I have a friend with ADHD who is struggling with burnout at work right now, and I realized the same thing has happened to me (autism) at pretty much every job I’ve had before my current one. After a while (a few months to a few years) the workplace politics becomes unbearable, or culture becomes too toxic, or managers straight up ignore our feedback.

So what do you do to prevent emotional burnout at work? Or have you found a job that doesn’t burn you out?

Edit: Y’all, your responses are making me want to create a neurodivergent commune where we just do whatever we want.

  • I’m not neurodivergant, but I’ve definitely had to consciously get better at this. Booking regular holidays throughout the year is what helped me, don’t just take holiday when you get to screaming pitch. This gives you something to look forward to and hopefully means that you’ll be able to decompress before all the various annoyances build up.

    I haven’t yet found a job that hasn’t eventually caused me to burn out, even the relatively chill jobs with little pressure have eventually had enough niggling issues to cause me issues.

    Another thing is to not take on more trouble than you are paid for. If managers aren’t listening or politics is causing issues then just concentrate on doing your job to the best of your ability and nothing more, when issues start affecting the companies bottom line then they’ll take notice.