How do you handle workplace burnout?

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i have been working low-level service jobs since i graduated HS in 2005. Ive been at my current job as a clerk in convenience store for about eight months now. Im feeling burned out on the job. i love my customers (for the most part), my boss is the greatest (i have never disclosed my AS). but im starting to lose my drive, my desire to be at work a half hour early. i dont have a vacation until october and getting more than two days off in a row is almost impossible, even on my days off, i get called in (we have one person on duty at a time and one of my coworkers is unreliable).

do you have any suggestions? im starting to think..whoa...not gonna go there. june of 2000 was bad enough.

I hope your going to college or doing some sort of vocational training. Life is too short to be stuck doing a job you don't like.

Eight months...hmmm...that's usually when I always started to burn out as well. By the one year mark, I'd be generally miserable and it would be starting to show - by 15 months they'd get fed up with my Autistic quirkiness and fire me. Then I'd file for unemployment and recuperate for six to eight months before starting the whole process all over again.

So just hang on in there, you've got about seven months to go, then you can rest for awhile.

Seriously, sometime within the next 90 days (roughly), they'll change your schedule suddenly, or ask you to do something you're not comfortable with and when you balk because you're just so stressed out you don't have the flexibility to adapt anymore, you'll get your first warning - then you'll know the end is in sight. Just don't blow up and walk out, or do anything intentional to get in trouble, 'cause that will make you ineligible for unemployment. You have to wait until they fire you for just being you.

And they will.

In the past (over the past thirty five years that is), I never handled well. I either quit without notice or got fired.

This is one thing I've never found a way to cope any better with.

What is the opportunity for advancement in your company? If not, have you put together a resume to prepare for whatever field you want to be in next? I know that when I was in a customer service position and hating it (my boss was not as nice as yours, and sometimes the job was just frustrating), one thing that helped me was to take proactive steps like getting my resume ready for the next job.

If you do need to quit, though, I would strongly suggest making sure to put in your two weeks' notice and to handle it in a calm manner. This way, whenever you are ready to enter the workforce again, you will not have the stigma of having quit in an abrupt manner, and you may well have a boss left who is willing to put in a good word for you whenever you interview for something else.

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Official diagnosis: ADHD, synesthesia. Aspie quiz result (unofficial test): Like Frodo--I'm a halfling? 110/200 NT, 109/200 Aspie.

I find I definitely have to take days off regularly. I have kept the jobs I've held pretty well until I chose to change them (last one 5 years, this one 3.5 so far) (but mostly in the computer industry, which I think can be more forgiving of Asperger's behavior by the kind of people it attracts). In recent years if I get to feeling really burnt out and stressed I schedule days off to recuperate.
The problem is if you can't do this with this job, you are going to eventually hit bottom. I would suggest looking for another line of work, possibly one with a better leave policy. There are good employers out there who realize that a happy healthy employee who takes time off when they need it is much more useful and productive. My current job does not even subtract sick days from your vacation time, so there's no worry about saving them for being sick either. You may not be able to find one like that, but it's possible to find an employer with a better policy.

Service type jobs however I think tend to consider you more "replaceable" as an employee and have less consideration for any outages, sick or not, so you might want to go into another kind of field. I remember when I was in college I worked in the cafeteria and they had a terrible policy. I got sick and they told me I had to find someone else to cover my shift (I was so sick I didn't leave my room or get out of bed). Needless to say I did not find someone else to cover my shift (I think I called one coworker I knew to make a slight effort but she couldn't do it). Also they wanted a Dr's note afterwards. I hadn't gone to the doctor (I get sick a lot, I don't always stay home if it's just a cold or something but I'm also not someone who goes to the Doctor every time I get the flu). I don't consider this a very reasonable policy. Also, employers who by their policy encourage people to come to work when they are sick result in more sick employees as the illness spreads. I'd take these things into high consideration for the next job, it really does say something about how they will value and treat their employees.

thank you all for your kind words. By and large, my employers dont notice anything unusual about me, i have never been writted up for anything having to do with my AS, however, i was FIRED from my last job at walmart, they put me on the remoel crew and i guess my clumsiness got in the way.

as for finding a "better" job, there is nothing in my area but service jobs. but i suppose, to my credit, i have not taken a sick day since 2007, i am always covering shifts for coworkers "who have better things to do" my boss is getting ready to promote me to assistant manager, (if i can maintain my NT show for a while longer)

as for the unemployment suggestion: i dont work that way, my goal is to stay gainfully employed, i do not get disablilty and i never want to take a penny from the state (except maybe from the powerball)

college? i couldnt handle that, high school was hell for me

i consider myself a lifer, i will be behind the counter until the day i die, by my calculations, if the LE in the US is 78 years for men, i have another 55 years to go so 55 years at 365 days per year and 300 customers per day (estimate) that works out to...

i guess i dont have time to figure that out, i have to be to work at 7.

One other thing if it comes time to quit. Make sure that the quality and attitude of your work remains exactly the same during your two weeks after you give notice. Quitting with class usually makes a good impression on the boss of the job you're leaving, and further increases your chance of getting a good reference when it's over.

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Official diagnosis: ADHD, synesthesia. Aspie quiz result (unofficial test): Like Frodo--I'm a halfling? 110/200 NT, 109/200 Aspie.

Taking days off to maintain your own sanity is incredibly important. If you are the type of person who has trouble saying no, then screen your calls on your days off.

Service jobs burn nearly everyone out eventually - that's just the nature of it. The promotion will probably offer you a little renewal because you'll be doing something different. Learning a new function, task or skill can help with burnout. Service type jobs are pretty self limiting though. Maybe you can ask to be allowed to re-arrange a section of the store to try to improve sales? Do you do any inventory work? If not, see if you can learn that. Anything to distract you from being bored will help, but you'll become bored again eventually...

If traditional school is something you don't enjoy, can you try online classes or maybe a vocational training program? I worked in service for ten years, burnt out in a big way and went to job re-training for bookkeeping. It was the best thing I could have done. The program moved at my pace and I completed it in about six months. I have been employed by the same company since - the last 10 years - and am very happy. I was fortunate enough to find people who could appreciate and value my unique set of quirks.

Good luck!

I "handled" it by quitting after 18 years.....somehow dodged the bullets till then, but I could see the writing on the wall. It proved expensive, but at least I'm still walking about. I got sucked into another job eventually (no other obvious way of paying the bills), and that could have gone the other way but I was DXed about a year ago, and disclosing that to the employer has taken a lot of the heat out of the situation. I had again been thinking of getting out just before the DX. Also, my legal retirement date is now visible on the horizon, so I'll not be dependent on the wages game for much longer, which I think helps to keeps my stress levels down.

Don't know how I dodged the bullets for all that time. They only stressed me out bigtime once, and I got so much hypertension that I threw a sickie.....they backed off when I did that. Mostly I've just absorbed the stress, I don't know where it went. The working environment here is probably one of the best you could find for Aspies, being mostly multi-cultural and heterogenous.....the worst problems have been from the English fiefdoms - I haven't seen gossiping and character assassinations outside those groups. It's a science job so it's not always hard to keep out of the political competitive nonsense....at the top, they probably have their fair share of of finely-tuned minds who don't go for that. If you can perform well, they're sometimes smart enough to value your talent above your teamworking aptitudes. There have been times when I've been given my head and been able to do good stuff for them, and they've appreciated it.