New Year's Resolutions Won't Get You Out Of Burnout

If you're like most people, you've already had your New Year's resolutions written down. And I'm sure one of them is to reduce your workload to avoid burnout. 

I wish this really did address the issue. Yet, time and time again, I've seen people who have felt overworked and burnt out for years. This despite making workload reduction a part of their New Year's resolution. I would have conversations with engineers who said they will work less so they can spend more time with their loved ones. They're always on-call and have not taken a real vacation in years. Yet, in the middle of our conversation, they would be on their phones responding to emails about another Severity 1 issue. 

When I ask them how long this has been going on, the typical response is "I've been doing this for years..." 

This makes it very difficult to roll out of bed everyday just to deal with alerts, tickets, and issues - most of which are basic entry level IT stuff. Good luck trying to do anything outside of work. Mental exhaustion becomes a norm that you feel like a walking zombie at the end of the day.

And 2020 made it worse with the pandemic - with a much heavier workload but not much to compensate for it. 

Didn't I say New Year's resolutions don't get you out of burnout? 

Here's the bottom line: if you don't deal with overwork and burnout soon, it's going to get worse. And you don't want to drag it for yet another year.

Join me in my very first Facebook Live for 2021 where I talk about how you can finally break free from burnout and make it disappear for good - even without New Year's resolutions. Tomorrow Friday, January 8th at 7:00pm Eastern/4:00pm Pacific.  

NOTE: I'll be hosting this inside my private Facebook group  IT Professional's Guide to Break Free from Fatigue, Overwhelm, & Burnout. Make sure you request to join the group before Friday so you can join the Facebook Live event and access the recording afterwards.