That’s another important point is finding something that works for you.
Let’s hear your job burnout stories
- Thread starter AndyG
- Start date
That’s another important point is finding something that works for you.
When you own your own business you get to work half days...................12 hours.
I’m headed to Lowe’s right now to pay for some tile so that it’s ready to go in the morning- I need to be in other places in the am.
The difference tonight is at home and eat some Raisin Bran and go to bed - No ride around in my LJ until 1130 trying to convince myself that over work is not bothering me.
I predict this is going to be six months to 12 months to get better, then lifelong from there.
I hear you - my first job out of college was like that, an enforced 1 hour for lunch. What a fucking waste of time - but they eventually changed the core hours such that a 1/2 hour lunch was possible - mo' bettah! I took a half hour lunch my entire career, where did this 1 hour crap come from? BUT - I also always took lunch at 11:30, not 12. My stomach was trained by 10 years of elementary/middle school, then 4 more years of high school, then 2 years of college which ALL had lunch at 11:30 — I just couldn't do that extra half hour.
I went back to school full time for 4 yrs while working full time when I was 31 and had 2 young kids at home. I passed my National and State boards to become a X-ray Tech. I’m a driven person and along with my full time job I also worked another 32 hrs part time at 2 other hospitals. In my spare time (Yes I had spare time) the Wife and I bought and rehabbed houses and turned them into rentals. After 10 yrs of this I was burned out and decided to go back to school for another 2 yrs and took National boards to become a Radiation Therapist. This effectively doubled my salary and I only worked at 1 hospital while continuing to buy more rental units. All was good for 2 yrs and then I was talked/forced into a managerial position. Worst decision of my life. It started off good and I managed the PM crew of about 20 direct reports and about 30 more indirect reports who worked well together. After 5 yrs of this my day shift counterpart retired and I had to manage 25 more employees who did not work well together and I had drama almost daily with them. I had to be there 12-16 hrs a day along with now being on call 24/7. All this was on salary so my per hour rate was effectively cut in half.
My hospital did an annual Employee Satisfaction Survey. This was done to gauge employee Engagement. I never grasped the meaning of this until I became an Unengaged employee myself. It started with my receptionist telling me how to treat my patients. I worked hard went to school for yrs and passed National Boards and I was reprimanded by my Director for not listening to her. Also because of a change in insurance reimbursement our patient load dropped and I had to cut everyones hrs by 20%. My Director did not have the balls to tell the employees herself and made me the bad guy. When the next Employee Satisfaction Survey was done all the numbers dropped. Go figure. My Director blamed me and when I rebutted this she told me “It’s not what you do it’s how it’s perceived”. I made up my mind right there and then I decided to QUIT. I endured 6 more months to get all my duck in a row all the time putting in minimal effort. My Director dropped her jaw when I gave her my 2 week Notice. The standard for my position is 4-6 weeks.
Because I’ve worked hard and invested my money well I did not need to work any more and the wife had medical insurance for me. I always planed to retire at 55 and I was 56 at the time so I was prepared financially and mentally. While I do miss some of my employees and my patients I never looked back. Now I do what I want when I want with no one but the Wife telling me what to do. Half the time I don’t listen to her either.
My advice to others is to have a long term plan and work diligently toward it. In these times you always need a plan B or C. Was it easy? Hell no, but worth it in the long run. Your company does not care about you no matter what they say. We are all expendable to them.
My hospital did an annual Employee Satisfaction Survey. This was done to gauge employee Engagement. I never grasped the meaning of this until I became an Unengaged employee myself. It started with my receptionist telling me how to treat my patients. I worked hard went to school for yrs and passed National Boards and I was reprimanded by my Director for not listening to her. Also because of a change in insurance reimbursement our patient load dropped and I had to cut everyones hrs by 20%. My Director did not have the balls to tell the employees herself and made me the bad guy. When the next Employee Satisfaction Survey was done all the numbers dropped. Go figure. My Director blamed me and when I rebutted this she told me “It’s not what you do it’s how it’s perceived”. I made up my mind right there and then I decided to QUIT. I endured 6 more months to get all my duck in a row all the time putting in minimal effort. My Director dropped her jaw when I gave her my 2 week Notice. The standard for my position is 4-6 weeks.
Because I’ve worked hard and invested my money well I did not need to work any more and the wife had medical insurance for me. I always planed to retire at 55 and I was 56 at the time so I was prepared financially and mentally. While I do miss some of my employees and my patients I never looked back. Now I do what I want when I want with no one but the Wife telling me what to do. Half the time I don’t listen to her either.
My advice to others is to have a long term plan and work diligently toward it. In these times you always need a plan B or C. Was it easy? Hell no, but worth it in the long run. Your company does not care about you no matter what they say. We are all expendable to them.
To the original question being burt out .
Welcome to the club.
Where am I as compared to you ?
Who knows
My business is a family one and that sucks
My grandfather started it in 1974.
His 12 kids all worked the chores
I’m the 5th kid from the first kid and have bore witness to rearing animals and dealing with customers.
If I could say anything to you, Andy
It would be patience,
but sometimes like today I had a guy called me. We slaughtered their fair hogs, and he wanted the head and it does not come along with the hog.
We do 5000 fair hogs every summer and I should watch for you 1 hog.
Fuck off
You can’t wear all the hats. I wear some hats and take on others as needed.
Welcome to the club.
Where am I as compared to you ?
Who knows
My business is a family one and that sucks
My grandfather started it in 1974.
His 12 kids all worked the chores
I’m the 5th kid from the first kid and have bore witness to rearing animals and dealing with customers.
If I could say anything to you, Andy
It would be patience,
but sometimes like today I had a guy called me. We slaughtered their fair hogs, and he wanted the head and it does not come along with the hog.
We do 5000 fair hogs every summer and I should watch for you 1 hog.
Fuck off
You can’t wear all the hats. I wear some hats and take on others as needed.
If that’s your thing, alternatively you can do what I do, my typical work week (actual work hours) is 5 hours/day Monday through Thursday at the office, 3 hours on Friday morning at home, then intermittent work at home every other weekend when my girlfriend is not here, I usually reserve larger projects for those time-slots. The start/stop times are whenever I want, I’m a morning person so I start very early. All of this is subject to tweaking depending on need, I’ll step up & stay later or work more if duty calls, an ever increasing rarity as I’m delegating more and more of that as time moves forward, but in the end the buck stops with me & I’ll make that hay when the sun is shining, that’s the nature of business ownership. I’ve been an absolute control freak with my work product for so long it was difficult for me to transition towards offloading some responsibilities, but it’s getting more comfortable.
I could work something that looked more like a normal schedule, maybe 7 hours per day Monday through Thursday then head into the 3-day weekend with nothing to do, but I realized a long time ago I don’t have a healthy relationship with too much consecutive free time, so I prefer to spread work out over the entire week.
By the way if I worked for most firms doing the same practice I do for myself, my 30 hours would easily double, and I’d have to put up with all their other happy horse shit rules, meetings & other nonsense that serves no purpose other than stroking the douche in charge. Oh so fuck that
I think it comes down to what type of work you do, and what are your "deliverables". In the last century, I was a maintenance engineer for a papermill. My job was to get broken machinery fixed. I couldn't do that from home. My last job was very different, and was a good candidate for flexible hours.
It was my last job that where I ended up working remotely. It was years before Covid. My job was traveling 3 days/week visiting clients and then 2 days office admin. I had to convince my boss that I could do the office work more easily at home, than driving an hour to the office. The down side was that I found myself on the clock longer and more frequently. After dinner, I'd check my email one more time to see if I had to change my plans for tomorrow. Typically, after checking my email, I ended doing more work.
The tipping point for my boss to change his mind was when our group expanded and needed more office space. Since my office was vacant 3 days/week, it was ripe for assignment to somebody else.
You know people give you advice like catering to the customers is where it’s at the customization does not simplify things.
What kind of weirdo wants the pig head.
I come across that pretty regularly around here. In fact, most offer to purchase contracts for new spec houses or generic builder contracts (Horton usually states similar) that I see stipulate potential buyers have to have special permission to enter the site. If you're doing that kind of work, don't be afraid to set that boundary within reason.
I have a neighbor working in a hospital pharmacy who works 7 12s, so on a week, off a week. She loves that schedule, and honestly it doesn't sound that bad.
It'd be a lot funnier if it wasn't true. I've had plenty of 10-12 hour days and ~70 hour weeks, but then random days will hit where I just can't focus on work and I cut it to a half day, like yesterday, I think I only "worked" for 3 hours.
Ever heard of people eating head cheese, or brains & eggs, or hog jowl? Not for me, but some people eat that stuff.
The big companies also I have some liability issues they have to circumnavigate- I know of a situation where a guy came into a house to measure carpet and stepped in a floor vent and sued the builder for a considerable sum
Plus you have a situation sometimes we are railings are back ordered or a customer comes in with small children and anything can happen.
We tend to be in the category of upper middle level so have a good client interaction is important but it’s just gotten to the point where it’s an impediment-
And I’m gonna be honest most of it is me because of the frame of mind I’ve been in.
I'm 55 and sorta burned out but more worried about the politics of the future. I've saved enough money to retire but made the mistake of storing most of it in work related 401k instruments I can't access. The rest went to my kid's education needs. Because I want them to be successful and not living in my basement bumming. One is about to graduate as a veterinarian and the other going into physician's assistant college next week. So 8 and 6-1/2 years of college.
I worked an 8 year stretch without a day off. Weekends and holidays I did revenue updates that took an hour or so and I was always on call 24/7. We had daily 7:20am morning calls I prepared data for from a plant in CA. The day ended at 2am my time and I had the data complied and ready for the morning call. When I worked out, that meant 4:30am wakeup, workout, work, call, then commute into the office. Work until 5pm commute home. That was my schedule those 8 years.
I did another 5 years for two different projects at the same time but had automated the process more and the deadline for my stuff was more like 9am. I Still a 7:20 and 7:40 call every morning.
I got tired of that and found a new job with less work, more pay and then got laid off after a year because I was a faceless, remote employee and easy to let go during cost cutting that's accelerating around the country.
I have a job now that's less pay, less stress, and interesting. But I'm adjusting to not doing the work and instead driving the process of others working. So meetings after meetings and lots of notes.
If I would have adjusted my savings a little differently 10-15 years ago, I would have retired and lived off them when I got laid off. I have way more than I need to live comfortably the rest of my life locked away until 65. I'm afraid the new generation will come after savings and hose me. Like they are trying to do with anyone who saved and paid for college. So I'm converting large blocks to get to at 59-1/2 while tax rates are lower. Then I'll punt and retire.
I'm not burned out as much as worried I'm working and saving so some liberal politician and antifa puke can steal it from me.
I started getting back in shape this year and love it. I haven't felt this good in a decade. I lift 1 hour 3 days a week and bike 21 miles 3 days a week. I look at retirees and most are broken down overweight people with health issues. I found a new much better doctor and I have a goal to live well past the normal age. I've seen too many retire and die or die at my age due to poor health choices. I worked with a guy that retired to the dream house he buit on the beach. They found him dead on the beach after a heart attack during a run. He was finally trying to get back in shape but dead after 9 months of being retired.
I worked an 8 year stretch without a day off. Weekends and holidays I did revenue updates that took an hour or so and I was always on call 24/7. We had daily 7:20am morning calls I prepared data for from a plant in CA. The day ended at 2am my time and I had the data complied and ready for the morning call. When I worked out, that meant 4:30am wakeup, workout, work, call, then commute into the office. Work until 5pm commute home. That was my schedule those 8 years.
I did another 5 years for two different projects at the same time but had automated the process more and the deadline for my stuff was more like 9am. I Still a 7:20 and 7:40 call every morning.
I got tired of that and found a new job with less work, more pay and then got laid off after a year because I was a faceless, remote employee and easy to let go during cost cutting that's accelerating around the country.
I have a job now that's less pay, less stress, and interesting. But I'm adjusting to not doing the work and instead driving the process of others working. So meetings after meetings and lots of notes.
If I would have adjusted my savings a little differently 10-15 years ago, I would have retired and lived off them when I got laid off. I have way more than I need to live comfortably the rest of my life locked away until 65. I'm afraid the new generation will come after savings and hose me. Like they are trying to do with anyone who saved and paid for college. So I'm converting large blocks to get to at 59-1/2 while tax rates are lower. Then I'll punt and retire.
I'm not burned out as much as worried I'm working and saving so some liberal politician and antifa puke can steal it from me.
I started getting back in shape this year and love it. I haven't felt this good in a decade. I lift 1 hour 3 days a week and bike 21 miles 3 days a week. I look at retirees and most are broken down overweight people with health issues. I found a new much better doctor and I have a goal to live well past the normal age. I've seen too many retire and die or die at my age due to poor health choices. I worked with a guy that retired to the dream house he buit on the beach. They found him dead on the beach after a heart attack during a run. He was finally trying to get back in shape but dead after 9 months of being retired.
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You should look into those thing I mention then. Maybe some pictures will help.
Nooo way - I’ve had a hard time eating in the morning for a while
As for @AndyG I'm going to recommend what my landscaping friend did. He hired a foreman with a Green Card to work in the US. The foreman hired/fired the workers. He focused entirely in bidding, billing, and client contact. And hired his wife and kids for admin work.
The crews all show up to jobs and work hard because his foreman hired good people he knew and got them green cards to work in the country. If you can do the same with US citizens, go for it. But he couldn't because none of them lasted and/or were druggies. His current crew has been with him for almost 20 years working seasonally in the US and going home in the off months.
The crews all show up to jobs and work hard because his foreman hired good people he knew and got them green cards to work in the country. If you can do the same with US citizens, go for it. But he couldn't because none of them lasted and/or were druggies. His current crew has been with him for almost 20 years working seasonally in the US and going home in the off months.
Yes we brought in some good Hispanics and they are working out pretty good and I definitely spend more time dealing with the American workers and their issues then these guys.
I have American guys that I have to remind them every morning the exact same list of work I gave them in writing the evening before.
I could tell you stories all day.
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