What causes burnout?
Too much work?
Possibly, but not necessarily
Many people work crazy hours and do not suffer from burnout.
Work/life balance?
Again, this is possible
The feeling of work/life unbalance is more of a symptom than a reason.
Compound Stress
This seems to be the real cause.
Work asking for tight deadlines
Spouse wanting more help around the house
Kids needing help with homework or skills they are struggling with.
Internal stress
Putting unrealistic expectations on yourself
Failing to complete projects
Finances
Basically Burnout is you not being able to keep up with the expectaions of your work, your family, and yourself.
How does burnout affect you as a developer?
Prevents you from working productively
Unable to focus at work
inability to make yourself work
general loss of productivity at work
a strong wanting to quit and find another job
Harms family interactions
Loss of affection to your spouse which leads to loss of affection from your spouse
Lack of positive interations with your kids
getting upset at them when you normally wouldn’t be
General malaise at home
not doing normal chores that you should
basically sit on couch, watch tv, and ignore the world
Could lead to divorce and/or missing important milestones in your families life.
Spiraling descent into unhappiness
Basically all the symptoms of depression
Burnout affects every aspect of your life and prevents you from managing work, family, finances, exercise and eating habits, and everything else that is part of a healthy life.
How do we prevent burnout from happening in the first place?
It’s not real easy
Ignore stress conditions or find a good coping mechanism for them.
Deadlines at work of most often not as urgent or important as they are made to be seen.
Relax and do the best you can, but don’t cave under the weight of a deadline
Don’t rush to meet the deadline
causes bugs
causes bad code
leads to more stress
Assume that everyone is doing the best they can under the circumstances
Even if you could do a better job
Even if it’s not even your job
The belief they someone else is slacking off
leads to more stress
leads to tension within the team
doesn’t help anyone
If you have a question, ask it.
Ask for help
This one might be difficult
you are not an island
you can’t do this on your own
Personal projects and hobbys
Don’t require the utmost professionalism
You don’t have to TDD or Clean Code all the time.
You can relax and write some bad code sometimes
These projects are for practicing or learn a specific thing. Focus on that
Are great for releiving stress when not taken seriously
If the project or hobby stresses you out, it can wait.
Family
Your spouse doesn’t know or understand your work
If you are stressed, talk to your spouse about it.
If you have had a bad day, talk to your spouse about it.
Children don’t know or understand your work
