Re:Ask HN: Strategies to Avoid Burnout?
by shoo on Thursday February 21, 2019 @01:34PM
(#19219274)
First things first: why do you "have" to work nights? Are you getting paid a fair hourly rate for this overtime?
Would anything materially bad happen if you just stop and dial back the hours to whatever you contractually agreed to?
This might depend upon what other alternatives you have for work.
I've worked in companies where management explicitly and structurally decide to always have more work in the pipeline than employees have capacity to deliver. That's a reasonable business decision. It doesn't mean that you're automatically required to work unpaid overtime. Whoever owns the company might be delighted if you do start providing them with a bunch of free labour, but not delighted enough to pay you fairly for it.
As another commenter has pointed out, the three PMs sounds like a bit of a red flag. You could instead be receiving a single stream of prioritised tasks, where all three PMs and other relevant stakeholders have hashed out the priorities.
You might find the earlier discussion of late projects, negotiation, estimation helpful:
> Work expands to exceed your capacity for stress.
> If you can, take an unplanned mental health day. I’ve emailed my boss and cow-orkers at 5:30 in the morning, saying “Hey, it’s gonna be a beautiful day, and I’m going to spend it on two wheels in the mountains instead of pushing buttons in my stall.” Come back refreshed and grinning and try not to make them feel too bad.
E.g.
What do you do that's unrelated to your work that you enjoy in your life? For me personal, physically exercise -- jogging, cycling --- is both enjoyable and helps me maintain mental and physical health, especially during periods of stress, with related or otherwise.
If you can, try increasing the amount of time you spend on non work activities that you enjoy, as you dial back your hours given to the company.
Edit: if things are particularly bad you may be able to recognise your situation as something like this:
Would anything materially bad happen if you just stop and dial back the hours to whatever you contractually agreed to?
This might depend upon what other alternatives you have for work.
I've worked in companies where management explicitly and structurally decide to always have more work in the pipeline than employees have capacity to deliver. That's a reasonable business decision. It doesn't mean that you're automatically required to work unpaid overtime. Whoever owns the company might be delighted if you do start providing them with a bunch of free labour, but not delighted enough to pay you fairly for it.
As another commenter has pointed out, the three PMs sounds like a bit of a red flag. You could instead be receiving a single stream of prioritised tasks, where all three PMs and other relevant stakeholders have hashed out the priorities.
You might find the earlier discussion of late projects, negotiation, estimation helpful:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19072941
Also:
http://www.dadhacker.com/blog/?p=1693
> Work expands to exceed your capacity for stress.
> If you can, take an unplanned mental health day. I’ve emailed my boss and cow-orkers at 5:30 in the morning, saying “Hey, it’s gonna be a beautiful day, and I’m going to spend it on two wheels in the mountains instead of pushing buttons in my stall.” Come back refreshed and grinning and try not to make them feel too bad.
E.g.
What do you do that's unrelated to your work that you enjoy in your life? For me personal, physically exercise -- jogging, cycling --- is both enjoyable and helps me maintain mental and physical health, especially during periods of stress, with related or otherwise.
If you can, try increasing the amount of time you spend on non work activities that you enjoy, as you dial back your hours given to the company.
Edit: if things are particularly bad you may be able to recognise your situation as something like this:
http://www.issendai.com/psychology/sick-systems.html