How Have You Coped with Professional Burnout?
This week we noted a Corporette post that veered away from women’s workplace fashion and struck a more personal note. Blog author Kat Griffin talked about how years ago she was feeling disengaged at her BigLaw job and got an “attitude revamp” after taking a humor-writing class.
“As soon as I reconnected with the ‘me’ I’d been when I was 17—full of hope and ambition and sarcasm—weirdly enough, good things started to happen. I met my future husband later that month. I got on a much better project at the job, working closely with a lawyer I truly admired, about two months later. I decided to start this blog about four months later,” Griffin wrote.
So this week we’d like to ask you: If you’ve experienced a bout of professional burnout and successfully bounced back—how did you accomplish it? Did you find a way to fall back in love with your career? Did you change careers? Or did you shake up your personal life in a way that gave you a better outlook?
Answer in the comments.
Read the answers to last week’s question: Tell Us About the Worst Boss or Co-Worker You’ve Ever Had at a Law Job.
Featured answer:
Posted by SingingJD: “I was an associate at a small firm which was housed in a lovely-to-look-at office; clean and beautifully decorated with orchids and (nontraditional) art. Well, that came at a price. My bosses were extreme neat- and control freaks. It was a tiny firm, and yet speaking was avoided—as that would create noise. All communication was through e-mail. Of course, all computers had their sound cards removed (couldn’t have noise!). Further evidence of their insanity is whole-firm memos that were sent out by the managing partners. One read: ‘Due to sensibilities of certain people in the office, we request that no one eats anything in the office with an aroma greater than an apple.’ How does one quantify a smell? (I had a bit of fun with that one.) The other read: ‘It is unseemly to have trash visible in the trash cans. If you see this, kindly take a paper towel and smoosh it down.’ I kid you not.”
