Turns out, it's serious business:
http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/adult-health/in-depth/burnout/art-20046642
Job burnout is a special type of job stress — a state of physical, emotional or mental exhaustion combined with doubts about your competence and the value of your work. If you think you might be experiencing job burnout, take a closer look at the phenomenon. What you learn might help you face the problem and take action before job burnout affects your health.
Could you be experiencing job burnout?
Ask yourself the following questions:
Have you become cynical or critical at work?
Do you drag yourself to work and have trouble getting started once you arrive?
Have you become irritable or impatient with co-workers, customers or clients?
Do you lack the energy to be consistently productive?
Do you lack satisfaction from your achievements?
Do you feel disillusioned about your job?
Are you using food, drugs or alcohol to feel better or to simply not feel?
Have your sleep habits or appetite changed?
Are you troubled by unexplained headaches, backaches or other physical complaints?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, you might be experiencing job burnout. Be sure to consult your doctor or a mental health provider, however. Some of these symptoms can also indicate certain health conditions, such as a thyroid disorder or depression.
(Read more at the link, above.)
I saw a thing on it this morning on TV and was about to kid around with the list of symptoms posted on the story, which made it seem like everyone I know has burnout, but then I did a search on it and saw the Mayo Clinic article, above. TIL about job burnout...
Does work burnout = government employee (or contractor)? because I answered yes to most of the questions, but am not burned out at work, the wheels of government turn slow. (i.e. if I keep at it, my project may get done before FY17)
I'd say it's deeper than just "I'm not a Monday kind of guy". This would be like there's a raincloud over you ALL THE DAMN TIME and if your boat is rocked, someone is about to find out what happens when you poke a bear in the ass. I've had that before at some schools I was at and some of my early IT gigs. Did not have that at Microsoft, but I got out in 2001. Noticed it starting at where I taught and I got out of there before I got worse. Do not feel it now, at least not for longer than a day or two. Stuff gets resolved here.
Sounds a lot like my last job. One guy doing all the work and the rest collecting pay checks makes for a good run. When I left the CTO said between you and me "we're screwed". Funny that didn't cross his mind when he was hiring unqualified engineers like a plague. I was less than pleasant at that place lol.
With my CCIE studies I hit full-on burnout around January of this year. So its been a hell yes to all of those since then.
The instructor from my bootcamp gave me the best advice. Just ignore it and it will back off. It did and my studies just kept moving along. Now everything else in my life was falling apart or on hold so its not something to take lightly.
Im still recovering from it and answer yes to most of these still. I really need a vacation to reset.
Blerg, after running up some good steam, a variety of factors has led to a total collapse in CCIE study morale for me. I have another month to decide whether I want to have a crack by mid november or just can it until Jan/Feb. TBH I don't really need anymore 'study', I just need more speed and memorization of the niche topics/commands (e.g. not having to waste time doing "?" if asked to do an ipv6 mld task, or experimenting with regexes for a complex bogon filter, or wasting time with finding the right sub-hierarchy level for EIGRP named mode commands).
My work morale is fine though, enjoying it, but conversely, a lot of it is not cisco R&S (shakes fist at firewalls)
The symptoms should also include:
Do you think about climbing a bell tower near your work with a sniper rifle? If so then you may be suffering from job burnout.