How to avoid it, cure/treat it, and recognize it? What causes it? I'm working a new high paying and high stress job while going to grad school full time and managing a part time business. I feel like I've checked out though and nothing really matters. Maybe it's because the 500K I have now and the cash flow allows me to retire now if I go back to my old house or down size like I plan to anyway. Maybe I've just been doing this too long. Maybe it's because I am still dealing with the same crap and I need a change. Or maybe I'm just in a funk and it will pass. I mean, I get to work from home, and make a lot of money with good benefits. Though the downsides are stress, constant technical problems from all corners of the building, and general politics.
But the allure of the 150K salary was too much to pass up. If I retire 2 years from now at 35, 5 years earlier than originally planned, I can hold my head high and should have about 950K or more NW between investment gains and savings. I'm trying to hold out for two more years because of the extra money and where it puts me or would put me; this job allows me to save two years of savings for each year I work it, so two years will give me four years worth of savings. Once I have 900k+ I probably REALLY won't give a crap.
That said I'm more keen, as other posters have posted, on dealing with people now than technical work. Yes it has its own stresses, but man I have zero interest in technical stuff anymore. Been there, done that, all I see now are the negatives of it. YOU'RE the person accountable to deliver, not the PM's, BA's and the hordes of other support personnel. A lot of these roles merely make stuff up for you to do, like where I work now, we have 5 PM's to every technical resource!! Even your manager is really not the one on the hook.Yes, he or she has to explain to the organization if it doesn't get delivered, but they will just blame it on you more than likely, because at the end of the day, YOU are the one that has to do the actual work! Mostly people and process is what interests me now. Plus as management, especially senior management (working way up to it) you have decision making authority.
In any case, I'm trying to hang on two more years and then maybe go into a more full time management role (I'm a lead now with a few direct reports). Not sure I will make it though. Part of me wants to go into management now even if it means a pay cut. I don't know if I'm just bored with what I'm doing and stressed from the BS that is involved not to mention the myriad of things that can go wrong on the job. I'm conflicted. I would have liked to do 7 more years of high income work to add to my nest egg, but I'm wondering if I should take a bull shit job after this or sooner and do something I don't dread? Like recruiting for example. Corporate recruiters in my area make about 60-70K a year. With a paid off house and rental properties as well as cash in the bank, I could bank most of that income and still live like a King. I dunno, I'm thinking out loud.
The allure of IT when I was making 35K a year was the high income. I have it, have had it for a while now, and saved the money and used it to make more money now. But if I found something I enjoyed that paid good, I'd go do it. Like recruiting (not agency but corporate). I'd still be able to save money and can let my investments compound. Maybe work longer than 7 more years who knows. Maybe change careers again after that. I mean, people change careers every 7 years they say right? I find absolutely no purpose or reason for what I do at work other than getting money to invest. I'm not trying to find my purpose in life or anything, but I just don't care about what I do for some reason. What I do care about is a job where I am not tired after coming home and don't dread going in the next day. I guess high paying jobs are high paying for a reason, eh...
All I know is that I'm tired of what I'm doing now. Or is it that I'm tired of working? I guess I'd have to change jobs to see. At the same time, I'm not sure I'm ready to retire right now and sleep in for the next 50 years while I spend my days fishing. Surely there is a happy medium or some solution. Part time work, is meh. I'm thinking something else, career change perhaps. Or going from hands on into management period.