Rethinking Burnout: It's Not Just Overworking

Delving into creative burnout — How fewer hours doesn't always mean escaping the burnout trap

“Existential burnout is something different; it occurs when you begin to question the very foundations of your life and beliefs.”

Quote from Burnout isn't always about overworking by

The Hyphen by Emma Gannon

As I’m laying in bed with yet another cold, I asked myself. ‘Is this just a coincidence that I’ve had laryngitis and cold in a month.’ Maybe it is. Or maybe it's a sign of burnout that I haven’t realised yet.

Logically, it doesn’t seem like burnout. I’ve not been over working. I’ve been opening and closing my laptop within typical business hours. It’s at a pace that most designers would envy. But what if this is still burnout?

😓 The Unexpected Face of Burnout

I’ve suffered from burn out twice. And on reflection, both of those times, it had nothing to do with how much I was working, but rather what I was working on.

When I’m working on projects that align with my values, time flies, and I’m in my element — I suppose you could call this flow. 

But when I’m knee-deep in a project that’s dull, poorly planned, or has a team that’s unmotivated and sceptical, the struggle is real. As a neurodivergent individual, dealing with ambiguity can feel almost physically painful, and I end up expending more mental energy on it than my neurotypical buddies seem far more relaxed and seem to handle it with ease.

🪞Reflecting on Past Burnout

The previous episodes of burnout had a shared theme: Feeling ignored.

For example, working for 9 months on a project with a huge client, restarting it 7 or 8 times. It felt like absolute insanity. My concerns constantly overlooked, and my ever building frustration that no one would listen. This along with dealing with a difficult client who wanted to reinvent the wheel each time a new project owner came on board was draining.

In this project egos ruled, and the focus of designing and building a successful service for users at the bottom of the list. In hindsight the agency owner didn’t care either, as long as the expensive project work kept coming, it didn’t matter about whether it was useful.

However this kind of work went against my values of being honest, upfront, and purposeful design. I’m not here to sell snake oil projects, regardless of how big of a budget the client has.

🗺️ Navigating Workplace Politics

Another commonality for burnout, has been the lack of clear roles and responsibilities. Being told to be proactive, to lead where I can, but also not to step on toes – it’s confusing and exhausting. This kind of political behaviour saps my energy to a point there is barely anything left for the design work itself.

So this week, I don’t really have any tips or tricks, or just pure positive vibes for you. This week's newsletter is just a reminder that if you’re feeling burnt out, even without working excessive hours, your feelings are valid. Sometimes, all you need is a bit of rest, whether that's from people, projects, or clients.

For now, I'll be keeping a watchful eye on my day-to-day activities to make sure I'm not teetering on the edge of a burnout episode. Perhaps it's just a stroke of bad luck to fall ill twice in one month. But it's always better to be mindful, right?

Have you ever felt burnt out even when not overworking? What were the signs? Have you overcome it? How? I’d love to hear and learn from your experiences.

Until next week — Liz 🍔

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Before I go, here is this week's top jobs I found that I wanted to share with you.

🤑 Jobs

Skin + Me: Junior Designer

“We’re looking for an experienced Junior Designer to join our Creative Team at Skin + Me. This is a hybrid working role with three days a week in our Paddington HQ (Mon, Tue, Fri) and two days remote.“

👉🏻 Read more and apply

Faculty: Senior Product Designer

“As a Senior Product Designer  you will be responsible for the end-to-end user centred design process within the government services. You’ll be  collaborating with  user researchers and engagement managers to run discovery sessions with the clients.”

👉🏻 Read more and apply

Cleo: Lead Product Designer

“We're moving through uncharted territory with brand new design challenges around chat, UI, brand, ToV and applied machine learning that you can't just look up the answer to. We're a small but growing design team with an excellent bunch of engineers who are building faster than we can design.“

👉🏻 Read more and apply

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