Burnout Doesn’t Look the Same for Everyone (and Neither Does the Fix)

During the last year of my career in corporate America, I hit a wall.
Full-blown burnout.

I tried everything to fix it — long weekends, extended breaks, new routines — but nothing worked.

No matter what I did, I couldn’t find the motivation to do my job. And that was hard for me. I’ve always taken pride in doing great work. I wanted to do an amazing job. That’s who I am.

But it took everything I had just to get through the day.
I poured what little energy I had into mentoring my team, and whatever was left (which wasn’t much) went to keeping up with my own workload.

By the end of every day, I was completely spent.

Still, I didn’t give up. I kept trying to find that thing that would reignite my drive — but it never came back.
At least, not there.

The Layoff That Changed Everything

About a year into my burnout, my company restructured and my role was eliminated.

When they told me, I didn’t even fight it. I didn’t look for another position internally. I just… let it happen.

Fortunately, I received a severance package that gave me time to breathe and figure out what was next.

During that time, I started a small health coaching business.
Completely different from the world I’d been in for 20+ years — technology.

I’d always been interested in health and wellness and had taken a year-long certification course about five years earlier, but I never thought I’d actually do anything with it. Now, suddenly, I had the chance.

And I loved it.
I loved working for myself, on my own terms. I didn’t mind the long days — 8, 10, even 12 hours — because I was energized. I’d fall into flow every day.

That’s when I started to understand where my burnout had really come from.

It Wasn’t the Work — It Was the Environment

It wasn’t that I’d worked too hard, or that I’d burned out on technology itself.
It was the politics.

It was working for a company that didn’t care about me — where I was just a name on a list. When it came down to it, if I fit the criteria, I was gone.

I had been giving my time, energy, and loyalty to something that didn’t give anything back.

I came to that realization when I eventually started taking on tech work again — but this time, on my own terms.

My health coaching business wasn’t taking off as quickly as I’d hoped. It was something totally new, and I didn’t have the same confidence there that I’d always had in technology.

So I decided to go back to tech part-time — doing what I loved and knew well, but in a way that worked for me.

That’s when it clicked: it wasn’t technology that had burned me out — it was the corporate environment.

All the politics.
All the “just one more meeting.”
All the pretending to care about people when, really, it was about saving face (and jobs).

What I’d lost was pride — that feeling that my work mattered.

Burnout Doesn’t Look the Same for Everyone

That’s the thing about burnout — it’s not one-size-fits-all.

For some people, it’s solved with a real vacation — one where you actually unplug.
For others, it’s taking on a new challenge or finding meaning in a different corner of their work.
And for some of us, it takes a much bigger transformation — a total reset of what we want and how we define success.

If you’re feeling burned out, try a few things before making any big decisions:

• Take real time off. Not a long weekend where you check your email “just in case.” Unplug completely. Let your brain reset.
• Find fulfillment outside of work. Maybe it’s a new hobby, volunteering, or joining a networking group. Sometimes, balance comes from adding joy elsewhere.
• Seek new challenges at work. A special project, a stretch role, or mentoring someone new can reignite your spark.
• And if none of that helps… it might be time for something new. A new role, a new company, or even a new career.

There’s no shame in that.

Sometimes burnout isn’t a sign that you’re broken — it’s a signal that you’ve outgrown where you are.

If you need someone to talk it through with, I’d love to help however I can.
amy@thesmarttoolscoach.com

Remember: burnout looks different for everyone — and so does recovery.
The important thing is to give yourself permission to find what works for you.