Is anyone else just burnt out and exhausted

[Lurcherloves]

Or is it just me. I’m so exhausted at starting to feel low and I have so many good things in my life. I’ve worked relentlessly through the pandemic with an increased workload and have felt overwhelmed for the last year. I can’t take anymore. If I take time off it will just be worse when I get back. Anyone else had this experience of the pandemic? I’m sure nurses and doctors feel this way. I also feel resentful to people who’ve had the year off at the public expense. I know that’s unfair but I’m so tired and fed up.

but I found it difficult when a friend told me she’d really enjoyed her many months off, and had used the time to redecorate her house, sort her garden out and then spend time relaxing in it.
She had no insight as to how things have been for people who’ve carried on with no break at all and are now exhausted.

^^
I think this is the point! The tone deaf “it’s been soooooo lovely” brigade.

Yanbu - I feel burnt out too

Also worked right the way through (NHS but NOT frontline, so others have had it far worse than I have)

Although theoretically furlough sounds great, I’m really not sure that it would have done me much good. I suspect I would be in a far worse place mentally if I hadn’t been able to work.

Doesn’t mean I don’t currently want to run away though

I think a lot of people feel like you do, we realised using all our leave separately for childcare/homeschooling means we had no time off as a family for over a year in the pandemic. Have only seen family once or twice in the last year.

I also work in a caring profession and although I wouldn’t describe it as compassion fatigue (as I do still care) I find the weight of everyone’s expectations crushing at times. It feels like a treadmill of work/kids/housework rinse repeat without any respite or perspective sometimes. I think this is true for furloughed people too.

Although you may worry about work building up, having some proper time away and trying to take opportunities to see friends and have some fun and laughter will do you so much good I think. Just being able to have a coffee and a gossip with friends I hadn’t seen for ages has helped me.

Hang in there, there is light at the end of the tunnel.

It's like you're in my brain and wrote my feelings down. I'm frustrated with the way that I feel but I feel like I'm broken. Last year was intense in a way that I could never have imagined and I had to work longer and think outside the box to get my work done as did we all really. Yet the idea of life returning to how it was pre pandemic also fills me with dread when I think about how much running around I did before. I had counselling to try and help but he just said I sounded like I need a holiday!? No advice here but I hear you.

Oh god I could have written this exact post! Worked solidly since last February, no breaks of longer than two days, my office doesn't even close over Christmas!

We've all had to pick up work outside of our role remit and I'm knackered. Some of my colleagues who have been working from home are starting to come back into the office now are moaning already about things "not being their job" and it's like, how the hell do you think I feel?! I'm so tired and worn out, and I'm frustrated that my colleagues who got to work from home or who were on furlough don't seem to want to step up now to support the business.

I just want a sun lounger in a hot country whilst I chain drink cocktails now please! Fingers crossed normally resumes somewhat soon.

So so much.

Yep completely. I started a new business last February, moved into new offices and six weeks later we all had to start working from home. The worry during that period was huge, no income for a few months, no help available as a new business. I've worked every day no holiday taken. Business is now doing well but its been a real hard slog. I've had teenagers and massive problems with them during lockdown. My husband is a contractor and also has taken no time off work, we are both now totally burnt out, exhausted, mentally and physically. Everyone has had their own battle during this period. I haven't had the luxury though of having time off of work and taking up a new skill etc...if only! However I count myself lucky, myself and loved ones, have all remained safe and we've not had anyone really poorly or lost anyone due to covid.

I feel burnt out and I was furloughed 3 times.Ive been working almost 35 years and until recently was pulling 50 plus hr weeks so hardly my fault i was furloughed.
So was dh so we lost 20% each of our low incomes and having gone back to work we've lost the last two yrs potential pay rises so with min.wage going up I'm less than a pound away for something I went to college for for two yrs.
I did settle into DIY and gardening on the cheap cooked all meals and gave up all internet shopping.
Trapped in a small home worrying if hospitality would reopen has been stressful at times.No one has had an easy time so let's not compare.Life isn't a competition. Sorry you are exhausted too though.

YANBU.

Totally burnt out here. Customer service role, been working from home since March so not at risk, but our workload increased exponentially due to lockdown and there was a lag to recruiting more staff to accommodate the increase, which the company did do as soon as they could.

For me, it's the not having enough time alone at home, due to there being nowhere else the rest of the family could go to, which is a big contributing factor, as there just hasn't been the opportunity to recharge after the demands from work. Despite all of the circulating memes, this introvert has definitely not enjoyed lockdowns!

And I totally get what you mean about resenting those who have been furloughed whilst knowing you're being unreasonable, although in my case I think it's more a tinge of envy, whilst also recognising that we would have been financially sunk had either of us been furloughed as we couldn't accommodate even just one of us being hit with a 20% pay cut.

Oh so totally get you. Exhausted, and although things have been getting lighter I'm tired, oh so tired.

Work has been flat out, not key worker but am, workload exploded, got Covid, took an age to recover as no time to recover -balancing battling 3 DCs homelearning, caring for isolating elderly parents, working full time and some, very little holiday as days off were for queuing for prescriptions and just queuing for everything.

This year has been a bit better, but my brain and body are fried.

It definitely has been the case of same storm, different boats. Some people I know who have been furloughed have had a dreadful worrying time; others have led the life of Riley. Every woman I know who has had to batter through this working, providing home schooling, and caring for older relatives (the squeezed gen x) are exhausted to the core.

I think as a nation we are all burnt out now but need to try to support each other not pull others down

This.

Yes I do OP, but I have the opposite problem - I haven’t worked enough this past year. I run my own business and work has all but dried up thanks to fucking Covid. I’m now facing a very precarious future financially and I feel like I just don’t have the energy or mental strength to get out of this awful mess.

The stress of constantly worrying about money and my DCs future is totally exhausting.

Nurse here, I’m at my limit, just can’t go on like this. I’ve worked long hours since the beginning of COVID, I think I’m menopausal and I feel so down this week.

Not sleeping, eating crap, poor concentration, keep crying. Hanging on for a weekend away next week which will be over all too soon.

Social worker here. Got a management job during covid but they didn't ever get the staffing to take my cases off me so I've been doing both jobs (badly) Am exhausted. Obv happy to have the financial security that others haven't had, but I'm so so tired. It's been work and sleep for so long. WFH is extra stressful because I'm not really WFH - just without an office base, so I'm going out to see kids and rushing back home to do paperwork. It's so much harder without a base near the patch I work, and without colleagues to lean on when dealing with upsetting things.

My big worry is that we've got financial cuts at work because councils have run out of money; that doesn't mean redundancies but instead, not replacing staff who leave.

I can't wait until there's things open so I've got something other to do than work, it's so hard to switch off when the only options have been a walk or Netflix!

@Doghead

I feel exactly the same OP. No furlough here....I've worked my arse doing my job and that of furloughed colleagues. Its totally OK to be resentful of those on furlough. Not all of them were furloughed because they they were vulnerable. I'm absolutely knackered.

Oh seriously get your facts straight!

Furlough wasn’t for only for the clinically vulnerable, it was put in place because the government closed down all none essential services and and told people to stay at home. If you couldn’t do your job from home the you were furloughed. I mean what would you have preferred? People losing their homes and hungry?

yep

No this is me.

I lecture in a university and trying to give the students a good experience in these conditions plus trying to answer to the incessant demands and increasing workload dumped on me by my employer has made for a difficult academic year. This is the first year ever that I've not been avid to get back to my research over the summer months. What I'd really like to do is take a lie down in a darkened room for a month and not look at a single one of the books I usually love.

This has never happened to me. Burnout is a safe guess.

Me too OP.

I think this is one of the worst things - people are exhausted, through overwork, never getting a break (especially with home schooling), financial worries from furlough etc. It's been pretty bad for almost everyone but social media really hasn't helped as it's stirred up resentment between groups.

I think we all need a good holiday, some decent downtime and the economy to start to get itself moving again so there are more jobs available for people.

I have no clue when that will be though - which doesn't help.

Its totally OK to be resentful of those on furlough.

Why? It's not their fault. I'm far more resentful of those who felt the need to shut down the entire economy, the effects of which are only beginning to be felt on the high street and in the hospitality industry.

Yep. I ploughed through the majority of last year using 3 or 4 days annual leave (which I had to plead my case for), mostly because my employer took the very honourable step of permitting all parents to credit up to 50% of their hours, but took the not-so-honourable step of doing nothing about the COVID workload. I had an incredibly traumatic incident in August last year and although my employer made noises, it wasn't possible for me to take any leave (whether compassionate or annual), as I was doing 3 peoples' jobs.

It's gotten less pressured with the schools being back but the exhaustion hasn't gone away. I don't know when it will (and, needless to say, there's been no recognition from said employer about the imbalance of working hours, so my morale is below ground at this point.

Still - at least I have a job!

Utterly.

Have spent most of the day crying. Caring for disabled son, autistic daughter mainly on my own, with, since June a signifucant spinal injury causing constant pain.

Hit the wall. Cannot do this any more.

@Doghead

I feel exactly the same OP. No furlough here....I've worked my arse doing my job and that of furloughed colleagues. Its totally OK to be resentful of those on furlough. Not all of them were furloughed because they they were vulnerable. I'm absolutely knackered.

I was furloughed because my place of employment closed for four months. Not exactly anything I had control over.

Hugs all round for everyone.

NHS worker, was working all the way through alongside homeschooling 3 kids, two with ASD. We all got Covid at the end of last year, disabled DH hospitalised, I struggled on at home with 3 poorly kids, who then got better and needed homeschooling whilst I was still unwell. Been unwell since with long Covid. I just want to be well again.

A&E nurse. Full time throughout with toddler on days off to entertain.
Honestly I’m exhausted, feel like I’m on a treadmill, there is no let up, we’re just as busy, if not busier.
I really do love my job, but I get an absolute sense of dread sometimes, I can’t keep going fighting fires daily.