After years of burnout, my psyche rewrote 6 to prevent 7. When I get to that point, my subconscious rebels and I stare into the depths of the void rather than work. My conscious mind notices this behavior, I tell everybody what's happening and I cancel or indefinitely delay everything except for literal life and death. I take a few days off, then set a goal of one focused task a day. If that only takes an hour, that's fine, I did the task. Gradually I increase the load, but I know from repeated burnout cycles that impatience will deepen the wound.
> a goal of one focused task a day. If that only takes an hour, that's fine, I did the task.
It's a rare privilege to be able to rebalance your own workload like that. As a consultant, I have some ability to do this, but if I accomplish one focused task that takes an hour one day, I only get paid for one hour that day. I cannot make myself less busy without literally lowering my pay.
It is. I'm an established researcher, and my coworkers see the lead-up to the crash -- at levels 3-5, I'm over-producing enough to keep folks busy through the lull. I know that my productivity has peaks and troughs, and when I'm on fire it's difficult to hold back (ADHD life-hack: doing what you love risks detrimental hyperfocus). But, as a researcher, when I'm doing my job, I'm not unblocking issues; I'm creating work for others months to years down the road. Supporting that work (this is where I can be a blocker) is often very low-touch and high-reward so that's what I focus on in the down-times.
If I was an hourly contractor, I'd be billing for those extra hours in the hopes that I could cover myself after a crash. But I'm not sure that contract research is a thing. And... have you considered billing by the day? I've never been a contractor but I've heard it's a thing.
But... it's not like I have a choice in the matter. I've forced myself to work through burnout for literally years at a time, and now that part of me is broken forever. That's what "unsustainable" means. I will eventually quit tech, or move on to management, when the time comes.
If you cannot find slack and your busyness is frequently hitting 5-7, breakdowns will occur. If you can't recover without going broke, you haven't found a sustainable balance. Again, not a contractor, but the advice I've heard from contractors is to charge more.
> the advice I've heard from contractors is to charge more.
Maybe I need to get out. I can't charge more: I'm salaried in a giant corporation full of consultants. They literally have a "quota" for how much they can give out in raises each year, despite the fact that me earning more means they also earn more (via the multiplier). Doesn't matter, it's heresy to give employees high raises.
Except I'm not really salaried, because I only get paid what I bill. And I can't bill for downtime, because that's fraud. So I really have the worst of all worlds. Going for a 30 minute walk to clear my head means 30 minutes of less pay, even though my employer benefits from that. For tax, overtime, and labor law purposes, I'm salaried and exempt (to the benefit of my employer), but for my actual paycheck, I'm hourly (to the benefit of my employer).
Frankly I doubt the practice would be legal in any country with reasonable fair labor laws. Unfortunately, I live in the U.S.
Still, it's better than working in some code mill where they burn you for 60 or 70 hours per week and pay you for 40.
Wow, I'm really sorry to hear that. You're not a contractor, you're a second-class employee. Best of luck on getting out. What a shit economy to attempt that in right now. :/
I was young when the dot-com bubble popped. I weathered that by going back to school and working part time. From there I developed some in-demand skills that make my work rewarding. My student loans are nearly paid off and my horizon looks alright for a couple of years. We'll see how this recession goes; I'm always on the lookout for a viable exit strategy and that's gotten quite dim lately.
