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I experienced something similar recently. In my case, I quit after some unpleasant exchanges with management that were an indirect result of burnout and a difficult work environment.

I would absolutely agree that folks should take burnout (and depression) seriously.

However, please stop blaming yourself entirely for the burnout. It's OK to take some responsibility for not being productive, of course -- any good person would do that in your shoes! But it's your manager's responsibility to give you a productive work environment. If they don't directly contribute output, that's effectively their only responsibility.

So keep in mind that you don't exist in a vacuum, and your boss could almost certainly tell that something was wrong... so unless you are very, very, very good at hiding burnout and depression symptoms, they knew what was going on and didn't fix it. Maybe your problems were too significant for a manager to meaningfully deal with (they're not a psychologist, after all), but if they didn't try to help, that's on them. Not you.

To be 100% fair to them they did let me know, and my manager did try and work with me.

Without fully knowing your situation and guessing your company, i am thinking your were managed out i.e quietly fired.Managers use tactics to burn you out unintentionally so its you who gives up and your work suffers. This is done so as to gather enough evidence and reduce risk for the company.

If you happen to record your conversations, take it to a pro and they can tell by the tone of the voice of your manager if they were saying the right things but actually instilling learned helplessness or other such tricks.

I didn't record the conversations, but I'm pretty sure that that wasn't the case. I got the impression that they, at least initially, were trying to work with me.

I mean, these things happen, I'm a little annoyed at myself but I just gotta keep moving forward.

I have a different experience. Perhaps that's a cultural thing, but admitting to a manager that I was having mental health issues only made things worse and was certainly the biggest mistake I ever made in my career.

I didn't get fired, but it became impossible to solve issues, as every single (legitimate, I swear) complaint or request from me was chalked up to "you're depressed".

But your point still stands 100%: it's not on the employee to solve all work-related burnout-inducing issues.

i think you should question the validity of your statement, “I lost a great job..”

what was so great about this job? since you likely departed from a big tech company I assume the compensation was most or all of the reasons you thought it was great. you probably wouldn’t get burnt out doing something at a great job imo.

It did pay well, but it also was fairly interesting work with a lot of room for exploration and growth.

Maybe I’m just frustrated and looking back with rose colored glasses.

as someone who’s been in your position my intuition is the rose colored glasses view as well. i don’t know the situation exactly, of course. there are other excellent jobs out there. you are not your job. good luck with wherever this change takes you!

Oh I know; I think I came off as more somber than I intended to; I'm really not depressed about it or anything. I'm sure I'll find another decent job soon enough.

I appreciate the kind words though!

Ignoring pride/ego or other issues (i.e. how would you actually go about doing it, HR issues, company receptiveness, etc.) - would you go back?

If not, what would have to change for you to go back?

If they offered my position back to me tomorrow, I would take it in a heartbeat.

Assuming:

  - you can't change the organization, only your own behavior (just assume it, you don't have to agree)
  - the behavioral issues you reported were what caused the company to part ways with you
  - those behavioral issues were caused by burnout

What would you do differently to avoid the burnout?

I would probably prioritize taking time off on semi-regular intervals, and try to avoid my habit of overextending myself and spreading myself super thin.

I would also try and spot the early signs of burnout sooner and tell my manager so that he could work with me before anything get too bad and before I start missing deadlines.

> I had a pretty bad attitude and had trouble focusing on work. I thought it was depression, and that's probably a factor of it, but having been unemployed for the last three months now, I think I was just going through a really bad case of burnout.

This relates to what happened where I was working, and cynicism crept in.

Did you get better? I had a big quit burnout a few years ago. Or so I thought. If it doesn't get better after you quit, it's not burnout. Mine was a health issue.

Well I don't have another job yet so it's tough to say for sure, but I think? I don't really have the same "fuck everything" attitude right now.

EDIT:

Out of curiosity, and feel free to not answer if this is too personal...what was the health issue?

I have hemochromatosis, or iron overload. It's not a great pairing with famous free cafeteria food. I never even figured it out on my own, just got lucky with a family member's diagnosis.

You burnt out because you ate too much free food?

It's a long story but that's a good summary of the penultimate chapter.