Tag: Burnout

You May Hate Your Job

You need an emergency fund because, one day, you may hate your job. When the day comes that you simply can’t take it anymore, you’ll need money. After all, most of us work for money. Our paycheques let us buy food, shelter, and other little things to keep body and soul together. Quitting a job doesn’t eliminate the need for money.

People have told me that I need to be more positive. Okay – here goes. I’m positive that you need an Escape Fund. If you’re very lucky, then you love your job. Each morning, you spring out of bed with a ferocious eagerness to get back to your paid employment. Accomplishing your employer’s tasks put a smile on your face and a song in your heart. If that’s the case, fantastic! You are living a great life and you probably can’t understand how the rest of us aren’t as happy at work at you are.

If you’re not one of the Fortunate Few, then you should building your Escape Fund. This is the money that will tide you over between jobs. If you’ve ever thought that you may hate your job, then you should have an Escape Fund. This is the money that will pay for your life between your last paycheque and your next one. Let’s say you need to move across country for your next opportunity. That’s unlikely to be a cheap trip. Maybe you’ve found a new job but it doesn’t start for another 3 weeks. If you have money tucked away in an Escape Fund, then you can quit your job today. You don’t have to prolong the agony of working at a job you hate for any longer than you have to. Your Escape Fund can allow you to have a 3 week break before you start your next job.

Burnout is real. Given the capitalist structure we live in, there’s no real incentive for anyone to talk about it. If you’re a super-stellar employee, there’s a good chance that your employer will want you to recover and continue to be a profit-center stellar employee for the company. And if you’re not valuable, then it’s far more likely that your employer will wish you the best of luck and get down to the business of finding someone else to do your job.

Today is when you should start preparing for the possibility of burnout. Maybe it will never happen to you. And if it doesn’t, then great! However, hope is not a plan. If you do get burnt out, then you may need to make some serious choices about your future employment options. Having an Escape Fund will buy you some breathing space to make well-considered decisions. You need not do anything super-drastic so long as you know that your basic needs will be met. Having the funds to buy yourself some time and space to think clearly is imperative. You do not want to ever feel like you don’t have options.

You may hate your job years from now, even if you love/like/tolerate it today. Maybe your work-bestie leaves. Perhaps the management style changes or your responsibilities increase to an unsustainable level. There’s always the possibility that harassment in the work place is left unaddressed or increases. Maybe the monotony of your role becomes too much to bear and you just want a change. There are any number of reasons why you may hate your job at some point in your working life.

My suggestion to you is that you start preparing for the possibility. After all, thinking about the possibility will also get your thinking about solutions to the problem. Who knows? One of the solutions for you just may lead you to something that you do love. Wouldn’t that be great? A job that you love and a nicely pot of money sitting on the side, just in case?

Prepare for Burnout

Do you want to know a secret about burnout? Here it is… almost everyone keeps burnout a secret from everyone else.

I’ve attended many graduation ceremonies in my time, my own and those of loved ones. I’ve also had various mentors over the years. While they weren’t all great, they all taught me something valuable. And I’ve also had the opportunity to read many, many books & blogs about career-planning.

Here’s the secret… Not a single one of those sources has ever told me that burnout is a thing, and that I might one day face it. Not a single one of my mentors gave any hint that they were dealing with or had ever dealt with burnout – not a single one of them said a word about it. There was never a hint that decades in a given career could lead to anything other than stability, satisfaction, and challenging work.

It’s astonishing! When you think of how many people you might know who just go through the motions, it’s really quite remarkable that there’s an almost coordinated collusion by those-who-have-gone-before to never tell those-who-are-coming along that they won’t always be happy, engaged, or fulfilled by their chosen career.

Quick! Do you love your job?

Whether the answer is yes or no, you should save money now in case you get burned out at work at some point during your working life. In my humble opinion, people don’t talk about the possibility of burnout when planning their careers. If you’re lucky, you start out eager and happy and engaged. And if you’re very, very, very lucky, you’ll continue to be enthusiastically engaged with your career for a long as you have it.

Not all of us are so fortunate. There are people who simply get burned out and simply. Can’t. Do. It. Anymore! They can’t drag themselves into work another day. If you were to ask them to be honest, they would say that they feel like their lives are being wasted as they grind it out. In short, they hate the lives that they’re living. 

Of course, maybe it’s not your job that’s causing your burnout. Maybe you have obligations to extended family that are stressful. Perhaps you’re having trouble getting out of debt. There could be an undiagnosed physical illness. Whatever the reason, the end result is burnout as you try to handle everything that’s on your plate. The ugly reality is that burnout drains your ability to feel joy, to laugh with abandon, to experience that joie de vivre that makes life so much more enjoyable.

If this is you, then know that this is not a good way to live the only life that you have!

The antidote to your burnout might be a break from work. Definitely speak to a medical professional for a proper diagnosis. At the very least, a doctor can figure out if what you’re feeling is caused by something other than your job. And your doctor is the one who can put you on stress leave if that’s what you need to recover from the horrible feeling of burnout. 

Build Your Stash

Trust me when I say that the bills won’t stop during your recovery period!!!

What do you mean, Blue Lobster?

Money in the bank and cash flow from investments gives you some options when you’re facing burnout. Instead of being miserable and continuing to feel the bleakness that penetrates to the very depth of one’s soul, you have money so that means you can quit if you need too. You have the financial wherewithal to leave employment situations which make you want to cry.

Having a nice, fat cash cushion alleviates any concerns about how to pay for life without a job. Think of your recovery as a mini-retirement, or a little sabbatical. There might not be any income coming into your household, but the cash cushion means that you don’t have to worry about that. You can focus on doing what you need to do in order to feel some joy in your life again.

It would be unfair if I didn’t recognize that there are some great employers out there who recognize that burnout is a reality. If you have burnout and work for such an employer, then you’re quite lucky despite how you feel about your job. If you’re considered a good employee, then you may be able to get time off from you employer to recuperate. In other words, good employees may be offered a sabbatical. Great! Kudos to employers who recognize the benefits of helping their best employees to deal with burnout. However, sabbaticals need to be funded with real money.

And let’s be realistic – this is a benefit that is very rare. Be brutally honest with yourself. Would your current employer give you months off to recover from burnout?

Hopefully, you’re reading this when you don’t have burnout. And if the deities are kind, you will never experience this horrible condition. But as the Wise Ones know, hope is not a plan. Take steps today to start preparing financially for a time when you just might need to take more than a week or two of vacation to re-charge your batteries.

No one likes to think about bad things happening. Sadly, this preference won’t stop burnout from occurring. Be proactive! Take steps now to financially cushion yourself just in case you need to walk away from your job to protect your mental health.