Recovering from Burnout

I took a quiz about burnout. According to this quiz, I'm 5 points away from total burnout. Which, you know, gives a girl something to strive for.

Of course, I'd be more impressed if the Score Interpretation weren't so redundant:

50 – 59	You may be at severe risk of burnout - do something about this urgently
60 - 75	You may be at very severe risk of burnout - do something about this urgently

So all I get for being a 69 instead of a 50 is the addition of the word "very"? That's an affront to my sense of personal achievement.

Also, the suggestions are a little vague, no? Do something! Thanks for the advice. To be fair, the article suggested at the bottom of the quiz page does offer a variety of tips, and it's not the article's fault that not many of them are useful in today's economy. (Doing Nothing, Changing Career, and Changing Jobs are all sort of non-starters at the moment.) My personal favorite is "Using Burnout as a Trigger for Positive Growth." I've done that to great advantage in the past, so much so that it's second nature now to try to find something that I can get out of the bad situation. I'll admit that the SWOT analysis concept seems a lot like work, but then again, it works at work, so I'll give it a whirl.

That takes time, though, and it would be nice to have some immediate gratification. I have a hankering for something totally absurd to leaven my work life. A few years ago when I was incredibly depressed about my job, my cousin and I went to the dollar store and bought a bunch of stuff and decorated cubes for people in three different buildings at my old work campus. I think that such an act at my current job would bring on some kind of international incident, or at least a small criminal investigation, but I really feel the need to do something crazy and fun and harmless to just lighten the fuck up.

[Tents fingers, Monty-Burns style, and waits for brilliance to ensue...]








[Still waiting...]







[Says "fuck it" and goes for a nice, relaxing cup of tea.]