Burnout is the death by a thousand cuts. It’s not usually “this ONE thing about my job sucks”. It’s typically “this is due, that is due, this person is a dick, we have a massive project coming up that we’re not prepared for, this person isn’t contributing enough, etc”.
All these little things beat us down, And it’s important to figure, which ones you have no control over, and which can you solve. Try to stop worrying about the ones without control and attempt to focus on those that can be fixed. It may not be all of them but it should help.
Oh I work for myself now, this was years ago, I’m a far better employer :)
But be careful with this kind of advice. Some people’s jobs require that they do need to worry about things they can’t control. Other people, namely. And that’s literally the job description.
The addict’s prayer or whatever it’s called is not applicable to a lot of jobs.
To be fair, there’s still an element of what you can/can’t control as a people manager. Depending on the job, you can control the training your people get, the cadence of check ins, the deadlines/milestones they’re supposed to meet, etc.
You can’t directly control the people, and if someone doesn’t take any of what you provide re: support for them to do the thing despite your efforts, you can’t control that. But in turn, you can control performance improvement plans, 1-on-1s to figure out if there’s an underlying problem/cause that can be addressed, or failing all else, elements of the process that eventually show said person the door.
Doesn’t mean that all of this isn’t stressful as fuck, or that you’re not subject to downwards pressure too.
This is all an aside - I’m legit happy you’re doing better working for yourself!
