Who Declares "burnout" Official Malady.

I can promise you that my burnout did not come from lack of funds in my case. I was making great money at my taxidermy business. My burn out came from working a full time job during the day and working a full time taxidermy business in the evenings and weekends. I go out to my shop now and look around. Look in my freezer at all my personal stuff I said I'd get to someday and fight the urge to toss it all in the dumpster. I just stay out of there unless I need a tool for something.

 

Burnout occurs in every profession at some point I think; same old routine, day in a day out. I don't have to worry about burnout in taxidermy because I don't do commercial work. I work on my stuff when I want and how long I want. Many have asked me to do their mounts, I choose not to except for two friends. If I need a break from it, I take it.

 

I turn away more work now than I take in and I have still worked 7 days a weeks for the last 7 months without taking a single day off. Not one! My burnout factor is so bad I think it is affecting my health...physical and mental. I am so pissed off when ever someone drives up now that I know they can sense it. Its like I have to get control of myself to be nice! And that &^%$ &^%% phone rings every &&^%$ing time I have my hands in bondo or foam! Almost makes me cry! So yeah......I dont know what the future holds for me!!

 

Burnout? Suck it up. Man up, put your big boy britches on and quit your belly achin'. That was my reply at one time. Then I got a good heaping dose of it. It hit around 15 years or so into a 25 year career. I spent the last 10 years in my profession being miserable. It's no way to live.

I think what finally got to me the worst was being "on call". You can't get away. You're tied to it like a ball and chain. You work your tail off all day and go home to try and decompress...guess what...phone rings right in the middle of supper...time to get up, get dressed and go back to work. You finally get back home and reheat your food(if you still have an appetite) and sit down to an empty table to eat because your family has already gone to bed because of the time. Then you try and call it a night...feels good to be off your feet but your mind is still racing. It's now 3 a.m. and you're jarred awake by the phone ringing after what feels like ten minutes of sleep. Time to get up, get dressed and off to work again knowing full well you have to be at the office bright eyed and bushy tailed by 8 a.m. to now meet with two families and a service at 2 o'clock. All the while knowing you're still "on call" for the next three nights back to back. It didn't happen that way every night but for an awful many it did. And all the missed Holidays and family functions...don't even get me started on that.

It certainly took its toll. I felt like a cage animal with no way out. It affected me both mentally and physically. I was irritable as hell and constantly tired. I was getting more forgetful and less able to concentrate. I took it out too often on my family and seemed not to care how it was affecting them. I was way past burnout...I was in scorched earth territory.

I decided to finally take control of it. I chose to get in it, so I was going to choose to get out of it. Somehow I managed to build a small taxidermy business during that time. After about 8 years I was making the equivalent at taxidermy as I was at my full time job and was able to go full time in business for myself. It has been three months now. BEST thing I ever did! I can't believe the difference it has made. Life is finally enjoyable again. I've been blessed beyond measure.

I can sympathize with anyone who is going through it and for those who haven't...I hope you never do.

 

I think for everyones health and wellbeing you need to put a line in the sand and only work 5 and a half days a week, LIFE is too short guys. F### the money

 

And charge enough to make the money you need and want during those five days so that you don't "have to" work those extra days. However, I do recognize that during deer and elk season, A five day work week is almost an impossibility.

 

George, did you read all that I wrote or just the first few sentences? Yes, I was misguided BEFORE I got hit with it myself. I went on to explain how it affected me and how I NOW completely sympathize with anyone going through it. It is a very real and destructive malady that can potentially cause serious harm...not only to yourself but also to those around you.

 

Burnout is real and no one is safe from it. I would have never thought it would happen to me 20 years ago, but a number of factors took a serious toll over the years. I've managed it in the last few years but I sense it's lurking presence. Often.

 

Like most topics on this forum, no two people have quite the same definition of burnout. Burnout to one man could be boredom from doing deer heads day in, day out, to another the work has simply lost it's challenge and hence not as satisfying as it once was.

A real biggy is going to work every day, knowing that there are so many government agencies with their laws, rules and paperwork requirements regulating a taxidermist and on top of that you must, let me repeat that word - MUST, turn over an unconscionable portion of the money you earned with those long hours and hard work without them lifting a finger to help you earn it, to those parasitic leeches (aka - revenuers) or suffer their force and violence if you refuse or neglect to do it. If starting your workday with that thought lurking in your subconscious every time you enter your shop isn't a catalyst toward burnout, I can't think of what would be.

Burnout is most likely self-inflicted, hence curable by the patient himself. I can't say I've ever suffered it myself. If I ever had it at least I didn't recognize it. Everyone knows the old saw that goes, "Find an occupation doing something you really love and you'll never work a day in your life." Of course that isn't 100% true, but I think we all get the point.

 

I guess one should expect to get weary of doing anything 80 hours a week for 30 years and owning your own business is five times more stress than just working a job, regardless of what profession you chose. But one thing I find discouraging about taxidermy, especially as I get older is knowing you are never going to make real money. Unlike some other jobs where you can at least hope some day you will hit the big time. With taxidermy you pretty much know what you are going to be making the rest of your life! And dont say raise your prices because I could double or even triple mine and even if I didnt lose a single piece of work it still would not be real money!

Before i went full time I used to contract painting and there was always the hope of scoring a commercial contract that could make 100's of thousands. Of course it never happened for me but there was hope! with taxidermy.....not so much!!

 

Great post George! I agree with most everything you say here. It seems to me the more artistic talent one has, the more extreme the mood swings. I have to wonder if the folks you knew that took their lives could have also been affected by the chemicals they used back in the day (and today still for some)???

I think every person and situation is different along with their levels of depression and how they're dealing with it. I still think boredom plays a fair role in this business and burnout. After all, there really isn't "the next level" to strive to like in many professions - other than growing the business or achieving some personal goals (eg competitions). But, I will say lessening my workload and keeping ahead of schedule are two things that have kept my head up higher lately. And I was fortunate in having another income when I started out and also having a wife with a solid income with benefits all these years. Finances have never been much of a worry for me personally when it comes to playing with fish. I'm certain that would be a (huge) factor in dealing with depression (burnout is really just another name for depression I believe). Again, I'm generalizing here because I think it varies considerably from each individual and how they deal with it. One other thing. I also believe some really have the passion in this business and it is those that deal with things the best. Personally, I've always thought it was interesting and I wanted to learn how to do it. But, I could walk away from it tonight without ever mounting another fish or paint a fish replica and I wouldn't look back!

 

I would say one on only working is the problem,most taxidermist are a one man shop so alot of loneliness maybe,but what is worse working a 9 to 5 in a job you hate or working taxidermy full time,I see alot of full time taxidermist traveling to conventions while there wife's stay home working 9 to 5

 

Yes, good point Rich. No doubt little social interaction also contributes...

 

I made a comfortable living doing taxidermy. I was never bored. I think I began to resent it when I realized that the eighty plus hours a week I was putting into a day job and a taxidermy business was causing me to neglect my family, friends, my health and spirituality, house and property, vehicles, and just about everything else. Strangely, it was the taxidermy I resented. It took a few diagnosis' of life altering diseases to get me to kill the taxidermy business. As was mentioned earlier by a wiser man than me, I felt liberated.

Every time I go into my shop or skinning shed I just stand there and remember the stacks of capes waiting for me when I got home. The late hours in that skinning/salting shed and start feeling almost angry. I used to love spending time in that shed hour after hour. I look at my show room and shake my head.

I mounted a personal turkey a while back and it was just torture. I couldn't get into it and it was all I could do to get through it and make it nice. I fought the urge to just slap it together just to get it over with. It came out awesome, but, I don't want to go through that again. I used to love mounting turkeys, deer, elk, and mammals.

Burnout is the only thing I can come up with, because the only thing taxidermy I want anything to do with is this site.

 

All most of us want to do in life is work doing what we enjoy doing. The problem is all the other non related tasks we have to deal with that drive us crazy.
When I first started my mechanic job
I just worked on vehicles. I was happy, drivers were happy and my boss was happy. Then computers came along. By the end of my career 25% of my time a day was on the computer. The mechanical work load was the same but now the computer
ruled my existence.
I believe if taxidermists just had to do taxidermy and not deal with phones, texts, emails and
Customers the burnout would be much less.
I changed jobs for two years because I didn’t want to deal with people, I just wanted to work.

 

The only burnout I deal with is I'm burned out on deadbeat customers. It never fails that the ones that want the most will be the hardest to get to come get their mount. Ron B is dead on that you'll never make real money doing this!

 

Going on 33 yrs full time what’s helped me combat burnout is every so many years I’ve had to change my “why” or motivation. My wife works in the business and it’s our sole source of income so I have to get it done.
You go through the different phases as george layed out but eventually you use all those up. My drive at the moment is to make sure we have enough savings to not be a burden to our kids or society if and when the day comes and I can’t work anymore. I still love being a taxidermist but being in the taxidermy business is another story.
Another thing that has helped me is I have other interests and hobbies that have nothing to do with the outdoor industry. This helps you get away from it.