I fought my own burnout and anger at the "system" problems by repeatedly reminding myself not to look at or worry about what other people were doing, just do what I wanted to do for myself, for the kind of woman I wanted to be. To heck with the "jokers" (there are a lot of defense firm jobs that have/hire "warm bodies") and who is getting paid more than I am or being screwed, I have enough trouble with what I want and what I am doing. I use to think about things, when I was alone with a task/job and could take shortcuts that no one would ever know about or care about or. . . but I am always with myself and I'd know!

If you start on the slippery slope of doing a half-asset job, what does that get you? Mostly, bored! The joy in life, in my opinion, is in the challenges and it is getting more and more challenging to be an individual, to do one's best in this social environment. For awhile there from about the mid-80's through about 2001 or 2, we had "New Age" dawning thereof supposedly happening and there was hope that a critical balance of enlightened people would tip the scales but I don't see that anymore. I just see me, where I've always been, struggling with my own life and what I want it to be like, who I want to be and how I want others to see me, etc.

Did you ever read any of Mihály Csíkszentmihályi's books? I read 3-4 of them in the 90's and really enjoyed them. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_(psychology)