I’m of two minds about burnout as presented in the articles read for class this week.
One the one hand, I do give a lot of merit to Marissa Mayer’s claim in the CNBC article. “Burnout is about resentment. It’s about knowing what matters to you so much that if you don’t get it that you’re resentful,” she states. I do believe that burnout is about resentment – or more specifically, I believe that burnout is about the disconnect between what your job entails vs. what you had hoped your job would entail.
A lot of this comes from personal experience. I’ve faced burnout multiple times, at jobs and in school. I’m not sure if it compares to the articles and their descriptions of burnout felt by experienced professionals, but I’d be surprised if it was drastically different. Any time I’ve experienced burnout, it was as a result of resentment for whatever I was doing at the time. I’ve dropped two classes due to burnout (both of them on the last possible day… ouch!) and I’ve rejected an offer of employment due to burnout from an internship at the company. One of the classes was a research experience that turned out to be far less fulfilling and more gruntwork than expected. The internship was a work experience that went more or less the same way. Fortunately, none of these actions had serious consequences – I’m not going to have any trouble graduating, and I didn’t want to work at that company anyway. But it’s not hard to imagine a situation where burnout could give me serious problems in my career.
So I do give some credence to Marissa Mayer’s definition of burnout. It’s important to do work that’s fulfilling and in line with what you actually want to do, and burnout comes when there’s a disconnect in this part of your professional life.
BUT, I don’t think that this is the only cause of burnout. And I certainly do not believe Mayer’s assertion that burnout isn’t a function of sleep, food, and exercise. I’m positive that your non-work life affects the extent and pervasiveness of burnout. Diet, exercise, and the proper amount of sleep are fantastic tools to mitigate the effects of burnout (exercise especially – I have spent many hours in the Keough Hall cardio room at about 3 AM to get through especially tough weeks.) And having a decent life outside work can keep burnout from starting at all. I spent a lot of the summer with my internship throwing myself into my hobbies – I saw a lot of live music and played a lot of strategy games. However, toward the end of the summer when there were fewer concerts to go to, the burnout really began to set in as my life outside work became less fulfilling.
On the whole, as someone who puts a lot of importance on mental health, I think it is important to avoid burnout at all costs. Fortunately, I think burnout can be kept at bay by finding work that fulfills you or taking care of your body and soul.
Jack thoughts 