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