I have an upcoming evaluation with a new manager. He's extremely green and expressed excitement that he could have my evaluation (I've been at my job longer than he has). I'm not afraid of having a meeting with him, but I struggle with the typical evaluation questions: "Where do you see yourself in 6 mo./1 year", "What skills are you looking to acquire", "What opportunity are you looking forward to", etc. As the title to this post reveals, my answers would be something like "Spending more time with my kids and starting my garden", "PHP and mySQL for a NextCloud app idea", "Part time work for more time on the aforementioned goals".
However, my burnout is different from the other stories I hear about. Most of them center around grueling hours toiling for a job that doesn't provide any sense of purpose or value. I do feel that my job has value and purpose and does help others. My burnout stems from a 4 month experience a little over a year ago where failure seemed to abound from every corner and I was on a project that tested my limits. At the end of it I moved to a different department and have even hoped around within this department to avoid degradation due to complacency. Even at my laziest and most despondent, I seem to get a passing grade.
All this is to provide background for the following: how do I honestly fill out this evaluation without explicitly stating this? I've tried to skirt around it in the past and it just ended up being awkward conversations with my previous manager about growth areas and adding new opportunities. At this point I just want to do my job and go home. When I have enough FU money, I'll give them the full story (5 years by rough estimate). Until then I want to just lay low.