{"id":52,"date":"2025-04-18T08:58:40","date_gmt":"2025-04-18T08:58:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chaosandcaffeine.co.uk\/?p=52"},"modified":"2025-04-18T08:58:40","modified_gmt":"2025-04-18T08:58:40","slug":"burnout-doesnt-wear-a-name-badge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chaosandcaffeine.co.uk\/?p=52","title":{"rendered":"Burnout Doesn\u2019t Wear a Name Badge"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Hey again,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s been a while since I last sat down to write like this. I wish I was coming to you with something lighter, something a little more upbeat. But the truth is, work has been really hard lately \u2014 and not in the \u201cwow, I love a challenge\u201d kind of way. It\u2019s been draining, emotionally and physically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stressed<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve been putting in late nights, pushing myself harder than I should, and I\u2019d love to say it\u2019s paying off, but honestly? It doesn\u2019t feel like it is. It feels like I\u2019m pouring from a cup that no one\u2019s refilling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the hardest part? My boss \u2014 someone I genuinely like and consider a friend \u2014 hasn\u2019t really been showing up for me. She\u2019s there, technically, but not in the way I need her to be. She\u2019s been stepping back, dipping out to handle personal things during work hours, and leaving me to carry the weight. And look, I get it. Life happens. We\u2019re all human. But when your team is on fire, you don\u2019t walk away to water your own plants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What it\u2019s meant is that I\u2019ve been stuck doing longer hours, picking up the slack, and chasing recognition that never really comes. And that\u2019s the part that gets under your skin \u2014 doing the work of two people, while feeling like half a person yourself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My last day in the office this week hit differently. I felt\u2026 off. I had pain in my chest and back, dizzy spells, even some blurred vision at one point. The kind of symptoms that make you stop what you\u2019re doing and think, is this serious? I drove the two hours home \u2014 something I probably shouldn\u2019t have done in hindsight \u2014 and when I finally stepped out of the car, I felt completely unsteady.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I went straight to bed, took my meds, and within an hour\u2026 I was fine. Just like that. Which made one thing really clear: this is what stress does to a body that\u2019s been pushed too far for too long.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Time to rest!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

So now, I\u2019m stepping back. I\u2019ve got a full week off \u2014 no meetings, no Slack pings, no pretending I\u2019m okay when I\u2019m not. Just me, my family, my pets, and some much-needed stillness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Burnout doesn\u2019t arrive all at once. It sneaks in. And I almost missed it until my body screamed loud enough that I couldn\u2019t ignore it anymore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re feeling anything like this \u2014 tired, unsupported, stretched too thin \u2014 please, don\u2019t wait for your body to throw a red flag. Listen sooner. Rest sooner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Be kind to yourselves. I\u2019ll be over here doing the same, one slow day at a time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ophelia xo <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hey again, It\u2019s been a while since I last sat down to write like this. I wish I was coming to you with something lighter, something a little more upbeat. But the truth is, work has been really hard lately \u2014 and not in the \u201cwow, I love a challenge\u201d kind of way. It\u2019s been draining, emotionally and physically. I\u2019ve been putting in late nights, pushing myself harder than I should, and I\u2019d love to say it\u2019s paying off, but honestly? It doesn\u2019t feel like it is. It feels like I\u2019m pouring from a cup that no one\u2019s refilling. And…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3,15,13,14,10],"class_list":["post-52","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-motherhood","tag-relationships","tag-stress","tag-work","tag-working"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chaosandcaffeine.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chaosandcaffeine.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chaosandcaffeine.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chaosandcaffeine.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chaosandcaffeine.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=52"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/chaosandcaffeine.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53,"href":"https:\/\/chaosandcaffeine.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52\/revisions\/53"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chaosandcaffeine.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=52"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chaosandcaffeine.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=52"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chaosandcaffeine.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=52"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}