There’s a kind of exhaustion that isn’t about workload.

The work gets done, your reviews are fine, and you’re not slacking.

But something’s off. Not broken, just slightly wrong: like wearing a shoe on the wrong foot. Functional, uncomfortable, and hard to explain to anyone else.

Most people’s response is to push harder: more output, speak up, get trained, acquire skills, etc.

That can work, but sometimes the problem isn’t effort at all.

Sometimes the angle is wrong. And no amount of pushing in the wrong direction fixes that.

It just makes you more tired.