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Comment by StringyBob | Hacker News Reader

What works for me: Take a minimum of 2 weeks vacation in one block (3 or 4 is amazing if you can negotiate it - don’t be afraid to ask if you are at $bigcorp). If possible don’t use a computer in that period, don’t check work mail/slack on a phone. Don’t do side projects if they are computer based. You need to try to do something (or nothing is ok too) as long as it is different physically/mentally. You need to get out of your current mindset and environment. That likely means getting away from your current location to avoid the temptation to just sit around at home and watch Netflix (which is not a big enough change).

Let your team know you’ll be offline for the vacation period, the world will continue while you take a break.

See how you feel on your return.

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My best cure for burnout was actually being unemployed for 4 months a decade ago. Spent some time with recruiters, but since it was in the middle of a hiring slump there was very little activity on that front. I spend many days at a camper we had parked at a seasonal spot about 30 miles from the house (and this was in the summer). By the time I landed my next job I was completely refreshed and hit the ground harder than a fresh graduate.

Now is 4 months the magic number? I don't know, but 2 weeks would seem to be the minimum. But also a seemingly large part of it was going to a new job afterwards, where I was starting fresh (although previous job switches had about 0 impact on burnout, so I'm not so sure how much the job change helped).

I second the notion of a minimum 2 week vacation. Over the years I’ve found that 7 days is simply not enough to slip out of the work mindset. I noticed that after 8-10 days I was more relaxed, and after 14 I had basically all but forgotten work. As others have mentioned, if it continues after that, you might need to consider other options.

If a 1 week vacation is like spring cleaning the house, 2 weeks is like cleaning the house and painting the living room.

Same building, same room, just fresher.

I have often done 6 weeks gaps between jobs. No travelling and not much coding. I am very lucky to have done this, and with CFS it has been helpful to do so. I currently work 3 days. I say this to say “it is ok to do so” and “it is ok to ask for it”. I acknowledge financial responsibility would make it hard for many people though. Might be worth living somewhere cheaper for though? Health health health rather than location location location.

I may be an incredibly naive European, but when you’re burned out, can’t you just get sick leave from your employer?

even in Europe, there are few doctors that take burnout (which is only really formalized in the ICD-11) as serious as it should be taken

i've had aquantances that walked out with 3 days of sick leave (in Germany) - not even connecting to a weekend

In my entire career as a US software developer (15+ years) I've only had 1 employer that offered sick leave. Every other employer offered a "bucket" of time off. So even if you just have a cold you either go to work or you have one or two less vacation days that year. It's not uncommon to only have 10 days total for the "bucket", even for senior developers.

> Should I just take a couple of weeks' vacation? I'm kind of lost at the moment.

clearly an option for OP. why do you think its otherwise?

Sick leave is not the same as vacation days.

what does it matter what its called though. why should i have to reveal my health conditions to my boss.

There are legal differences between sick leave and vacation, at least where I live. The former is required by state law, the latter isnt. Vacation hours can be accrued and have a cash-out value, sick leave will expire. There are a bunch of other rules as well.

You should never have to reveal the nature of any health conditions to an employer to take sick leave.

gotcha. thank you for that explantion!

Well for starters, you typically have a limited number of vacation days a year, while sick days don’t have these limitations.

Secondly, in case of burnout (or similar), it’s not unheard of (at least over here in .nl) that you stay at home for extended periods of time, and gradually restart picking up your workload. That kind of thing is very different from vacation.

This. Whenever possible I take my vacation in slices of two weeks to let my body and brain fully relax and completely distance myself from my work.

This sounds about right. When I burned out at my last job it took me 2 months to recover. I camped out of a car in that time, and removing myself from my usual environment helped a lot.

A one month litmus test is a good call, IMO.

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