[mattw2121]

I'm sure this will be a wildly unpopular opinion, but welcome to life? The stories of people burning out and needing time off or sabbaticals seems so privileged. My dad was in sales for 60 years. Did he experience struggles in life (both work and home)? Sure, we all do. Did he ever throw in the towel and stop being productive? No, he grit his teeth and he worked through it.

There's always going to be times in your career that you are more or less productive. Some times everything is clicking and you feel like you're firing on all cylinders. Other times things suck and you just have to show up and do your best. I've been through that pattern so many times in my career, I can't even count.

[Mezzie]

It depends on what work you're doing. I'm burnt out right now and working retail, which is fine to push through. Am I particularly fulfilled? No, but like you, I was raised by people with the philosophy of: "A group for people who hate their jobs? Yeah, it's called the bar. We meet on Friday nights." But retail is a job I can do with next to no mental involvement. Autopilot will work. Sales is similar provided the product changes in manageable ways.

For work where your value is your thoughts and ideas, this is less possible. The job I left was in communications. I couldn't come up with good, pithy marketing or slogans when I had no free mental energy, and when it reached the point that I realized the org and I had major ideological differences, it was even more difficult because trying to force my brain to help expand the reach of an organization I thought was bad just wouldn't work. Some positions require a certain amount of buy-in to do.

[ilikecakeandpie]

Just because that's the way it was/is doesn't mean it's the way it must be. Why shouldn't we strive for a better environment/perks if they're attainable?

[mojzu]

Very much agreed. I also take issue with the 'received wisdom' that eking out productivity from people at any cost to their physical or mental health is actually producing more benefit over the long term, it seems more likely to me that it's just externalising the increased societal/healthcare/other costs for short term benefit

[goodpoint]

> stories of people burning out and needing time off or sabbaticals seems so privileged

> he grit his teeth and he worked through it

No, it's the contrary! Having the ability to "grit your teeth" comes from a place of emotional health.

When people are depressed or burnout the "muscle" to "grit your teeth" is not available.

[dan_mctree]

> Other times things suck and you just have to show up and do your best

Yeah, and being in the middle of a burnout means your best is doing pretty much nothing (depends a bit on the job). Plus, by trying, you're potentially prolonging that period of uselessness

[plutonorm]

Being able to grit your teeth and push through is dependent on your psychological state. Imagine walking through a desert. You keep walking until you drop. At the point you drop you have reached the limit of what your body is physiologically capable of. In same way a good proportion of burnout isn't some cry for attention, it's the reaching of that absolute biologically inviolable limit.