To be totally burnt out with work(ing from home)

[Motheroftwofeline]

The constant treadmill of Microsoft teams meetings and emails are killing me and there are no upsides. I’m bored, lonely and disengaged.

I know I’m lucky, so I probably am being unreasonable. But I feel the work I do is so insignificant compared to others and my energy to do it has just run out.

I’m getting sore eyes and ringing ears from all the screen / headphone time, I’m totally starved of human interaction and work mojo. I know if I was in the office I’d pick myself up and get into the swing of things but we have been told we won’t be returning until September.

Just I feel like I’m crawling towards the Easter break and the long weekends during Spring. All I want to do is lie on my bed.

I should book some holiday I suppose but it’s felt like such a waste and I’m trying to save it in the hope of a proper holiday in the autumn.

Just wanted to get my thoughts out. I’ve got another meeting in a moment and I just can’t face it.

I feel exactly the same I have a meeting in ten minutes and then I ll be on zoom right through until 5pm. I have absolute zoom/teams fatigue and dragging myself to the end of the week when I have two weeks leave. I totally feel your pain!!

Book a Friday and a Monday off and have two short weeks. Just use those days to relax, not to get ahead of weekend chores. It's important to (sometimes) spend annual leave days to actually rest if you can!

I think you’re right re the leave, I’m going to try and book another long weekend week after Easter so it’s several short weeks in a row. The weekends aren’t enough. And parents and friends get upset with me as I won’t join catch ups and zoom quizzes anymore but I literally cannot.

Can’t work out if I want to sleep or go for a bracing walk by the sea (which would be an hours drive!) just anything but screens and computers

Morale and motivation is just rock bottom and every meeting I have drains me further as I put on a performance. Workplaces have got to realise this way of working isn’t sustainable

It seems to be as much your workplace and how it is managed. Meetings for the sake of it, no respect it seems for declining some (I expect), and probably a few other things you have not mentioned.

Have a week's holiday much sooner than September, even if all you do is a couple of visits to the coast. If it's outside school holidays and not in any of the specific weeks that some restrictions are lifted, you'll probably find it a quiet place to go.

I could have written your post OP. Feel exactly the same. There seems to be a norm now of “well you are at home anyway so you can work longer hours”

Fortunately we don’t use zoom and while some people have cameras on most don’t. So I don’t feel like I have to be on all the time.

I have also been using ‘do not disturb’ a lot when I want some peace to get on with things - the equivalent in the office was putting your phone headphones in your ear. When people saw that they knew not to disturb you

I’m getting through the next few weeks by focusing on the fact that some of them are 4 day weeks. After that I will be taking holiday as I need a rest - and yes I know others have it harder but everyone needs a break at some point regardless of what they do for work

It’s like I’ve totally hit a wall. There’s stuff I need to do and I just can’t do it.

Is this what burnout is like???

I've been like this for months, I'm completely burnt out and stare at my laptop all day unable to get the most basic of tasks done.

My job before was 70/30 office and case load visits based. Its now 100% wfh and I cannot cope with it. They put me on a wellbeing plan for shorter hours and to go back to the office but its sat on a random desk without any of my team around, plus its all well to say finish at 2.30 but if my works not done then I can't just leave it as my job has legal implications if safety planning ect isn't carried out so I cant leave work at 2.30.

I've started putting in meetings called 'Project Hammersmith' or 'Finalise income report' with no attendees but me. I do 2 or 3 a day of differing length depending on the task and those times are when I actually do my work/tick off my to do list. I was bouncing from meeting to meeting with no time to make a dent in my to do list. It's given me breaks between meetings I never got (5 mins if lucky!) and made me actually get my job done. Would that work for you? It's not a scam because I am actually working on that thing and am not available for meetings.

It's so draining, you have my sympathy. One thing I've found that is helpful is blocking out a proper lunch hour every day, so I have time away from the screen. It's not negotiable, I won't accept any calls or meetings in that timeslot.

Can you talk to your line manager or an employee assistance program about how you are feeling?