I never realized how burned out I am

[draftermatt]

I hate my job. It's not the work that I hate, it's the people I work for mainly.

Sure the customers do irritating things and I get frustrated, but I can deal with that. I vent at times, but I can deal.

I've been burned out for a while, a vacation can't fix it, nothing can. I know I need a new job, but circumstances being what they are that's not in the cards for a few months, maybe more. I can basically do this job on Auto Pilot anymore so it's not killing me.

Today I had an epiphany of sorts.

I got a call from our guy in the field telling me to make a piece 6" wider next trip, after I already added 6" for this trip. So realizing that it's probably not my problem he says he'll take some measurements and get back to me when he's done today.

And I'm dreading that call. I want to be gone when that call happens. I'm so burned out I no longer want to talk on the phone to anyone. I'd rather get a message on my desk, an e-mail, etc. That way all I have to do is make the changes.

I don't even have the desire to go over things to figure out what happened. I'm to the point where you can tell me to do damn near anything and I'm going to do it just to make everyone happy. To hell with it not making sense.

Wow this is getting bad.

Anyone else out there have stories of being burned out?

[KhirasHY]

Funny you should ask...

http://www.customerssuck.com/board/s...ad.php?t=35296

Bit long to retype, but I'm trying to recover from burnout now

[Shangri-laschild]

Yeah, I've gotten burned out before. I was only staying at the job because my new manager was awesome. Well suddenly she gets fired and my original manager becomes manager of this location. Now, when I agreed to be assistant and get sent to a new store, they told me I could keep my part time job (the one I'm now full time at). They said it could be worked around because I stated that that was the only way that I would accept. My original boss is now my boss again, and is telling me that it's not going to fly. I have to choose one or the other. When I tell her right off the bat that I would step down as assistant, she told me to think about it for a bit first. Considering I had been doing assistant work for a while and not been given full pay or training to put up with all that shit. Especially when I loved my part time job way more than the gas station job. It ended in me sobbing infront of my best friend who proceeded to call in for me because I couldn't get any words out. I turned in a letter of imediate resignation the next day.

[BrassCowboy]

Back when I was working at the photo lab, the same thing happened to me. I came into work, but I was just going through the motions. Customers would ask me questions, and I would reply with one or two word answers. I wasn't even able to joke around with regular customers or coworkers. The main reason for this was the fact that I was the longest tenured employee (non-manager) but I was the least paid. Also, I had been working full time, when I was only supposed to work part time, but they kept calling me in on days off and I needed money so I came in. To top it off, I saw a kid my age suffer a heat stroke at the front of the store.

I'll never forget what my manager said to me one day when I was stocking:

"Hey, BC. Why don't you quit for like 2-3 weeks, and then re-apply for more money? You look like you could use a break."

I took him up on his offer and took a trip to NYC. I came back, got my old job back and $2-3 more per hour. I stuck around for another year or so before I moved out of state. I miss the place now. Who would have thought?

[powerboy]

I was working for my last construction job. I was running one of the saws and I could finish any job, that they wanted, that day. I was on auto pilot while working there. it was a good job, great coworkers. Just I was burned out. So I asked the sups if i could do something else for atleast a few days. When they said no, I finished that day. The following Monday, I had quit. And that was the first time, while working at the place

[nomorecarts]

I got burnt out at pushing carts, and was hooked up with a speedy transfer to cashier(they didn't even make me work out the schedule that was up, they wrote it in for me) which I now hate, I hate the work, but am stuck there until my birthday. I'll stay, because I'm in a company that has locations all over the country, so if I want to move, I have a job, and it's an easy company to excell in if you have a decent work ethic and brain to mouth filter, and they pay significantly more than anyone else, so I'd put in my 2 weeks notice, then go on vacation, and a month after I get back is my birthday, so there's no point in leaving.

[SilverOrb]

I remember when I used to work at the Pit of Hell... I would get physically ILL before I had to be at work. My stomach would feel like I was being kicked... It was horrible!

I started just ignoring my bosses, getting my stuff done, and smiling when the customers yelled. Ring speed? HAH! Going out of my way to make sure the new cashiers didn't blow up the register? Nope. Busting my butt to make sure I got carts in fast? HAHAHAHA.

What were they gonna do, fire me?

Eventually I quit.

Sorry. I think I need more sleep, less caffeine.

[Pedersen]

Burned out? Why, whatever do you mean? I never was afraid of my own personal cell phone, fearful that it would ring and something would be broken. Never fearful that it would ring and I would miss it. Never fearful that a call would be missed due to being in a no signal area. Fearful that my boss would scream at me for the umpteenth time over something he didn't understand (his slogan should be "Half the facts, none of the answers").

Was never afraid to go into work. Afraid to see how he would blow his stack that day. Afraid that he would, once again, scream at me, insult me, and refuse to allow me to defend myself. Afraid that I would be told not to "talk back" to him whenever I tried to defend or explain anything.

Never dealt with him abusing his authority on the occasions that I did manage to show him how and why and where he was wrong. Never had him literally order me to another state on a help desk call that didn't require me to leave my desk just because I had shown him to be wrong and that was his way of getting revenge. Never dealt with him telling me, repeatedly, how he could replace me in a day or two. Never dealt with him bragging that he was so great that recruiters were still calling him daily to try and hire him into a different company (and he is still stuck at that job because now he can't get a new one! Karma can be wonderful sometimes .

Never dealt with having a micromanaging insecure jerk of a boss who believed that anything I did was an attempt to get his job. Never dealt with a manager who was noticeably physically larger than me and who used that additional size to be as intimidating as possible. Never was afraid that the attacks would turn physical.

Never quit that job after finally having enough of the shit. Never told his boss about the way my boss is, either. On multiple occasions, both well before quitting and when turning in my resignation.

Nope. Never did that. Really. Honest. That's all just ... stuff I heard from a friend. Who asked not to be named. Yeah, that's the ticket. My "friend" told me all about it. Really.

Not got a clue how people can get burned out.

[Snowbird]

I burned out and then my back did the same.

I got to the point of staring at nothing for an hour or more when I got home, after getting up in the morning with a headache and feeling as if I hadn't slept at all because my dreams were all about being at work, not getting the work done, more boxes, more paperwork, more returns, more getting told I wasn't doing enough when I was busting my butt (literally) day in and day out.

I became paranoid and afraid of being scheduled with certain people because I'd be hit on, yelled at, or treated like a brainless, inept slave(and these people weren't even the management, they were self-aggrandized part-timers!). I was a normally cheerful person who became snappish and withdrawn, like an animal with a painful injury trying to protect itself from a hostile environment.

Summary: It was bad. It was very, very bad.

I hope you can find a new job and quickly. The burnout isn't worth whatever they are paying you.

[technical.angel]

Never had him literally order me to another state on a help desk call that didn't require me to leave my desk

Well, it would depend, are we talking flying or driving?

If we're talking flying, and hotels, and stuff, then I'm all for it!

If we're talking driving, ah hell no!

EDIT: Oh! I got it! (If you're required to drive) Do the fix from your computer, estimate the amount of time that it would have taken you to drive down there and back. Bribe the people in the location to say you were there. Go home, sleep, return within the estimated time.

[Antisocial_Worker]

Heavens no. I've never been burned out.

Not once have I gotten physically ill at the sight of my workplace coming into view through my windshield. Nor have I honestly, truly wished death on some hapless little old lady simply because she dared to come through the front doors looking for, of all things, a room. At a hotel. If you can imagine.

I've never had to worry about a volatile boss whose mood could swing from Marianas Trench bitch to Mt. Everest joy over the course of minutes, nor did I ever have to deal with her ordering me to quit, telling me that she was going to fire everyone in the place. She never called me stupid, and we never once got into a screaming match so loud that worried guests were coming down to the lobby in fearful little clots to see what was wrong.

Never have I held a job where I was so abused, so exploited, and so underpaid that when I applied at a temp agency the woman interviewing me gasped and blurted out, "You could make more money than that working at McDonald's!" before coloring, covering her hand with her mouth and saying that she didn't mean to imply that I should be working at McDonald's -- nor did I end up with no fewer than two other potential employers gaping at me in open-mouthed shock at hearing what my job entailed and what I got paid for it. Nor did one of those employers, who happens to be my current employer, ask "Why on earth do you stay there?"

Nope. Not me.

Okay...

...so...

...I...

...lied.

[Sylvia727]

I hated my very first job. I was one of three or four clerks that did any work, and I always got placed in the worse job, even though the manager specifically told me that the first one there got to pick her station and I always showed up early. The other girls gossiped, read fashion rags, left me to clean up the whole place, and I usually did their jobs too. I couldn't transfer to another position because the manager was sexist; all the gals were in one station, all the guys were in the other. The last month there was the worst. The other girls had figured out that they could dump anything on me, and even if I had enough backbone to say no to them, the manager would yell at me if it didn't get done. I started calling in sick because I'd get headaches and stomachaches when it was time to leave for work. Fortunately, a girl that had been there one week gave her two weeks notice because she hated the environment there, and a lightbulb went off in my head. "Oh! I can just quit!" Problem solved.

[draftermatt]

Today I actually cringed when the phone rang. It wasn't even my phone, but the main office phone.

Sigh.