I think there’s an effect that isn’t well-recognised, but which is something along the lines of “working-from-home-in-the-pandemic-low-level-chronic-burnout”.
I see this a lot in many colleagues - everyone is just really tired, fed up, fighting to keep things on a level and just exist.
It’s a weird concept, as (from a personal perspective) pre-pandemic, working from home was always a pleasanter, stress-reducing choice. So I don’t think it’s purely related to the location - but there’s definitely something happening on a large scale related to how we’ve been working and existing over the past couple of years now.
Anyway, I wonder if this is what you’re describing? And if it is, then the ‘procrastination’ you describe maybe isn’t actually procrastination, but a natural (protective?) secondary reaction to something else going on in the background.
And if so, the correct response is probably to recognise and accept it, not beat yourself up for not being productive, and instead figure out what you need to do to recover and heal.
Definitely agree with this. I was eventually so burnt out that I quit my job and wallowed in depression for a good 6 months and started therapy. After starting to rebuild myself and my personal environment, I finally felt like I was in the right place to work again. I recently started a new job and I feel like a different person. I couldn't imagine procrastinating because I'm so motivated to work again.
I know what I did is maybe not an option for a lot of people (thank god for the German social net and healthcare system), but I feel many could really benefit from therapy and focusing on their mental health for a while.
I recently started a new job and I feel like a different person. I couldn't imagine procrastinating because I'm so motivated to work again.
I am hoping to do the same over the next few months. I haven't started looking, and I am quite horrified to do so, but my back is up against the wall at this point, and I have no where left to hide.
If I stay at my current job, my life will be a constant spiral downwards, and if I leave but cannot find another job, then my life will still be a constant spiral downwards, so I have nothing to lose in my search.
- WFH means normally working alone in physical terms, normally we have aside a physical local social life, during covid scenario that part was much cut and as a result people WFH are also lone people (well, except for family members);
- WFH in the classic sense, with a properly organized work is a thing, people normally working in an office that have been forced to work at home arranging a place with craptops (and perhaps no external monitor(s), real keyboard, good desk etc) forced to use crappy VDIs and overloaded + badly used communications is another totally different beast.
In general WFH, with a good home, a dedicated room for the working part with anything needed there, a good surrounding area etc is a thing, living in small flat in dense cities, with no good home setup, incertitude about how much such model will remain and how in general so incertitude about mid and long term investments, like leaving the city and flat for a house in a good place with the risk of being forced back, even worst hybrid work with the need of moving gears from home to office and back etc does not help at all.
A good, well cooked steak, is good; a potentially equally good steak, badly cooked, badly cooked can be just a shoe sole. Things pushed rapidly typically have issues, even when potentially they are extraordinary good and life changing for good. That's is. Pushing a good thing sometimes is needed because people tend to be reactionary, just think about the history of potatoes in Europe where at first no one want them fearing they are bad, poisonous etc and only after a massive campaign of military goes through the countryside dropping potatoes around showing how easy they grow, then coming back collecting them and eating them remaining perfectly alive, satisfied and healthy change the game. In the meantime some get seriously ill for having eaten potatoes left exposed at sunlight tough. People need a tool, an incentive but also time to understand it before profiting.
normally we have aside a physical local social life
A normal physical local social life is dramatically smaller in quantity than the working day. Meeting friends for meals or weekend activities does not really make up for being alone 9-5 Monday-Friday. And it is pretty hard to activate people on weeknights after 5-7 hours of Zoom.
That's one of the reason we (humans, in various countries around the world) actually push 4 days workweek especially since the evolution of productivity and actual natural resource scarcity.
It will take time, of course, but that's the good target we can tray to reach, in the end basing social life around work is not that good for many reasons, specially when you do not like much a colleague but have to work with him/her etc.
Comments
I think there’s an effect that isn’t well-recognised, but which is something along the lines of “working-from-home-in-the-pandemic-low-level-chronic-burnout”.
I see this a lot in many colleagues - everyone is just really tired, fed up, fighting to keep things on a level and just exist.
It’s a weird concept, as (from a personal perspective) pre-pandemic, working from home was always a pleasanter, stress-reducing choice. So I don’t think it’s purely related to the location - but there’s definitely something happening on a large scale related to how we’ve been working and existing over the past couple of years now.
Anyway, I wonder if this is what you’re describing? And if it is, then the ‘procrastination’ you describe maybe isn’t actually procrastination, but a natural (protective?) secondary reaction to something else going on in the background.
And if so, the correct response is probably to recognise and accept it, not beat yourself up for not being productive, and instead figure out what you need to do to recover and heal.
Definitely agree with this. I was eventually so burnt out that I quit my job and wallowed in depression for a good 6 months and started therapy. After starting to rebuild myself and my personal environment, I finally felt like I was in the right place to work again. I recently started a new job and I feel like a different person. I couldn't imagine procrastinating because I'm so motivated to work again.
I know what I did is maybe not an option for a lot of people (thank god for the German social net and healthcare system), but I feel many could really benefit from therapy and focusing on their mental health for a while.
I am hoping to do the same over the next few months. I haven't started looking, and I am quite horrified to do so, but my back is up against the wall at this point, and I have no where left to hide.
If I stay at my current job, my life will be a constant spiral downwards, and if I leave but cannot find another job, then my life will still be a constant spiral downwards, so I have nothing to lose in my search.
Two potential elements:
- WFH means normally working alone in physical terms, normally we have aside a physical local social life, during covid scenario that part was much cut and as a result people WFH are also lone people (well, except for family members);
- WFH in the classic sense, with a properly organized work is a thing, people normally working in an office that have been forced to work at home arranging a place with craptops (and perhaps no external monitor(s), real keyboard, good desk etc) forced to use crappy VDIs and overloaded + badly used communications is another totally different beast.
In general WFH, with a good home, a dedicated room for the working part with anything needed there, a good surrounding area etc is a thing, living in small flat in dense cities, with no good home setup, incertitude about how much such model will remain and how in general so incertitude about mid and long term investments, like leaving the city and flat for a house in a good place with the risk of being forced back, even worst hybrid work with the need of moving gears from home to office and back etc does not help at all.
A good, well cooked steak, is good; a potentially equally good steak, badly cooked, badly cooked can be just a shoe sole. Things pushed rapidly typically have issues, even when potentially they are extraordinary good and life changing for good. That's is. Pushing a good thing sometimes is needed because people tend to be reactionary, just think about the history of potatoes in Europe where at first no one want them fearing they are bad, poisonous etc and only after a massive campaign of military goes through the countryside dropping potatoes around showing how easy they grow, then coming back collecting them and eating them remaining perfectly alive, satisfied and healthy change the game. In the meantime some get seriously ill for having eaten potatoes left exposed at sunlight tough. People need a tool, an incentive but also time to understand it before profiting.
A normal physical local social life is dramatically smaller in quantity than the working day. Meeting friends for meals or weekend activities does not really make up for being alone 9-5 Monday-Friday. And it is pretty hard to activate people on weeknights after 5-7 hours of Zoom.
That's one of the reason we (humans, in various countries around the world) actually push 4 days workweek especially since the evolution of productivity and actual natural resource scarcity.
It will take time, of course, but that's the good target we can tray to reach, in the end basing social life around work is not that good for many reasons, specially when you do not like much a colleague but have to work with him/her etc.