Wednesday, November 16, 2022

Grigory Yakushev's answer to What does it feel like to be fired from Google? - Quora

Grigory Yakushev's answer to What does it feel like to be fired from Google? - Quora

Many people never burnout, but there's no telling if you are in this category. So it can be said that everyone is at risk, true.

Looking at the list above I now think it was wishful thinking on my part that just changing teams can help. Dealing with burnout requires drastic measures, doing something I've never done before, and thinking that I could just continue working at the same building was a bit naive.

In hindsight I would try to lower the workload: take as much vacation as I could, move to a smaller/simpler project with faster iteration cycles and some travel maybe. There are some projects for emerging markets, for Africa and Asia, that could be a good fit.

I would also handle my communication with manager and director differently, try to avoid total breakdown of trust that happened. It came out of the blue, not something I expected and I was unprepared for it.

As for general advice for handling burnout - first of all you need to realise that it's happening. The drop in productivity may be slow and difficult to notice, but it is important to say "I am in a burnout. I need to deal with it".

Then you need to step back from whatever you were doing: continuing as before, trying to extract whatever productivity you have left by working more will just make things worse.

Think about what you wanted to do for a long time but there never was an opening to do it - travel, try things, do something crazy. If you can't work anyway - do something else instead.

It is also important to try to not give a shit. Your boss may say that you need to up your game, or your wife may say that we need money, or your friends may say that you are acting stupid etc. Don't give a shit, its your life, given to you to enjoy it. If you don't enjoy it - nobody around will.

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