero stress since I don't even need the job.

All that stuff that I used to worry about, office politics, what technology to use, on and on, I just don't care.

If they walk me out the door tomorrow, so what. I've got enough money. As long as I get to choose between sitting on my ass in front of the computer and making money and sitting on my ass in front of the computer and making no money, the choice is clear.

No stress, all profit. How could there ever be burnout?

Everything is remote now anyway. I don't need to be in the work chat room all day, I can just write a fucking bot.

I can't wait to get to this point in my career.

It always felt to me that startups are best for the under 25s and the over 45s. In between you have so many other commitments it's a challenging balance. I say this as someone who spent most of his 30's & 40's in startup land.

TL;DR

- Do not have to balance child care and job duties.

- Have refined time management skills over the years and developed the ability to separate work from the rest of their lives.

Also, willing to take naps.

Also, people generally sleep fewer hours per night as they age. As a result, they have more free hours per day as they age. "Sleep deprivation" has a very different meaning for the young and the old.

Actually, there is some evidence that sleep needs remain the same for older people while deep sleep becomes more difficult to achieve and easier to interrupt.

I wonder what "needs" means, though. As I get older, my body just naturally sleeps fewer hours than when I was younger, and there seems to be nothing I can do to change that. I don't use an alarm clock, I go to bed at around the same time every night, I don't consume caffeine after noon, etc. When I wake up in the morning, I feel awake, and it's almost impossible for me to fall back asleep, even if I continue lying in bed with my eyes closed.

So, scientists may say I "need" more sleep, but what of it? I can lie in bed awake feeling bad about that, or I can get out of bed and do things with my extra time every day. I try to live a healthy lifestyle, and I would definitely sleep more hours if I could, but I've followed every suggestion, and my body just does what it wants. My impression is that this is a common experience.

It's more of a matter of skin in the game than anything else.

It's sad to see this kind of articles, as if ability to resist burnout is a valuable quality. Work-life balance be damned...

In fairness, it's an article written by the AARP promoting older people, so the motivation is very clear.

Also in fairness, older workers face widespread age discrimination, so it may be worth pointing out some of their advantages.

I'm a discriminated older worker that has pushed through 7 years of burnout in shitty jobs until I couldn't push anymore. I currently face treatment resistant MDD and living on my savings.

Believe me, being able to push yourself beyond what a younger fellow can it's a sad excuse for a competitive advantage. I do know.

> it's a sad excuse for a competitive advantage

True. It may be less of a "promotional" article than either I or the original commenter implied. After all, it says: "Older employees who are suffering from burnout face the same potentially harmful effects as younger ones, according to McDonald. “It's dangerous and counterproductive to creativity and overall health,” he explained."

In any case, the article is specifically about additional burnout occurring this year, as a side effect of the pandemic, compared to last year.

Well done marketing, if water is boiled then you can have tea

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