Let’s Talk About Overworking and Burnout in Crypto
Personally, I enjoy “moderately working overtime”, say 1 hour on a weekday, and probably 5 hours max on a weekend; but I’d try to only “overwork” very occasionally.
Outline
1. Intro: My personal experience
2. Why do we overwork and burn out?
3. Signs and Solutions for Overworking and Burnout
4. Prevention
5. Personal Thoughts on the Absence of Discussions on the Topic
6. ConclusionDisclaimer: This article aims to raise awareness and start conversations on overworking and burnout. If you encounter any health issues, please seek professional help!
1. Intro: My personal experience
I am a lazy man. I can procrastinate on chores until friends are coming to visit. I can be too cosy to get out of bed on a weekend morning and instead wait until lunchtime. And I pay close attention to deadlines as I aim to meet only the bare minimum in most aspects of life. 😌
However, I also consider myself a hard-working enough person. For example, during March 2021 and July 2023, I wrote 14 articles while having a full-time (voluntarily overtime) job. Most of these articles are technical and detailed, demanding significant time and effort.
I don’t regret spending most of my personal time on those articles; the process of digesting and sharing knowledge has greatly benefited my professionalism and given me a sense of achievement and self-assurance.
But the cost of experiencing burnout for more than half a year, doubting the meaning of work and life, thinking about quitting every 3 days, and feeling tired and dreaded at the start of a new workday?
And getting dysautonomia, despite being someone who is minimalist/stingy but willing to pay whatever it takes for good health?
I would be lying if I said I would choose to exploit my body in the same way if given a second chance. At the very least, I would approach it slower, wiser, and with more restraint on my overworking addiction, and…
I would appreciate some help from others.
Warnings from people who have experienced burnout before, kind words from coworkers when they see consistent GitHub commits after work over an extended period. More random posts, discussions, conference talks, or podcasts on the topic; and perhaps even companies setting rules on acceptable overworking hours (I know this sounds stupid and impossible, but I’ll explain my rationale below 🙇).
Before we dive into this sensitive but crucial topic, I’d like to share a song about addiction, struggle, and self-reflection:
2. Why do we overwork and burn out?
We crypto people work a lot, even outside of regular work hours.
Work? Wait a second, why do we necessarily call it “working” when we’re paying attention to crypto after work? Can’t we just be having fun checking crypto news, looking up crypto prices, and sharing memes? 🤔
How do we even know if we’re working or not? Because if we’re not, then it’s wrong to say that we “overwork,” right?
Of course, whether something is considered work depends on the reason for doing it, e.g., if it’s a request from work. But really, if distinguishing between working or not were that easy, no one would ever burn out. We could simply tell ourselves, “I’m not working now,” and that would be the end of the discussion.
Let me ask you: Have your thoughts ever wandered into a work-related issue when showering? Have you ever hung out with friends, and somehow the conversation ended up in what’s happening in crypto? And been asked for investment advice and analyses?
Or before falling asleep, there was a sudden realisation of how a Dapp can be the next big thing? Or how a new concept you learned during the day can become your long-awaited entrepreneurial venture?
Additionally, for many crypto enthusiasts like me, we stay active on Twitter (X), Discord channels, and PagerDuty (on call). We have crypto price alerts, whale alerts, and even price widgets on both our phones and computers. We read news, papers, technical articles, airdrop rules, airdrop analyses, and airdrop drama. We plan the next trip to another hackathon, conference, and meet-up…
I haven’t dreamed about coding yet, but I have had several dreams about pondering whether to buy in ETH and discussing crypto with random actors in my dream 🤣 🤦
Our love for crypto is 100% genuine. But it’s also a fact that many of my friends in crypto, the old me, and sometimes the current me, are always on crypto. Non-stop.
And this is how overwork and burnout can happen. Oftentimes, we do all these things voluntarily but don’t realise the potential harm it can cause.
So now, I personally define working this way, or this is the stance of the article:
If you work in crypto, then paying attention to crypto in most cases IS WORKING.
3. Signs and Solutions for Overworking and Burnout
Let’s start with overworking first. Generally, signs of overworking are more noticeable and straightforward, as they often reflect our physical conditions or our performance in work. Here are a few examples:
- Tiredness and lack of sleep result from long hours of working. Since these issues are usually temporary, they can be fixed rather easily by having several good nights’ 😴😴😴
- Impatience, decreased productivity, and irritability can often be observed among colleagues if they’re normally not like that. Similar to the physical symptoms above, these emotional ones are also mostly short-term.
- Worsened eyesight, neck and back pain, carpal tunnel syndrome, and even slipped disks are fairly common for we’re always using a mouse and staring at a screen in one posture for hours every day. However, we usually only find out these health conditions as they become serious, and they require significant effort to correct posture and consistently manage working hours. Ideally, try communicating with your team to make adjustments in your working hours and workload.
- Neglecting our personal life is another obvious sign. It’s every free person’s choice to decide how to spend their time, which can include indulging in crypto. But if your family members, partner(s) and friends are complaining about your absence, it might be time to reflect on how you’re distributing your time.
Next up is burnout, a nightmare I never want to experience again. Symptoms of burnout creep into our lives quietly. At first, we might think it’s only temporary and just a few bad days. But usually, it takes months to realise that we might have burned out:
- A sense of constant fatigue can be both mental and physical, and it won’t go away even after taking enough rest. This exhaustion affects productivity, energy, and motivation for many things, not just work. In my case, the constant fatigue I felt was explained by the dysautonomia I was diagnosed with, and I suspect that this symptom of burnout is often dysautonomia in disguise (not a medical advice).
- Other health issues can result from burnout, such as decreased immunity, digestive issues, and changes in sleep patterns. The latter two are also common symptoms of dysautonomia.
- A sense of cynicism and feelings of loss of meaning towards anything in life are signs that raise concerns about mental health. When I burned out, I would think about quitting every 3 days, lose interest in crypto significantly, and sometimes question the necessity of working and even staying alive. Although I didn’t reach the point of attempting suicide, I did contemplate it.*
Since burnout is a combination of mental and physical conditions, addressing it often involves lifestyle changes and possibly medical intervention. Here are three suggestions to recover from burnout:
- Distance yourself from work. Consciously manage your working hours and ensure you stay disconnected outside of working hours.
- Regain the balance between work and life.
- Seek medical treatment and help if necessary.
Apologies for my apparent bias on dysautonomia. I’ve seen/heard from friends who were also diagnosed with dysautonomia while experiencing burnout. Thus, even though burnout and dysautonomia describe two different concepts, I cannot help but drawing commonalities between them.
As for treating dysautonomia, I haven’t had it checked since I was diagnosed in July 2023. But from what I’ve heard from my friends’ cases, quitting solved their dysautonomia. 😂 This means mine should already be recovering… hopefully. 🤞
*By the way, the relationship between depression and having suicidal thoughts is that having suicidal thoughts alone doesn’t always indicate a diagnosis of depression. However, taking steps to act on suicidal thoughts is often associated with severe depression and typically results in a diagnosis, whether this accurately reflects the individual’s mental state or is a precautionary measure by healthcare professionals. — ChatGPT
4. Prevention
In this section, let’s discuss how we can prevent overworking and burnout.
On a personal level, establishing boundaries is perhaps everything. Instead of “overworking,” I suggest “consciously working overtime” for a maximum of X hours a day. How? By being aware of how many extra hours we’re putting in and committing to stopping once that limit is reached. This is easier said than done, requiring us to recognise and be mindful of our own lifestyle. Keeping a diary or logging work hours on a calendar can be very helpful!
Another personal strategy is to figure out our life goals. Big words, yeah, and I don’t know mine either! But knowing what we want from life helps us set boundaries effectively. For example, if your goal is to make a historical impact and you’re willing to sacrifice health and personal relationships for it, then sure, no work-life balance at all! However, if that’s not the goal, we can eliminate the “completely forget work-life balance” option, and allocate our personal time accordingly.
On an organisational level, it’s challenging to require startups to prioritise employee welfare, as they’re usually preoccupied with staying afloat. However, once past the early stages, if companies genuinely care about the employees’ health, initiating discussions and setting rules on overworking can really make the difference. For instance, limiting overtime compensation to 2 hours per day or managers paying extra attention if teammates are consistently working weekends. These actions can reflect and convey the company’s stance on acceptable levels of overworking.
On a community level, as I mentioned previously, I call for more articles, conference talks, podcasts, and casual conversations among friends about physical and mental health, and burnout! This is also what this article aims to achieve 😁
Here’s another recommended material on mental health and burnout from a Devcon talk:
5. Personal Thoughts on the Absence of Discussions on the Topic
Lastly, I’d like share my thoughts on why discussions about overworking and burnout are largely missing in our crypto space.
On a systemic level, capitalism encourages us to always earn more, which often justifies and even glorifies overworking. The tech industry’s culture promotes working long hours to stay updated, and this seems to be a tradition that persists. (Over)working embodies the American dream of self-made success and proving one’s worth, a goal that transcends national boundaries.
On a personal level, discussing overworking can be sensitive and risky. It may lead to debates or arguments that most people prefer to avoid, especially in the workplace. These discussions often end without practical solutions or clear conclusions, which can feel like a waste of time. Even more concerning, if the regime in your office unfortunately values overworking, talking about it might even get you fired!
But consider this: we spend approximately 8 hours a day at work, with our colleagues in this crypto industry. Do we spend a similar amount of time with our families, excluding sleep? For many, the answer is no.
We care about our loved ones, whom we spend about 6 hours a day with, that we would do anything for them. Why then don’t we also care about the well-being of our coworkers, with whom we spend the majority of our waking hours during the workweek?
Let’s initiate conversations about overworking, burnout, and both physical and mental health. Whether it’s with coworkers, friends, people we meet at crypto events, or on social platforms like X or Lens, let’s start these important discussions!
6. Conclusion
The header image “Everyone… was a slave to something” from Attack on Titan, paired with MGK’s song “I Think I’m Okay,” both explore the theme of addiction.
While the severity of drug addiction is widely recognised, workaholism IS also an addiction in its own right.
Unlike a single-time overdose, consistent overworking won’t immediately kill us, but it inevitably leads to consequences — burnout, mental and physical health issues, detachment from social life, and etc.
Therefore, like any addiction, addressing workaholism requires awareness, self-reflection, and setting boundaries. We must define how much we allow ourselves to indulge in overworking, how many hours a day, and when to refrain from pushing further.
I resonate with Attack on Titan’s idea that we’re all slaves to something. Everyone clings to some form of addiction to navigate life, whether it be society-defined success, consumerism, spirituality, workaholism, or even drugs. However, recognising our actions is crucial. Only then can we reflect on our addictions, make improvements, minimise harm, and maximise enjoyment.
Moreover, we should support others facing similar struggles and shape a healthier culture within our industry!
Thanks to ChatGPT for reviewing!
