Burnout in 2025
Despite having started my full-time career only in Feb 2023, I was unexpectedly burned out in my third year here in corporate. And what I noticed about burnout is that it creeps in silently and gradually. Soon, other key aspects of my life became ridiculously easy to fall apart.
So easy to fall apart
Keeping up with healthy habits felt like a chore.
Maintaining friendships felt like tough work. Socialising felt like a dread, particularly when work is a common topic in conversations.
Previously, I would try to be productive outside of work time. Such as reading tech books in the morning before work, or going through online courses on weekday nights and weekends. But when faced with burnout, upskilling myself felt like extra work and the thought of the effort I had to pour in was certainly off-putting.
The pursuit of any hobbies old and new? Out of the question.
Who has the time and energy for any of those?
Why did I face burnout?
I think “burnout” refers to the state of being constantly overwhelmed by the amount of work to do. And for me, I faced it at my job.
Strange that I experienced it though, since I was merely an individual contributor. I’m pretty sure my squad leads had more to deal with on their plate. That said, I shall not deny what I experienced.
So, what gives?
Was it the ways of working? Was it the huge deliverables promised against a shrinking team? Or was it just me lacking the capability to manage my workload? Also, can I just silence my Slack please?
There were way too many instances where I worked overtime (OT). I would “clock out” in the evening close to 7pm, only to open my laptop again at 10pm. Which meant I hadn’t switch off my brain from work the entire day at all .-.
The onset of a vicious cycle
It’s scary how fast that turned into a vicious cycle.
I ended up sleeping later because I still wanted some me-time with my phone after I finally decide to log off from my work laptop past midnight. Then I woke up later in the morning, just in time for my daily standup. So there went my morning window of reading.
I doubt my sleep quality had been well either, as I often felt tired and lethargic throughout the day. Then the guilt of feeling like I’m not doing enough during my work hours kicked in like clockwork, compelling me to do OT.
And of course, I’m left with limited time and energy to take care of the other aspects of my life. Exhaustion followed me almost everywhere.
This cycle repeated the next day. Each time, I was letting my body and mind take a slightly bigger hit. Simply put, I was compromising on my physical and mental health. Recently, I checked my leave records and found out that I had taken more than 10 medical leaves days this year. This meant that I fell sick once every 1 or 2 months on average, yikes!
I felt utterly disappointed in myself, at times slightly ashamed of myself even.
Balance is easier said than done
It’s easy to say that one needs to balance between work and life, or strive for work life harmony. Yea okay, who doesn’t know that? Heck, I was even a clear advocate of that in my team last year.
But I’ve come to realise how easy it is to slip. Yes, sometimes we bring it upon ourselves. But sometimes, it’s the culture and environment that plays a bigger part. Factors that loom larger than the individual.
Reminder to self: Take more breaks please!
End of year thoughts
So here I am, at the end of the year, feeling like I’m in the worse shape of my life, mentally and physically speaking. And also feeling upset with myself for letting myself slip so badly and suffer the terrible effects of burnout.
Thankfully, December had been a pretty chill month, allowing me to have the headspace to pause and reflect. Which was when I realised that I hadn’t published a single article this year hitherto.
So here’s my biggest takeaway of 2025: Burnout is so very real.
And I had to learn it the hard way not to take it lightly.
I hope I do better next year & I hope to find my zest for life again.
Author’s note
I had intended to write an article titled “25 Takeaways From 2025”, a streak I had started and kept up with since 2021. However, at this point of writing, I still feel some traces of exhaustion despite already trying to take it easy on myself this period. I suppose it will still take a while before I recover from all the effects of burnout.
I had started a draft at the beginning of the year but I barely made it to point 15. I guess it would be pointless to try to squeeze out another 10 points, which in essence would most likely just be covering different aspects of the topic of burnout. Hence, I figured it made more sense to publish this instead.
Thank you for reading!