4 ms·

Ask HN: Front End Developer Burnout

4 points by mouzogu 10y ago

I've been working as a web designer/developer for about 10 years. I have always loved my work with it's immediacy and it's accessible combination of design, usability and problem-solving. My workflow has evolved and become more automated through the years to keep pace with what has come to be known as Front End Development among other titles. Lately I have found myself utterly burnt out, frustrated and demotivated. I hate my work. The constant issues, seemingly endless, complaints that something or other does not work on some flavour of browser X on device Y. I often feel a suffocating paralysis and loss of energy or will. I work on two teams as the sole front end developer, Neither of these teams has any consistency in their workflows and neither use any kind of repository. Things are constantly regressing and breaking and as the first sign of any issue is often cosmetic I am the one who looks bad. It's impossible for me to articulate my frustration in any way that does not make me look petty or as if I am shirking my responsibility. I have constantly asked for a more stable environment but my attentions are already thinly spread across a range of issues. Sometimes I just sit and stare at my screen for 10 minutes unsure of what to do - which fire is burning hottest. My focus is too fragmented. I am the single point of failure in so many different streams. I feel like I am spinning 100 plates when all I want is a couple of things that I can master and take pride and responsibility for. I feel the demands on me have gradually become unreasonable over the years. I'm unsure if giving up on 10 years experience and moving into a new field as a junior is wise. I'm an engineer at heart and I'm grateful for the years of rewarding pleasure my work has given me but I can't do it anymore. My sense of perspective is making it difficult for me to think clearly or to trust my own judgement so any advice is greatly appreciated.

id122015 10y ago
Wow! Should I be the first to comment?.. I've already started. I'm the inverse of you! I got inspires to say this, like that guy who said he created the inverse of angry birds. Ten years ago I was in those boring computer science courses constantly falling asleep, being told that many will not make it to graduation, and seeing with my eyes burnt out students in last year of study. Slowly my decision was set, I dropped out and have studied whatever I wanted to know about for all these years. You can bet I know a lot about the world. But I only started to learn developing few years ago, and I'm much left behind compared to those who worked continuously. I tried to start over in a different careers many times in those years, and believe me, its harder. You need a break, to recover, maybe you lack knowledge about how the world works, or what the true face of employers is, but its cheaper to pay money to find that than to start all over. Be aware of working in teams, maybe you dont know what collectivism is, you might think communism as a name of the past, but it could be reincarnated into another leftist ideology. Take a break, you are ahead of many, and dont waste your savings.
- mouzogu 10y ago
  Thanks for the advice. I think if I was more articulate I could have transitioned into a lead front end developer but due to my nature, plus English not being my first language I don't think this will happen. It's as though I am filling the role of lead and dev at the same time: delegating work to myself.
  - kup0 10y ago
    For what it's worth, from your original post and comments, I couldn't tell that English isn't your first language. At least in written mediums, it seems you've got a firm grasp of the language. About the job, I'm not sure if the issue is the type of job, or more just the particular workplace and workload. Is it possible that the same position elsewhere wouldn't come with the same "constantly fighting fires" type of issues?
    - mouzogu 10y ago
      I couldn't say for sure. I think the demands of agency work are probably greater and perhaps more stressful than those of a client based position. Due to working with many teams, unless you are really good at saying "no" and justifying it, then you may find yourself as a critical juncture for each team - as they all depend on you in some way to meet their deadlines.
calcsam 10y ago
Constantly fighting fires is not normal. It's causing you to burn out. When you burn out, you stop thinking clearly about alternatives and ways to exit the situation. Here's what I suggest. (1) If you can financially afford to quit, quit. Take a couple weeks to sleep. Then start looking for a new job. Your experience is extremely valuable and if you are in any major metro area you should find one in a month or two. If you can't do this: (1) Call in sick for a couple days to a week. Get some sleep, do whatever fun activities make you happy. (2) Start interviewing for different jobs. Consider using tools like Hired or Indeed Prime where you can get lots of opportunities in a short amount of time. (3) As soon as you get an offer that is better than what you're doing now, give notice and start searching full-time for a new position.
- mouzogu 10y ago
  Thanks a lot for the advice. I think I need to just leave and take time off to clear my head.
elviejo 10y ago
In 1996 I knew everything there was to know about webdevelopment. You only neded to know which HTML tags worked on IE and Netscape. We did our layout with tables... And they worked.. 100% of the time. Then came Javascript, a language designed to make a monkey dance in a webpage. And all hell broke loose. Suddenly you didn't know which script would work on which browser. Latter came CSS, and for the next 5 years everybody went looking for the holy grail of CSS that was a layout that looked like tables did. The the browser wars ended, IE won and maybe could have some peace... But it didn't last. Latter came JQuery and it made JavaScript tolerable, and then came bootstrap and made CSS tolerable. Then came Coffee Script and all of the languages that comile to it... JavaScript became the "assembly" of the web. Then the iphone came a long and now, your webpage gad to work in a screen resolution you didn't know existed. --- My conclusion: Front end development is an inestable mess. Plagued with accidental complexity as defined by Fred Brooks. I left it around the time I realized that fighting CSS layouts to do what a table could wasn't for me. And I stayed as a back end developer. I definitely recommend changing direction but not completely, where can your skills for usability and design be valuable with less of the accidental complexity?? Maybe mobile development? Specialize in a single platform and become an expert there?
- mouzogu 10y ago
  Thanks. I find job specs now are just a meaningless list of frameworks and libraries that doesn't really give much insight into the nature of the work. I've considered moving into UX Design. My issue is that I'm quite introverted and I'm an engineer at heart. So I would find it difficult to move into a role that required strong people skills. I've been learning Python lately to go with my JS. I just wish I could find a role where the focus was on either UI development (html/css) or front end development - oo javscript.
- coderKen 10y ago
  "Then came Javascript, a language designed to make a monkey dance in a webpage. And all hell broke loose." this cracked me up :)
PerfectElement 10y ago
If your job allows, try to focus on a single project at a time. Even if it means you'll be making less money. Having too many things going on at the same time works just for short time, for most people.
- mouzogu 10y ago
  Thanks, it really doesn't. I work for an agency where the client must be satisfied at all cost. The pressure that clients put on pm then translates to pressure from the pm's onto me. In my 10 years I always avoided working for an agency and I guess that was wise.
ApolloRising 10y ago
Before you do something drastic, I think the advice below to take some time to rest is a good one. Take your sick days or vacation days and take a full 10 working days off. What happens when you are not around to fight the fires? Are you working in an agency or for a single corp? Does the random reporting of strange bugs increase the budget or show in the costs? You may have better luck showing how much this is costing in terms of man hours rather because that is something managers/directors care about more than "tools, workflow, etc" Try to take it up to the top and show how being less fragmented benefits the company rather than yourself and you may find more people that will listen to your concerns.
- mouzogu 10y ago
  Thanks. It's an agency. Where the client is king. I have tried discussing things but really its an endemic problem. Our teams are multi-cultural, multilingual and tend to be divided into different platforms and technologies. I therefore have to be the dynamic element in this static setup - I have no choice but to adapt myself to the different teams. To the company it is the most efficient (time) solution. The work culture is not great. I have 3 or 4 different sources of bug reporting, often without enough detail. Basically there are 10 people constantly testing and reporting bugs. Therefore I am always chasing a moving target and it seems that my output is always buggy. I'm trapped in a circle of hell. In addition to fixing bugs I have to develop new templates and work with outsourced teams in resolving their issues which tend to be things that no on else has been able to solve. I don't see how I can survive in this position and frankly I don't envy anyone who would replace me. I would say 70% of it is a work culture problem and the other 30% is down to the wide wide umbrella of issues that fall under front end development. Just developing responsive templates is in itself a full time job, without factoring in extensive testing and all the javascript logic that goes with it. I envy the java devs and IT admins. No one bothers them. They seem to sit at work alone in peace all day. Whereas my desk is like Kings Cross station during the rush hour. I know this is a naive view but that is just how I feel about my work now.
  - cylinder 10y ago
    Agency model is the problem. I just went through this with my spouse (again). She is not a developer, but in an advertising agency. Agencies just win accounts, then hire people like you to do the grunt work, and they cater to every whim of the client, no matter how unreasonable. That's the model -- why lose the client's dollars? They'd rather burn you out and lose you instead if they need to lose someone. They squeeze out as much work per $ out of you as they can, then keep what's left over as profit. It really doesn't matter what type of business -- law firm, ad agency, consultancy, CPA firm -- they all run on this business model, and you'll notice the "associates" (that is, not the partners who bring in the money) are always miserable grunt workers. Much better to get on a "product" side, as in, the company makes money by investing in a product or solution, and it's worth it for them to invest in talent that improves this solution.
jbrunet 10y ago
It sounds to me like the issue is really your employer and not the job itself. If you have any, you should use your vacation time. Take time to clear your head and do things you enjoy. Then if you can afford to be unemployed for a while (depends on the job market in your area) quit your job and start looking for another one; otherwise start looking for a job while you are at your current one. Write down the things you done like about your job (i.e. lack of repository, servicing multiple teams, projects with inconsistent workflows, etc.). When you go on interviews keep those things in mind. Remember you are interviewing them as much as they are interviewing you. You can ask things like "Would I be on multiple projects", or "How do you handle bug reporting?" (possibly follow up with how are bug fixes scheduled) so you can get a feel for how the organization works.

4 points by mouzogu 10y ago

id122015 10y ago

Wow! Should I be the first to comment?.. I've already started. I'm the inverse of you! I got inspires to say this, like that guy who said he created the inverse of angry birds. Ten years ago I was in those boring computer science courses constantly falling asleep, being told that many will not make it to graduation, and seeing with my eyes burnt out students in last year of study. Slowly my decision was set, I dropped out and have studied whatever I wanted to know about for all these years. You can bet I know a lot about the world. But I only started to learn developing few years ago, and I'm much left behind compared to those who worked continuously. I tried to start over in a different careers many times in those years, and believe me, its harder. You need a break, to recover, maybe you lack knowledge about how the world works, or what the true face of employers is, but its cheaper to pay money to find that than to start all over. Be aware of working in teams, maybe you dont know what collectivism is, you might think communism as a name of the past, but it could be reincarnated into another leftist ideology. Take a break, you are ahead of many, and dont waste your savings.

mouzogu 10y ago
Thanks for the advice. I think if I was more articulate I could have transitioned into a lead front end developer but due to my nature, plus English not being my first language I don't think this will happen. It's as though I am filling the role of lead and dev at the same time: delegating work to myself.
- kup0 10y ago
  For what it's worth, from your original post and comments, I couldn't tell that English isn't your first language. At least in written mediums, it seems you've got a firm grasp of the language. About the job, I'm not sure if the issue is the type of job, or more just the particular workplace and workload. Is it possible that the same position elsewhere wouldn't come with the same "constantly fighting fires" type of issues?
  - mouzogu 10y ago
    I couldn't say for sure. I think the demands of agency work are probably greater and perhaps more stressful than those of a client based position. Due to working with many teams, unless you are really good at saying "no" and justifying it, then you may find yourself as a critical juncture for each team - as they all depend on you in some way to meet their deadlines.

calcsam 10y ago

Constantly fighting fires is not normal. It's causing you to burn out. When you burn out, you stop thinking clearly about alternatives and ways to exit the situation. Here's what I suggest. (1) If you can financially afford to quit, quit. Take a couple weeks to sleep. Then start looking for a new job. Your experience is extremely valuable and if you are in any major metro area you should find one in a month or two. If you can't do this: (1) Call in sick for a couple days to a week. Get some sleep, do whatever fun activities make you happy. (2) Start interviewing for different jobs. Consider using tools like Hired or Indeed Prime where you can get lots of opportunities in a short amount of time. (3) As soon as you get an offer that is better than what you're doing now, give notice and start searching full-time for a new position.

mouzogu 10y ago
Thanks a lot for the advice. I think I need to just leave and take time off to clear my head.

elviejo 10y ago

In 1996 I knew everything there was to know about webdevelopment. You only neded to know which HTML tags worked on IE and Netscape. We did our layout with tables... And they worked.. 100% of the time. Then came Javascript, a language designed to make a monkey dance in a webpage. And all hell broke loose. Suddenly you didn't know which script would work on which browser. Latter came CSS, and for the next 5 years everybody went looking for the holy grail of CSS that was a layout that looked like tables did. The the browser wars ended, IE won and maybe could have some peace... But it didn't last. Latter came JQuery and it made JavaScript tolerable, and then came bootstrap and made CSS tolerable. Then came Coffee Script and all of the languages that comile to it... JavaScript became the "assembly" of the web. Then the iphone came a long and now, your webpage gad to work in a screen resolution you didn't know existed. --- My conclusion: Front end development is an inestable mess. Plagued with accidental complexity as defined by Fred Brooks. I left it around the time I realized that fighting CSS layouts to do what a table could wasn't for me. And I stayed as a back end developer. I definitely recommend changing direction but not completely, where can your skills for usability and design be valuable with less of the accidental complexity?? Maybe mobile development? Specialize in a single platform and become an expert there?

mouzogu 10y ago
Thanks. I find job specs now are just a meaningless list of frameworks and libraries that doesn't really give much insight into the nature of the work. I've considered moving into UX Design. My issue is that I'm quite introverted and I'm an engineer at heart. So I would find it difficult to move into a role that required strong people skills. I've been learning Python lately to go with my JS. I just wish I could find a role where the focus was on either UI development (html/css) or front end development - oo javscript.
coderKen 10y ago
"Then came Javascript, a language designed to make a monkey dance in a webpage. And all hell broke loose." this cracked me up :)

PerfectElement 10y ago

If your job allows, try to focus on a single project at a time. Even if it means you'll be making less money. Having too many things going on at the same time works just for short time, for most people.

mouzogu 10y ago
Thanks, it really doesn't. I work for an agency where the client must be satisfied at all cost. The pressure that clients put on pm then translates to pressure from the pm's onto me. In my 10 years I always avoided working for an agency and I guess that was wise.

ApolloRising 10y ago

Before you do something drastic, I think the advice below to take some time to rest is a good one. Take your sick days or vacation days and take a full 10 working days off. What happens when you are not around to fight the fires? Are you working in an agency or for a single corp? Does the random reporting of strange bugs increase the budget or show in the costs? You may have better luck showing how much this is costing in terms of man hours rather because that is something managers/directors care about more than "tools, workflow, etc" Try to take it up to the top and show how being less fragmented benefits the company rather than yourself and you may find more people that will listen to your concerns.

mouzogu 10y ago
Thanks. It's an agency. Where the client is king. I have tried discussing things but really its an endemic problem. Our teams are multi-cultural, multilingual and tend to be divided into different platforms and technologies. I therefore have to be the dynamic element in this static setup - I have no choice but to adapt myself to the different teams. To the company it is the most efficient (time) solution. The work culture is not great. I have 3 or 4 different sources of bug reporting, often without enough detail. Basically there are 10 people constantly testing and reporting bugs. Therefore I am always chasing a moving target and it seems that my output is always buggy. I'm trapped in a circle of hell. In addition to fixing bugs I have to develop new templates and work with outsourced teams in resolving their issues which tend to be things that no on else has been able to solve. I don't see how I can survive in this position and frankly I don't envy anyone who would replace me. I would say 70% of it is a work culture problem and the other 30% is down to the wide wide umbrella of issues that fall under front end development. Just developing responsive templates is in itself a full time job, without factoring in extensive testing and all the javascript logic that goes with it. I envy the java devs and IT admins. No one bothers them. They seem to sit at work alone in peace all day. Whereas my desk is like Kings Cross station during the rush hour. I know this is a naive view but that is just how I feel about my work now.
- cylinder 10y ago
  Agency model is the problem. I just went through this with my spouse (again). She is not a developer, but in an advertising agency. Agencies just win accounts, then hire people like you to do the grunt work, and they cater to every whim of the client, no matter how unreasonable. That's the model -- why lose the client's dollars? They'd rather burn you out and lose you instead if they need to lose someone. They squeeze out as much work per $ out of you as they can, then keep what's left over as profit. It really doesn't matter what type of business -- law firm, ad agency, consultancy, CPA firm -- they all run on this business model, and you'll notice the "associates" (that is, not the partners who bring in the money) are always miserable grunt workers. Much better to get on a "product" side, as in, the company makes money by investing in a product or solution, and it's worth it for them to invest in talent that improves this solution.

jbrunet 10y ago

It sounds to me like the issue is really your employer and not the job itself. If you have any, you should use your vacation time. Take time to clear your head and do things you enjoy. Then if you can afford to be unemployed for a while (depends on the job market in your area) quit your job and start looking for another one; otherwise start looking for a job while you are at your current one. Write down the things you done like about your job (i.e. lack of repository, servicing multiple teams, projects with inconsistent workflows, etc.). When you go on interviews keep those things in mind. Remember you are interviewing them as much as they are interviewing you. You can ask things like "Would I be on multiple projects", or "How do you handle bug reporting?" (possibly follow up with how are bug fixes scheduled) so you can get a feel for how the organization works.