I learned about burnout in IT the hard way – through experience. The long nights, constant alerts, and explaining security risks to stakeholders who prioritized speed over protection, it gradually wore me down. If you work in tech, you probably recognize that foggy mental state when you’ve been pushing too hard for too long and feel like there’s no moving forward.
Company politics presented real challenges. Sitting through meetings where technical recommendations were sidelined wasn’t easy, especially when those decisions later caused problems that landed back on our team’s shoulders. What helped me at least was developing better communication strategies, finding ways to translate technical concerns into business impacts that leadership could understand. This is HARD let me tell you, but if you can position your argument correctly you can make progress.
Then there’s the always-on culture which admittedly initially pulled me in. At first I felt important, I felt needed. It was like I finally reached a position of leadership that I had longed for. I was the one HELPING others instead of constantly reaching out for help.
Then things took a turn, my phone notifications controlled my schedule and I found myself checking emails during family dinners. I was working more than I was focusing on my family. What changed everything was recognizing this pattern wasn’t sustainable or necessary. Small boundaries like designated offline hours made a surprising difference in my mental clarity.
My turning point came gradually though. I first noticed my problem solving abilities declining and pushing for excellence and trying to maintain my ego had turned against me. I realized that taking care of myself wasn’t selfish it was essential for doing quality work. No surprise, the team actually benefited more from a well rested colleague than someone running on fumes trying to be everywhere at once.
Practical changes made the biggest difference. I helped create rotation schedules for after-hours support and built knowledge sharing sessions into our weekly operation meetings. Each team member developed expertise in different systems as well as cross trained, preventing any single person from becoming an irreplaceable bottleneck.
Connecting with experienced IT professionals who maintained healthy boundaries showed me what was possible. One mentor shared how he’d built respect not through constant availability, but by delivering thoughtful solutions and training his team well. This perspective shift helped me value quality contributions over quantity of hours and instant responses.
Documentation became my unexpected ally. Converting my mental knowledge into shared resources initially felt time consuming and pointless. Ultimately though it reduced interruptions and built team confidence once the team learned the information was available and accurate. Clear incident response playbooks meant even complex issues could be handled by multiple team members.
Today, I approach IT work differently. I still care deeply about our systems and security, but I’ve learned that sustainable performance comes from balancing dedication with deliberate recovery time. The most valuable IT professionals aren’t those who sacrifice everything for the job, they’re the ones who bring clear thinking, creativity, and perspective to increasingly complex technical challenges. That clarity only comes when we take care of the human elements alongside the technical ones. Let me know below how have you helped overcome burnout?
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