[georgefrick]

I burned out in 2016 and worked really hard to recover. But the honest truth is I never cared the same again. I burned out worse in 2021 after almost 4 years; my client denied multiple PTO requests and I worked 12 months straight with just a few fridays off and I had to pull the trigger on "Roll me off the client or I'm gone". I took a month off of work. I'm still not the same, and I never will be. There is lots of good advice in this thread, but I honestly love writing code and just want to do it for someone who will pay me to kick ass for them. It's hard to just care less about my art. But I'll never care in the same way again, I work really hard to set boundaries and I'm much less invested in the outcome - which is sad and I miss feeling invested in the outcome. I don't have any advice for you; it sucks but it is reality.