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Comment by dQw4w9WgXcQ | Hacker News Reader

Having gone through two of these (one shorter and the recent one much larger), I think the best thing anyone can do for themselves is make a "break glass in case of burnout" plan where they save up margin during the good times so that when the famine hits part of the stress isn't the painted-in-corner feeling of "I need a break but have no margin to take one"

Ultimately the answer is always simple and involves protracted rest - deload, de-stress as much as possible, and recover. 6 months preferred, but 12 months for major crisis' is nice to have in your back pocket.

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As someone that has been unemployed for 6 months, dealing with burnout, I was tremendously grateful that a younger me saved and lived well below my means.

I was mocked for going to a state school, mocked for driving a 10 year old car, mocked for living in a cheaper home and now told I am lucky and privileged to be able to take time off to deal with burnout. Ok. Sure.

No matter how you live or what you think, half the internet hates you.

Months of meditation helped me realize I can be happyand avoid stress by not caring so much about other people's opinions of how my life is wrong.

Was just told the other day I should get a better car. I 'deserve' it, as my Ford Focus... "that's a car for college kids... you deserve better". (I'm mid 40s, fwiw). My wife and I have lived mostly at or below our means for a while now. Years ago I got in to some bad debt and it took years to work out of. Kept working out of it, and now have... a lot (relatively speaking).

I'm burned out, and I need some time 'off'. My wife injured herself about 18 months ago and can't work anymore (well, nowhere near what she could, so she's effectively 'retired' at this point). I feel like I can't really be 'off', but realistically speaking, we have... probably 2-3 years of 'runway' of regular monthly expenses available, plus moderately adequate savings. This shouldn't be a problem. Forcing myself to do it is the problem.

But yeah, I have got the joking/mocking (good natured, usually), but the savings are real. I actually feel guilty at this point that I could just take off some months and coast (even though I don't) because I know there's people that can't. And I used to be one of them. It's hard to adjust to 'enough' when you spent a long time without enough.

I mean, also, getting a new car is all fun and games for a month, and then you only notices the flaws, and then it’s just your car, and then you’ll need to buy a car of the same expensive class the next time (I saw my in-laws buy a new luxury 7-seater SUV to replace their 7-seater SUV even though their kids have been gone for 10 years and they have zero grand kids, I know the feeling), which ups your spending. It’s much more liberating to know you can get the hell out if you want to because you saved enough money, and it also reduces your stress levels.

My previous team apparently consisted mostly of people who didn't have that option - at least that's what I gathered from conversations and the reactions to my resignation, one of them specifically saying that "quitting like this is a luxury that only people with sizeable savings can afford".

I've found that it's hard to grow professionally if your focus is on getting through the month on your engineer salary.

Applies to any level of income, but is especially hard when you need a good job to sustain yourself.

My parents have never bought a new car, and I've followed in their footsteps. Unless there's financial benefits (tax writeoffs etc.) there's absolutely no reason to buy a new car. The minute you drive out of the dealership, your car loses a quarter of its value.

My current car is old enough to vote. But maintenance is cheap and its comfortable to drive. Why would I buy a newer and more expensive car?

I got rid of a 14 year old car and replaced with a 2 year old car. I think there's some potential benefits to newer cars - better safety standards, better gas mileage, generally newer little luxuries (rear camera, bluetooth, better lights, etc).

By 10+ years old on that car, I was starting to have to do non-zero-cost maintenance (above oil change, etc), so having a newer car will remove those costs (and annoyances) at the cost of a bit more up front now. Small, calculated tradeoffs, I guess.

But in the discussion with the guy I referenced above, he's... a car salesman. Part time. But he's sold enough that he can 'borrow' any car he wants, and constantly rotates through phenomenally nice/upscale cars. He has a hard time imagining have to go back to driving 'dumpy, low-end' cars like my Focus. I have a hard time imagining going back to 'check to check' living and always being behind on bills. He's not necessarily in that situation, but I know him well enough to know he doesn't have 3 years of expenses saved up.

A very good point. Having the freedom to quit at any time without completely jeopardizing one's finances is liberating.

I was talking with a friend about this the other week. Fairly close to retirement, I gather financially comfortable, and they like where they are but they're also in sort of an unusual position and have been through a couple of organizational changes.

I was struck when they told me they felt really liberated because they could honestly tell managers when various shuffling was going on that, if it made more sense for them to go somewhere else, they were perfectly cool with that.

somehow that's judged by paper pushers, bean counters and hr. how do you answer questions on gaps in your CV?

You were working as an independent consultant.

I'm not even sure you need to pretend you were working. Especially mid-career, taking 6 to 12 months off to consider your options, do some learning, etc. isn't something I would think twice about as an employer.

"gaps in your resume" is actively used to cover over-40 hiring discrimination in tech jobs

Fair enough for some situations. I guess it helps that I've never had a job since school where I came in through HR as opposed to someone I knew.

Well, if you can avoid it, I wouldn't recommend full-on unemployment unless the situation is really that bad. Work provides an intrinsic sense of daily purpose and routine that does help with psychological recovery, regardless of how one feels about it in the middle of burnout.

A part-time schedule could always be part of the burnout plan. Or a planned sabbatical. Like I said, do the creative thinking now so it's not when you're in the firefight.

I've done this a few times and never had a problem.

I put my time off front and centre. I learned Spanish, worked on side projects, taught myself self-reliance and the ability to overcome obstacles, etc. etc.

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