If on Monday morning you’re wishing it was Friday evening, it’s time to quit.

The frightening thing about serious work-related burnout is that three years after quitting, on Monday mornings you still wish it was Friday evening.

Any day now I'll be ready for the grind again. Any day now.

It took me about six months off to start feeling normal, and I think I got out much earlier than most people do. And if you read that post, I still clearly let it get pretty bad before I left.

Many of us have kids to feed! The economy is not bursting with jobs anymore since rates rose post-COVID.

No need to quit immediately, just apply for jobs on the side.

And do the same thing elsewhere for less money and with less social capital?

I went from an important cog with low pay but high responsibility to a much higher paying job with no responsibility. You can too with a bit of luck.

No, I mean, I’m there, but it’s anything but fulfilling xD it’s just that anything else would feel like a downgrade.

What about if on Friday morning you're wishing it was Monday? Like, two Mondays ago? So you weren't quite as late on everything?

As someone who managed to stay productive during a burnout despite constant bullying by a yelling CTO: it doesn't really help if you deliver on time.

Yep, in theory yes, but shame that the bills won't pay themselves

i don't buy that any situation is so hopeless, you're powerless to improve it. at least in the context of this field and its line(s) of work.

sounds a lot more like learned hopelessness making it harder to respond to stress with radical change because of (normal and human) fears of the unknown.

at some point though responsibility for the circumstances, the feelings, the stress -- the good, bad, and ugly or easy, hard, and nearly impossible -- has to be taken.

there's only one life to live. we owe it to ourselves and others to do more than -- to try not to -- just "roll over and play dead", so to speak.

humans have survived a lot and have adapted to just as much if not more.

if i ever allowed myself to even stay at any of my former jobs coming up in my life when i was paycheck to paycheck because of not making rent or just being flatout broke and homeless, i would have not progressed my career, or life, in any meaningful way, and just fed the negative feedback loop influencing what feels like a miserable existence (even privileged as it were).

can't hold myself hostage. and also, i can't hold those around me hostage as consequence of my non-action, either.