"Burnout is caused by a lack of believable motivation—not working too hard. Breaks won’t help. Engineering motivation will."
Agree. Burnout comes from working hard and not getting anywhere or where you hoped for long periods of time. Humans need to see progression to stay motivated. Whether engineering motivation is sustainable is debatable.
Yep. There's a difference between being tired and needing some rest from putting in many hours of work and burnout. I think our culture has swung too far into "mental health" as an excuse for many things. We used to pretend feelings and mental health wasn't a thing. Now it can in some cases become a crutch. We need to grow up a bit.
Everyone needs rest but that's not a sign of burnout.
Also, every task doesn't have to be meaningful. Stuff needs to be done and everything can be some emotionally charged event. Finding joy in simple work seems to be a mystery to many people. I've seen it in the younger generations and I think they have us to thank for it.
One problem I have seen is the distortion of money and compensation. Money is rarely viewed as a tool as a technology. Some view it as the problem. That it's evil. It's not. Greed is the sin. Not money. It's the love of money, not money that is the issue.
But that view and the envy, jealousy, and greed associated with money robs us of what happens when we do work. Someone needed help with something. They offered a price to get help. We accepted. They thanked us by paying us. So in this way all work for pay has worth. At least it did to someone.
When you view it that way you can have pride in your work. You are solving a real problem or at least one that one entity views as a problem.
The other way to view it that is helpful to me is to view work and money as the fuel to do meaningful things. I work to make money I can use to do something meaningful to me. Whatever that is.
Lacking meaning or grounding leads to burn out. That's my experience at least. The problem is not always with the work, the hours, or the company. Sometimes the issue is us.
Would you lump the finding joy in simple work in with engineering motivation?
I used to work off of the "you can't break me" mentality when I had my business and shit was absolutely hitting the fan. I remember one of my employees that used to work overnights quit like two days before my wife was to going to be induced for our daughter's birth and I recall getting off the phone and thinking "screw you, you can't hurt me". I consider that a type of engineered motivation but probably the unhealthy kind. I think your idea of just finding joy in just getting shit done is probably a better and more sustainable mindset.
I wouldn't. I would flip it and say that we have been so blessed with wealth that we forget how fortunate we are to have what we have. Most of us have never missed a meal due to not having money. Most of us have never been without shelter. As I described I think we have a skewed view of work and money and if we realign our attitudes toward gratitude and see the real value in our work it helps. Not some fake thing.
Not like our work is some amazing value but that it has some measurable value. Also, work sucks sometimes. I'm not suggesting I try to lie to myself.
I should add that there are terrible jobs with toxic people. I would never suggest just sticking with something like that. But doing your best work helps with burnout. Half assing is a sure path to burnout.
In my experience, that seems accurate1.
Initially, I believed it was due to my ADHD, as the excitement of a new job fueled my work 100x. However, it now appears that ADHD was just an aggravating factor, causing my burnouts to be severe, occurring faster and lasting longer.
Every job I’ve had so far has resulted in burnout within 1 to 3 months of starting. The common denominator was that I detested both the tasks and the management. The sole motivation was the necessity to pay rent, which accounted for 3/4 of my monthly salary.
It’s been 7 months since I started here, and the only time I felt a slight burnout was when I crashed into a wall with one of my quests. But, I work for an incredible purpose with incredible people who celebrate both accomplishments and failures. I quickly recovered in days. I wake up each morning feeling joy from working, which was something I had never experienced before.
This is a great discovery that deserves more attention, thank you @kr.
Footnotes
I had hoped he would have discussed more about the importance of rest in preserving cognitive functions. It’s important to prioritize quality over quantity. ↩
“Burnout is not what it presents: it’s not about working too hard for too long, burnout is about working in the face of a goal that seems too far out, too unattainable, too abstract.”
Footnotes